HEROS OF THE FAITH 1

"MY RIGHTEOUS ONE SHALL LIVE BY FAITH"

Habakkuk 2:1-5; Romans 1:16-17; Galatians 3:10-11; Hebrews 10:36-39

"My righteous One shall live by faith."—HEBREWS 10:38 (RV)

            The subject of faith has occupied my mind very much in these strange and perplexing days through which we have been passing. The word is the commonplace of our holy religion. The word, however, is oftentimes vitiated by false or partial interpretation. With this in my mind I have been driven back to the great classic passage in the Bible which covers the whole area of human life, this eleventh chapter of the epistle to the Hebrews.

            Neither the prologue to chapter 11 (10:37-39) nor the text I have taken therefrom defines or illustrates faith. In this prologue we have the declaration of a principle, and a revelation of a philosophy of life. In that way we approach them now. The words were cited by the writer, from Habakkuk. They also occur in two other places in the New Testament. The three passages we read, one in Romans, one in Galatians, and here in this 10th chapter of Hebrews. The declaration of it in the Old Testament, and the citations of it in the New, are very significant.

            Let us first of all consider the setting of the words in the Old Testament, and their citations in the New; then attempt to consider the principle of a philosophy of life revealed in these words.

            The setting of the text in Habakkuk is most suggestive. This prophecy may be described as an account of the agnosticism of faith. It is not so much a prophecy as a story of the experience of one man. That man was a prophet unquestionably, and in that sense it is a prophecy through an experience, which he has recorded for us in this brief book that bears his name.

            These were dark days in the history of the people of God. The national conditions were appalling. Concerning that fact he first spoke in the presence of God. He spoke of the prevalence of violence, and iniquity, and pride abounding in the national life. The international situation was threatening. Enemies seemed to be closing in upon this nation, and the difficulty for Habakkuk was this, that God seemed to be negative, waiting. He seemed to be doing nothing. That is how the prophecy opened. Is our world in the same situation and setting?

            Then we are told that God answered him. Again reverently to change the wording, in an expression of the truth; God said to him in effect: It is true you think I am doing nothing, but I am. I am at work; but, if I told you what I am doing, you would not believe it. Then God did tell him what He was doing, that He was raising up the most cruel and brutish peo­ple of the times, the Chaldean s, to be His instrument for the carrying out of His purpose in the world, and among His people.

            Habakkuk then said in effect: This is worse than ever. It seemed bad enough if God were doing nothing; but now He tells me that He is using these people, the terror of the nation, for His own purpose. I do not understand it. I will get myself to the watchtower, and I will wait. In that moment Habakkuk came to the greatest decision that was possible for a human soul in those circumstances. The man of faith has often been perplexed, overwhelmed with the difficulties of the situation, and the hour in which he lives; and more troubled about this than anything else, that God seems to be doing nothing!

            We have often heard that in recent times. What is God doing? Why doesn't God do something? God is still saying the same amazing thing: I am at work, though if I told you, you would not believe, or understand, but the fact remains. I am raising up and using in the working out of My purposes in the world, the very people or peoples concerning whom you are filled with dread. When God says that, it is time for us to shut our mouths. That is what Habakkuk did. But he did not shut his ears. Again in effect, he said: Well, I am not questioning what God has said, but I do not understand it. I will get myself to the watchtower, and I will wait for God.

            The trouble with us is that too often we do not wait to see what God would say to us. In these circumstances of helplessness the prophet decided to wait for God, and having so decided, God answered him. Mark his words: "And the Lord answered me." What did He say? He sent him a vision. This does not mean He actually appeared to him at all. The Hebrew word for vision means very simply a mental conception, an outlook, and a revelation. The oracle of God spoke

to him: Let me give you a vision, an interpretation, a final point from which to view all the circumstances and events; and then write it on tablets, not that he who reads may run, but he who runs may read. This man who is busily occupied in a thousand ways—running, tearing along—make it so plain that as he passes by, he can see it. That is the claim that the vision should be written on tablets, made plain, so conspicuously that the running, racing man may see it. Do not be in a hurry. Tarry for it, wait for it. It will surely come. That is the simple, initial statement.

            What was the vision? As we go back to Habakkuk we find that after that charge, that declaration of a vision, and a charge to write it and make it plain, the vision is declared, "Behold, his soul is puffed up, it is not upright in him; but the just shall live by his faith." That is all. The remainder of the chapter is an almost detailed exposition of the first half of the vision, "Behold, his soul is puffed up." There is no exposition of the second half. It does not need it. It is a simple statement.

            We have here two philosophies of life; first, that of the puffed-up. I like the translation, but let me slightly alter it, "the swollen." It is a graphic figure of pride and self-sufficiency. That is one philosophy of life, puffed up, swollen, filled with pride, and filled with self-sufficiency. The other figure is this, "the righteous one shall live by faith"; a sense of certainty in spite of appearances, and a condition of consequent trustworthiness; for the word "faith" here is rendered by some "faithfulness." The meaning of the Hebrew word, as also the Greek, has the twofold application.

            When Jesus said to Thomas, "Be not faithless, but believing," He did not merely say, You should have faith, but, having faith you should be trustworthy. It is the same thought here.

            So the whole meaning is covered in one of the simplest of sentences. I use it resolutely and reverently, in some senses the mightiest sentence in the Book of God. It is the revelation of the true philosophy of the Biblical history from the primeval movement in Genesis to the Apocalyptic Revelation. The theme all circles round this, "The just shall live by faith." The two issues and the two philosophies are there.

