The righteous shall live by his faith and the NT

The study of this famous verse, ‘The righteous will live by his faith’ (Hab 2:4) would not be complete without a reflection on how this line is used in the NT, most prominently in Paul’s summary of the gospel in Romans 1:16-17 and in his insistence that justification is by faith not works (Gal 3:11). Additionally, Hebrews 10:38 also makes use of this verse (more on this later). Readers of the previous post on Habakkuk may have been wondering how the way this statement is understood in the prophet’s time fits in especially with what Paul is saying. For instance, Paul seems to be discussing the way to salvation, which he argues is only possible by faith, so that his focus is on entering into eternal life. On the other hand, God’s answer to Habakkuk is in the context of a historic situation of being oppressed by the Babylonians and how God’s people may live through such a catastrophe and survive on an ongoing basis. The NT speaks of eternal matters, the OT of a concrete situation. One is about entering into life, the other about ongoing life with God. How are we to make sense of these differences? Has Paul misunderstood Habakkuk? Should we read Habakkuk as Paul seems to take it?

How the New Testament uses the Old

The above questions reveal an underlying assumption in many Christians’ thinking, namely that the New Testament interprets the Old and therefore, if the former quotes the latter, we must take it as the definitive way to understand Old Testament passages. However, the New Testament does not set itself out as a commentary on the Old. Rather, the early Christians’ only Scripture was the Old Testament, and they did what we do today when we read it. They discerned principles in an OT context and re-applied these to their own situations. Thus, Paul looks to his Scripture (the OT) to explain the new reality that the gospel has brought. He understands that there is continuity between what has already been written in God’s Word and what is happening in his own time (God is the same God). He looks for principles and parallels in what has already been revealed to discern and shed light on God’s actions in his present. In other words, what Paul (and more broadly the NT writers) are doing is application, not interpretation. Of course, we must understand what a passage means to apply it, but the aim is not to give a definitive sense of what the OT text is about but to glean a principle and re-apply it in a new setting. Inevitably, a new application will look somewhat different from the original because the context is different.

Abraham’s faith and its meaning in the NT – an example

A good example of what I have outlined above may be seen in the use of the famous line in Abraham’s story, ‘And he [Abraham] believed in the LORD; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness’ (Gen 15:6). This verse is used on three occasions, twice in Paul’s argument (Rom 4:3, 9, 22; Gal 3:6) and once in James (James 2:23). While Paul’s usage emphasises faith as a means of being made right with God (rather than works of the law), James focuses on the importance of deeds that work together with a person’s faith. If Christians are looking for a definitive interpretation of Genesis 15:6, they must become terribly confused because the two perspectives are in some tension with each other.

When we understand the NT writers’ use of this quotation as application, then we can appreciate that each of them picks the principles and emphasis that is particularly relevant for their context. Paul is addressing people who want to add something to the gospel of salvation by faith, so he focuses on the principle that Abraham’s trust in God’s promise was sufficient to be reckoned righteous. James, on the other hand, has an audience who focus on faith so much that they have forgotten the importance of actions and behaviour. James therefore points out that faith as intellectual assent is not enough (the demons also believe and shudder; James 2:19); true faith is demonstrated in godly living. James’ logic for using Gen 15:6 is less obvious to us because it is overshadowed by what we know from Paul. However, his principle is also present in the patriarch’s life in that Abraham’s trust in God made him willing even to sacrifice to Him the son of the promise (Genesis 22:1-14). In other words, true faith is demonstrated in action, so that behind Abraham’s faith is a life consistent with it. Therefore, James argues, the line that ‘Abraham believed and it was reckoned to him as righteousness’ actually incorporates his ‘works’ (James 2:22-23).

Paul’s use of Habakkuk

To return to the story of Habakkuk, how does Paul move from the Old Testament context to his own? As we have seen, God’s people in Habakkuk’s context are facing judgment for their sins (violence, injustice, etc. – Hab 1:3-4), which God will administer through the Babylonians (Hab 1:6), by their conquest of Judah and the latter’s exile. While the prophet’s next question relates to God’s justice (Hab 1:13), behind it looms Habakkuk’s fear that God’s people will be swept away and annihilated in judgment (being swallowed up by the wicked, v.13). God’s fuller answer to this dilemma will come later (judgment of the oppressor and salvation for His people; Hab 3:13), but as the prophet waits for the vision’s ultimate fulfilment, he is told that in the meantime, ‘the righteous will live by his faith’ (Hab 2:4). Although the context is a historic one, the basic elements of the gospel are present here: the problem of sin, God’s judgment and the question of how anyone can survive such judgment and live.

Faith and trust (in God) are the key to having life in the face of impending judgment and death. This is the principle that Paul points to as he explains the gospel. His use of Habakkuk 2:4 in Galatians 3:11 with its focus on ‘justification by faith not works’ may seem somewhat unusual as faith vs works are not the issue in Habakkuk neither does the process of justification come up. Rather, these elements are specific to Paul’s context. However, what is implicit in the contrast between the proud and those who live by faith in Habakkuk is that one depends on God’s help (faith), while the other relies on their own strength to achieve their goals (works, effort) whether it is conquest, survival or anything in-between.

The use of Habakkuk in Hebrews

One other reference in the New Testament engages with Habakkuk 2:4. The context here is an audience of Christians who have endured terrible suffering and persecution to the point where they were on the verge of losing their confidence and faith in God (Heb 10:32-36). The threat of devastation, the potential delay in the fulfilment of the promise and the question of how God’s people can survive in the interim are the elements in Habakkuk that parallel the Hebrews situation.

One other development is that the waiting for the fulfilment of promise is now taken in Hebrews as a reference to the second coming of Jesus (Heb 10:37). The quotation from Habakkuk follows the ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament (the Septuagint), which translates the coming of the vision as the coming of a person, Messiah (Hab 2:3). This is a feasible alternative because the Hebrew for ‘vision’ is a masculine noun, so any verbs and personal pronouns (he/it) will have the same form whether they refer to a vision or a male person. In Habakkuk’s own context the reference to the coming Messiah seems like an intrusion, but later interpreters (and translators) recognised that Habakkuk’s prophecy pointed beyond the prophet’s immediate historic context to the end times. This is in keeping with the idea that prophecies have more than one fulfilment and sometimes a deeper significance becomes discernible to later readers. The Septuagint makes this shift in understanding explicit by pointing to Messiah whose coming in Jewish thinking was going to usher in the new age, the restoration of God’s people and the punishment of the wicked. Likewise, in Christian understanding, Jesus’ (second) coming will herald the end of His people’s suffering and final judgement when God will put everything right.

As the recipients of Hebrews are growing discouraged by suffering, and perhaps disappointed at the delay of Jesus’ coming, the writer encourages them to keep going in the faith. Those who let go of their faith will ‘shrink back to destruction’ (Heb 10:39) because in the ultimate judgment day they will be found to have turned away from God. As in Habakkuk’s day, the only way that one’s life may be preserved in the day of God’s judgment is to continue living by faith (v.39).  

Conclusion

Looking at these different ways that Habakkuk’s message is used in the varied situations of New Testament writers and their audiences, we can see that they bring out different nuances of the Old Testament passage in a similar way that we do application from Scripture.

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