Where did he find that?

If you are like me, sometimes we struggle to remember where we read something. Or where we heard it. Do I hear you nodding your head? Oh, forgive me, that's MY head that rattles when I nod.....it's all those rocks rolling around. All that noise can make it difficult to concentrate. (Grin)

But I digress.

Have we been in conversation with someone and thought of a verse that would be so helpful, but we can't quite put our finger on it? We can't find it as we flip the pages?

Have we been listening to a teacher or pastor and had difficulty finding a verse or a passage?

Frustrating, isn't it?

I guess I need to spend WAY more time on my memory work!

I'd like for us to look at part of Paul's letter to the Romans, and then I will ask my question again . . .

For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “But the righteous man shall live by faith.” (Romans 1:17)

Take another peek at the last part of that verse -- see where Paul says, "as it is written"? Now, a lot of times when Paul referred his readers to an old text, he would actually quote it. The Old Testament wasn't called the Old Testament then, so he would call attention to the prophet or person who spoke, and give his readers a snippet of what was said. 
Super convenient, I must say. (Grin)

Here, he doesn't do that. He must believe that his readers will know immediately where this phrase is found! It comes from Habakkuk!

“Behold, as for the proud one,
His soul is not right within him;
But the righteous will live by his faith. (Habakkuk 2:4)

Scholars today believe that this is the central verse of Habakkuk. I have to agree with them, in that it's very important. After all, this verse is so significant that three New Testament books (letters) mention this principle! Check these out:

 Now that no one is justified by the Law before God is evident; for, “The righteous man shall live by faith.” (Galatians 3:11)

But My righteous one shall live by faith;
And if he shrinks back, My soul has no pleasure in him. (Hebrews 10:38)

This is literally the principle that changed the world. In the gloomy days that we now call the Dark Ages, an obscure Roman Catholic man entered the monastic life, seeking to be liberated from the heavy burden of guilt that he felt. These were the days of Latin Bible texts that only the priests could read. "Regular" folks had no way of reading and studying God's Word. These were the days, too, of penances and indulgences, the church's way of "helping" sinners pay for the sins in their lives (and in the lives of those already dead). This monk found no solace for his soul in the prayers, fasting, and penances that he completed. 

As he studied the epistle to the Romans, he pondered the meaning of Romans 1:17, and then turned the heavy pages of the huge tome to look at Habakkuk 2:4, as well. Martin Luther was to say later:

               When by the Spirit of God, I understood these words -- "The just shall live by

                faith" -- then I felt born again like a new man. I entered through the open doors

                into the very paradise of God.                

This text turned Martin Luther's life around, and set things in motion for the church to never again be quite the same. This was a blazing truth that gripped his soul, and his words, writings, and the theses he nailed to the church door were to ignite fires that spread through Europe, Great Britain, and to the ends of the earth.

Let's look again at the first few verses of Habakkuk 2:

I will stand on my guard post
And station myself on the rampart;
And I will keep watch to see what He will speak to me,
And how I may reply when I am reproved.
2 Then the Lord answered me and said,
“Record the vision
And inscribe it on tablets,
That the one who reads it may run.
3 “For the vision is yet for the appointed time;
It hastens toward the goal and it will not fail.
Though it tarries, wait for it;
For it will certainly come, it will not delay.

4 “Behold, as for the proud one,
His soul is not right within him;
But the righteous will live by his faith. (v 1-4)

Verse one was when Habakkuk announced his plans to wait on the Lord. To patiently but diligently wait. In verse two, God speaks again and is talking about the Babylonians. He lowers the boom on them, as my grandma would say, and pronounces judgement because they are greedy, arrogant, and bloodthirsty. They are ruthless and kill with absolutely no remorse. They give themselves over to every kind of evil -- and so God promises to one day destroy them.

But that day is a loooooooong way off. 

We know from our studies that Babylon won't be destroyed for almost seventy years. They still have a whole lot of plundering and looting to do. Their end has already been determined, but it won't happen for a good while.

What should we do when we hear of terrorists beheading Christians and other enemies? We hear of horrific things in our world today, that seem almost like the Babylonians of old. When evil-doers are in power, when our prayers don't seem to be answered . . .  we remember that the just (the righteous) shall live by faith. When all we can see from our limited perspective is trouble, dark clouds, and pain -- we remember that God is on His throne, and we say, "the just shall live by faith."

Habakkuk didn't receive a revelation from God that explained Luther and the Reformation were coming. He didn't know anything about an apostle called Paul who would quote the words here. Paul's letter was to prove to his readers and to the world that the gospel was something that had been predicted more than six hundred years earlier! And over a thousand years further, Martin Luther would find solace for his soul when he understood the true meaning of the verse in Habakkuk.

Let's grab another verse from Romans 1 for context:

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “But the righteous man shall live by faith.” (v. 16-17)

Paul declared that the gospel is the power of God for salvation, to everyone who believes. Then he declared that the gospel was overwhelmingly powerful. I think that this message is one that we can use -- we'll study this encouraging principle this week.