Let's take a bit of an excursion together! Or more specifically, an excursus.

An excursus is a moment where an author moves away from the main topic to take a journey somewhere else that might fill in the main topic with more information and meaning. This is something you find in Moby Dick as Melville devotes entire chapters to ropes and cetology. Or more recently, you can find it in Star Wars with excurses (Solo, Rogue One, etc) giving meaning and depth to the main Skywalker Saga.

We've been in the book of Habakkuk for the last three weeks, looking at Habakkuk's burden and the first complaint/response cycle. Before we get into the more well-known second complaint/response cycle with its famous phrase, “the righteous shall live by his faith,” we'll take a two-week excursus to the New Testament to see the ultimate fulfillment of this prophecy. I believe it will provide clearer telos, meaning, and application to the phrase before we encounter it in Habakkuk.

This phrase is picked up in Romans, Galatians, and Hebrews and became the rallying cry of the Reformation: sola fide! We are justified by faith alone. But how much faith? What quality of faith? What kind of faith? This can actually be a scary thought for me when my faith seems to waver. Does my righteousness before God also waver? Come find rest in the Gospel of God's good promises and in His faithfulness in Christ for us as we join in worship together this Sunday.