            Read the rest of the second chapter of Habakkuk for the picture of the puffed-up, and make any application of it to the age in which we are living. John Wesley said he read the newspaper to see how God is governing the world. When I am tired of the newspaper I go back to the Book. When I am tired of the trivialities and the prattle and the toys of time, I go back to the voices of the old Hebrew prophets, and place the meas­uring line of Habakkuk's philosophy on the disturbances everywhere in the world at the present hour. Yes, let us wait! Read this chapter through at your leisure, honestly, and think as you read; and you will see that the ultimate issue of the swelled-up or swollen attitude to life is explosion. Watch the balloon that the child is playing with. Look at it, blow it up, and keep on blowing it. If you do, Puff! It is gone! By the swelling it bursts. That is the story of human history, and it is the story of individual life as well. The soul that is self-centered and self-sufficient, the soul that is arrogant, and struts in the presence of Almighty God, sooner or later collapses, and there is break-up. The balloon is pricked and bursts.

            What about the other? There is no chapter about the other. One word only is needed. What is it? "The just shall live." The word marks power of continuity. The word marks reality, the realization of victory and life. "Live by faith!"  How? By being not proud, self-centered, self-satisfied. The swollen ends in dissolution. Faith ends in a perfect realization. That is the setting of the text.

            The citations of this statement in the New Testament are remarkable in their placing, in Romans, Galatians, and Hebrews.

            The letter to the Romans is pre-eminently the document of human salvation. Galatians is pre-eminently the document of liberty, rightly interpreted. Hebrews, from first to last, is pre-eminently the document of faith. In these three great writings dealing with salvation, liberty, and faith, these words are cited, and in remarkable connections.

            The apostle, writing to the Romans, said, "I am not ashamed of the Gospel." The Gospel is the good news that tells how men can realize all that in which they have failed. There it is, instantly flashing like a central, burning light on the page: "The just shall live by faith." That is the issue of the Gospel.

            The Galatia n letter is the document of freedom that deals with the emancipation from every yoke of bondage that can be placed upon the human soul. "It breaks the power of cancelled sin." It breaks the tyranny of the law, of every imprisoning habit. In the midst of it Paul says, "The just shall live by faith."

            He shall enter into freedom, find salvation in the Gospel, enter the joy of absolute freedom, and the principle is faith.

            And last, the letter to the Hebrews is pre-eminently the document of faith, and reveals the principle of triumph over all sorts of conditions as revealed in the eleventh chapter. But in every case it is the Gospel for the world. Faith is the principle of life. It is the emancipation from all tyranny. Faith is the principle of liberty. It is the secret of victory in all circumstances.

            It remains only for us to consider the principle as declared. That principle is revealed in this contrast between pride and self-sufficiency on the one hand, and faith or confidence on the other hand. Pride and self-sufficiency are equal to provocative exploits. Let us make no mistake about that. Not only as we glance back over the Biblical history, but look out on the world as it is. Pride and self-sufficiency are equal to great exploits. But look back and see the lust of self-sufficiency, and all exploits growing out of it will sooner or later collapse. Whether it be a man or a nation, the same thing is true.

            On the other hand, confidence is equal to many things, to exploits oftentimes mysterious, and far more wonderful than the exploits of the proud. Look again at the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, and see there what faith is equal to, and in every case it ends in vindication of itself.

            Two philosophies of life. Not only the contrasts are true; but the positive declaration. Faith is the principle of life. Not decay, not death, not dissolution; but the principle that furnishes, that continues, that achieves.

            But let it at once be said that this message is very unfinished, I will not say inadequate. Faith is not defined in our text. A definition is found in the eleventh chapter, and the assertion is merely what the writer of this letter cited from Habakkuk. It is an assertion, sharp, clear, challenging, bold, daring; but no illustrations are given in the text. They are all massed in the eleventh chapter. Yet we do not stay there. That eleventh chapter is unfinished, just as in some ways the Acts of the Apostles is unfinished. We might go on multiplying illustrations a thousand, a million-fold.

            Faith must be interpreted by this Biblical literature. Faith may be a creed, valuable in its way, yet having no living power. Faith may represent something far short of the Biblical meaning. But Faith in the Bible is always something that reaches through until it touches God; through the smoke of battle, through the murk and misery that appall us, through the darkness of the hour, through the threatening forces of evil that seem so rampant—through, and beyond that, behind that, better yet above that, to God. Faith is that which reaches Him and touches Him.

            The attestation of the truth of the great declaration, of its twofold nature, is attested in human history of the world. We remember the story of Alexander, that when he had conquered the whole known world he went to see the philosopher, Diogenes, living in his tub. Alexander stood at the entrance and called to him. A voice said, "Who art thou?" He said, "I am Alexander, the master of the world." "Is that so? Get out of my sunlight." The great philosopher was able to dismiss as an arrogant fool the master of the world. Diogenes added, "Go, and learn to be wise. Conquer thine own spirit, and take no light thou canst not give." The proud and the puffed-up, and the great explosion!

            Augustus Caesar came nearer to hegemony, or governing the whole world, than even Alexander. How did it end? This applied to pagan rule: "Rome has perished! Write that word in the blood that she has spilt; Perished hopeless and abhorred, deep in ruin, as in guilt."

That is what happened.

            So at this hour, or near to our own time. What about Napoleon? We could name other names also. No despot who is governing as the result of pride and self-sufficiency can possibly continue. There must inevitably be an explosion, dissolution. If we are living by faith, then though it may be through scourg­ings and mockings and perils and dangers, we shall arrive, for "the just shall live by faith."