The righteous live by faith. One important aspect of living by faith is that of the quest. The righteous individual is he whose entire life on the earth is a quest, a quest for something not yet a reality on the earth. The righteous person always is a stranger and an exile in the present world.

One of the foundations of the Protestant Reformation is the statement, "the righteous shall live by faith."

This concept was given to Martin Luther, the Catholic priest, as he afflicted his flesh with various kinds of penances.

"The righteous shall live by faith" is taken from Habakkuk 2:4 where living in trust in God is contrasted with living in our pride, in our self-will and self-centeredness. "The righteous shall live by faith" is quoted three times in the New Testament.

It is true that no man can earn salvation by inflicting wounds on himself. No man can compete with God in the area of righteousness. In order for us to be righteous in God's eyes, God Himself must declare us to be righteous. We must believe in God's existence and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him diligently. We are sinful and rebellious by nature and are totally unable to attain in our own strength the righteousness of God.

However, the righteous shall live by faith often is defined incorrectly.

The present interpretation of the righteous shall live by faith is that if an individual "accepts Christ," according to Romans 10:9,10 or Ephesians 2:8,9 or John 1:12 or John 3:16, making a statement of faith in Christ, he now is "saved." According to this doctrine, being saved means that when he dies he will go to Paradise to live forever in the spirit realm.

He is righteous in God's eyes because he has professed faith according to a few verses that have been removed from their contexts and employed as a "ticket to Heaven." Faith is viewed as a continuing trust that the original profession once performed will insure admittance to Paradise when one passes from this life.

The present understanding of the righteous shall live by faith is as far removed from the scriptural concept of righteousness and faith as is the belief that we can merit salvation by doing penance.

The writer is a born-again Christian, washed in the blood of the Lord Jesus, and knows the blessing of salvation. We understand also that faith is dead unless it produces righteous, holy, and obedient behavior on the part of the believer.

The just shall live by faith has become a matter of doctrinal belief rather than that of a kind of person and a way of life. A little reflection on Habakkuk 2:4, the realities of the Kingdom of God, and the words of the Lord Jesus in the four Gospels, will reveal that the Gospel of the Kingdom of God has to do with the kind of person we are and the way we behave rather than with our profession of belief in doctrine.

When did the Lord Jesus, while describing His return, ever raise the question of doctrinal belief?

To be continued.