Have You Heard Habakkuk?
January 2012 – Grace & Truth Magazine
Have You Heard Habakkuk?
Q: What do Habakkuk, Paul, Luther, Bohler and Wesley have in common?
A: All their lives were eternally changed by God’s message that “The just shall live by his faith” (Hab. 2:4 NKJV ).
The prophet Habakkuk has been called the great grandfather of the Protestant Reformation because he first delivered this central truth of the Bible after questioning God about how He chose to work His ways in the world. God’s answer, that the just shall live by faith, caused him to trust that no matter what God sent his way, he’d rejoice in the God of his salvation (Hab. 3:18).
The apostle Paul is sometimes referred to as the grandfather of the Reformation because his life was so impacted by Habakkuk 2:4 that he repeated it in Romans 1:17 and Galatians 3:11 (as well as Hebrews 10:38, if you suspect that Paul also wrote that book) for all to read.
Martin Luther is always referred to as the father of the Reformation, largely because his discovery of the truth of Habakkuk 2:4 led him to pen and publicly post his 95 theses on the door of Wittenburg University, challenging others to question the doctrine of salvation by works, the centerpiece of the then very corrupt Roman Church, in which he was a teacher. His study led him to the truth that salvation is by grace alone and righteousness is by faith alone.
The 18th century evangelist John Wesley, often referred to as the father of the second reformation, was converted from a works doctrine to a Habakkuk 2:4 faith after he failed miserably as a missionary to the Georgian colony in America. Returning to England, he studied Romans with a Moravian missionary, Peter Bohler, until he saw the truth first set forth by Habakkuk – that the just shall live by faith. That truth led to a second far-reaching reformation. Has the truth of Habakkuk 2:4 led to a reformation in your life?
Will you share it with those around you as did Paul, Luther, Bohler and Wesley? When you do, lives will be changed for eternity.
By Larry Ondrejack