Chapter V 

 FAITH 



If I were to pick out the most historical text in the 

 whole Bible, the one I would choose would be this : 

 ** The just shall live by Faith/' At one time it was the 

 motto of orthodox Judaism, In the first century it 

 was adopted by Paul as the watchword of evangelical 

 Christianity ; and in the sixteenth century Luther 

 founded upon it his great doctrine of Justification by 

 Faith, But texts are demoralising things. They can 

 be made to mean anything that the human mind wishes 

 them to mean. Thus to the orthodox Jew, the words 

 meant that the just man would live by his faithfulness 

 to the Mosaic Law, To Paul they meant that the 

 Christian would attain to eternal life by faith in Christ, 

 regardless of the Mosaic Law, To Luther they meant 

 that the believer in Christ would be justified by his faith 

 regardless of morality. Probably the modern evangelical 

 Christian understands by the text that all those who 

 take his own view regarding the Atoning Work of Christ, 

 will be justified and will enjoy everlasting life. 



And when a text of Scripture means different things 

 to different people, it is often useful to trace it back to 

 its source and see what it meant to the man to whom it 

 first came as a message direct from God, Now that 

 man was Habakkuk, To be sure his writings are but 

 little read, yet he was one of the greatest of the 

 prophets of Israel, and one of the most sublime of 



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