ROM. i. 17; HEB. x. 38.
THIS inspired sentence formed one of the outstanding watch-words of the glorious Reformation of the sixteenth century. The words which it embodies came three times, like a voice from heaven, to the soul of Martin Luther before he finally shook off the fetters of the Church of Rome and became the leading reformer from Popery. The Spirit of God had been moving upon the conscience and heart of this remarkable man, and he had been gradually led through a variety of circumstances to realise that he was a sinner in the sight of God, and to tremble in view of appearing before God at death and at the judgment seat. The terrors of the Lord took hold of him, and he endeavoured, according to the legal system of the Church, to propitiate the divine favour by extraordinary diligence in the observance of religious rites and in the practice of severe penances. All his toils and tears were, however, of no avail. His body was worn almost to death by his rigorous austerities, but his soul was further from peace than ever, and it was not until he was directed to Christ and the forgiveness of sins through Him, by John Staupitz, a dean of theology, and by an old monk, both of whom were men evidently taught of God, that Luther understood the way of salvation, and found the true peace for his soul. Though a man in intellect and a scholar in learning, he was still but a babe in grace, and not altogether free from the legalism of Rome, and it was after this crisis in his history that the words, “The just shall live by faith,” struck him with great force on three different occasions. He found instruction, comfort, and reproof in them, and as a message from God, they constantly followed him in his after career as a powerful preacher of the gospel and reformer of the evils of the Church.
The word of the Lord is a great deep, and there is as much need to-day as ever there was in the history of the Christian Church that the truth concerning salvation by grace through faith
should be impressed upon the minds of men. The very air is full of the legal spirit, and though the name of Christ as a Saviour is in the mouths of many, yet good works are in reality accorded the chief place in the matter of salvation. If you are a member of “the Church” and a worker on behalf of its interests, you are necessarily a godly person, and on the way to heaven. Moderatism, with a thin evangelical dress, is again in the ascendancy in Scotland.
It may be further affirmed that it is always profitable to keep before the minds of men the truths embodied in such a sentence as this—”The just shall live by faith,” as the natural tendency in every human heart is to seek salvation by the deeds of the law. Even God’s people need to be reminded from time to time of the true nature of the life of godliness as a life of faith upon the Son of God. The legal spirit follows them in some of its most subtle forms, often disposing them to look for the grounds of their hope and comfort in themselves rather than in Christ and His finished work, and thus marring their happiness to an unnecessary degree, and weakening their strength in the way of godliness. Though the Lord generally overrules these entanglements to the eventual benefit of His people, that does not make them good things, or things not to seek deliverance from, as far as possible in this imperfect life. The Papist loves his “doubtful faith,” his “voluntary humility,” his miserable penances, and gloomy self mortifications much better than the joyful assurance of a finished redemption as presented in the everlasting gospel, and this Papist is in every breast. May the Lord graciously enable His own children to look unto Jesus in whom they have “redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of grace,” to rejoice in Him, as their all in all, and to walk in the fear of the Lord and the comfort of the Holy Ghost, “having no confidence in the flesh”!
In considering this important statement, “The just shall live by faith,” let us observe:
i. The persons described as “the just.” These are evidently the children of God—such as are born of the Spirit. Sinners in their natural state are “the unjust.” Some of them may be very just and upright towards their fellowmen, but all are unjust and unrighteous towards God. “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.” “There is none that doeth good, no not one.” But those who are here described as “the just,” have become, by the grace of God, just in two important respects—just in nature, and just in state. They are just in nature in virtue of the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, and they are just in state in virtue of justification—in virtue of “being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” They are renewed in nature by the power of the Holy Ghost, and they are justified in state through the grace of God the Father in imputing to them the righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ, which He wrought out on behalf of all who were given Him. “The just” have been made deeply conscious of their own injustice, unrighteousness, and unholiness, and they are often afraid, notwithstanding what they may have felt and seen, that they have never been changed in nature or state; but still it remains that it is the chief desire of their souls to have the marks of the new creation upon them, and to be “found in” Christ, not having their “own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.”
- We proceed to notice, in the second place and more fully, the life of the just. This is declared to be a life “by faith.” The words, “The just shall live by faith,” occur four times in the Scriptures. They were first spoken by the prophet Habakkuk in the Old Testament, and are quoted three times in the New Testament, in the Epistles to the Romans, Galatians, and Hebrews. The prophet, by the illumination of the Spirit, expressed in this brief but most suggestive sentence the special character of the life of the just in all ages: it is a life of faith. At the time he wrote, he seems to have had specially in view the threatenings of the Lord against a transgressing people and the promises of the Lord with regard to the future prosperity of His cause in the world, and the leading thought is that “the just shall live by his faith” of these things. The just man shall be upheld in the way of truth by his faith that the Lord will vindicate His cause against the wicked, and will make it triumph in the earth. For we find that after the prophet proclaims woes against those who will exalt themselves by covetousness and will build a town with blood and establish a city by iniquity, and declares that all their labour shall be “in the very fire;” he gives expression to the wonderful prediction, “For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” The righteous under the old dispensation lived by faith in the word and promises of God. Their dependence was not in themselves or in an arm of flesh, either for their own personal salvation or for the triumph of the cause of truth in the world. They looked by faith to the coming of the Messiah, who would redeem Israel and obtain the heathen for His inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for His possession; and they were enabled to live unto God and His glory, and to run with patience the race set before them by the faith of the approaching Redeemer and Deliverer. In harmony with this, the apostle, in the Epistles to the Romans and Galatians, directs those to whom he writes to Christ, who has now come in the flesh, as the Saviour who was provided to supply all their need, and to whom they are to look by faith for righteousness, sanctification and redemption—blessings to be enjoyed now in time. In the Epistle to the Hebrews the apostle is writing with a view to stimulate and encourage the Hebrew Christians to endure patiently the afflictions and
persecutions to which they were exposed. He reminds them that the complete fulfilment of all that is contained in the promises of God will not be realised in time, but in eternity,—at death, and at the second coming of Christ,—and that the just are called upon to live by faith here, looking for a better country, even an heavenly.
It appears, then, that these memorable and historic words, “The just shall live by faith,” are expounded by the apostles, under the teaching of the Holy Ghost, to show that the life of godliness is not a life of self-sufficiency and self-righteousness, but a life of entire dependence by faith upon the Word of the Lord, which endureth for ever, and upon Him whom that Word reveals as the Head over all things to His body, the Church.
We hope (D.V.) to resume this subject in our next issue.