How is the inspired writer using these words? Of course, they apply to salvation. ‘The just shall live by faith.’ Those who truly know justification and reconciliation with God do so because they believe in Christ and his atoning death. They do not work for their salvation – they cannot earn it; they see that – but they place their faith in Christ, so it applies to salvation. But here the inspired writer is also applying it to Christian living. Are you a Christian? Do you know the Lord? Have you had truth saving faith? Well this will be a way of describing your life: you will live it by faith; you will live it by trusting God; you will put him first and trust him. You will never say to yourself, ‘All these troubles that have come upon me in my life: I do not deserve them. Where is the Lord? What is happening?’ You trust him in everything. You trust him in his providence, his design, in the circumstances he allows you to run into in your life. He has told you how you should react to them and trust him and lean on him and pray to him.
When I am apportioning my time and energy and ordering my priorities, how will I live? Will I focus on career and life or will I make sure that I give first place to the Lord and his service? Oh, but if I do the latter I shall lose out. No, you will trust him and live by faith. It is what God wants of you. You are living to please him. ‘The just shall live by faith’ – you were saved that way; are you living that way? You look back to your salvation, do you have the same commitment, the same designs. You were saved by faith. Are you living according to the principle of faith? If you are a Christian this is the most characteristic feature of you and it must show itself in your life.