In Rom 1:17, the apostle Paul
writes:
For
therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is
written, The just shall live by faith.
The phrase, “as it is written” is a
term employed by Paul and contemporaries when they quote scripture. The Old
Testament is Hab 2:4:
Behold,
his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him; but the just shall live by
his faith.
That the terms “righteousness” and “righteous”
in Paul and Habakkuk’s discourses are not forensically imputed to the
individual can be seen in the tiny book of Habakkuk, where the prophet himself
has to struggle with accepting God’s fidelity to his covenant, even at a time when
it appears God has forsaken his elect people and is not judging the people when
Habakkuk believes God should be. Indeed, the very first recorded utterance of
Habakkuk reflects such:
O Lord,
how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear! Even cry out unto thee of violence,
and thou wilt not save! . . .Therefore the law is slacked, and judgement doth
never go forth: for the wicked doth compass about the righteous; therefore,
wrong judgement proceedeth (1:2, 4)
The type of faith and righteousness
Habakkuk (and, unless one wishes to accuse him wrenching Habakkuk out of
context, Paul, too) preaches is not a static faith or a static righteousness,
but one more akin to the Latter-day Saint understanding, one that has to “work
out [their] salvation with fear and trembling” and do to such with the aid of
God’s power (Phil 2:12-13; cf. James 2:22-24; Psa 106:30-31; 18:20-28, etc)
