This morning, I am reading a newly recommended book called "Salvation by Allegiance Alone: Rethinking Faith, Works, and the Gospel of Jesus the King" by Matthew W. Bates. I am a mere 18% into the book (page 42 of 215) and the yielded fruit is already astonishing!
This little write-up is going to be very short. It will focus on the following: "The righteous shall live by faith" is found in Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11, and Hebrews 10:38. However, the original statement is from Habakkuk 2:4 in the Old Testament.
However—your real draw for reading this is simple: What has all of the above and below to do with blunting Enoch? Allow me to sum it up: The big story is not Enoch or even the Watchers and ex-giant demons as a plague upon heaven and earth. What I mean by "blunting Enoch" is that the big story is the resurrection and subsequent raising of Jesus from Son-of-God status to the super-supreme status of Son-of-God-in-power! He has ascended to being King of all, including other kings and kingdoms. No one is higher than Him.
Therefore, Enoch and its story is subjugated to His story. Enoch's only purpose is to provide the details whereby we might understand the breadth and depth and reasons wherein we need to give and adhere to our believing loyalty in life and living to King Jesus—forever and no matter what those loyal to demons and darkness throw at us!
With that stated: Let us continue ...
Romans 1:17 - "For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, 'The righteous shall live by faith.'"
Galatians 3:11 - "Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for 'The righteous shall live by faith.'"
Hebrews 10:38 - "'But my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.'"
Habakkuk 2:4 - "Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith."
Let's cut to the chase and then back it up with details. What does it mean for us to say, "the righteous shall live by faith"? The answer (by way of brother Bates) is this:
The righteous shall live [participate in eternal life by being raised from the dead] by faith [demonstrated life-long allegiance to King Jesus].
Thus, the same is true for the noted passages:
For in it [the gospel] the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith [beginning and then ending in allegiance to Christ], as it is written, 'The righteous shall live by faith.'
Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for 'The righteous shall live [participate in eternal life by being raised from the dead] by faith [demonstrated life-long allegiance to King Jesus].'
'But my righteous one shall live [participate in eternal life by being raised from the dead] by faith [demonstrated life-long allegiance to King Jesus], and if he shrinks back [from allegiance to King Jesus], my soul [Elohim] has no pleasure in him.'
The key to unlocking and unpacking these New Testament scripture passages is found in Habakkuk 2:4. Allow me to demonstrate from Bates.
Allegiance unto Life
Tackling these questions in reverse order, the citation probably intends to refer to Jesus as the righteous one and to his fidelity to God, but beyond that also to all who give fidelity to Jesus as the Christ. In Habakkuk 2:4 the Hebrew form of the citation as found in the Old Testament reads, “But the righteous [man] will live by his faithfulness,” where the Hebrew word ʾemunah means faithfulness, trustworthiness, steadiness, reliability, and so forth, not faith or belief.
Paul's habit was to use Greek translations of the Hebrew, not the Hebrew itself. So the ancient Greek translations of the Hebrew Bible must be consulted as well in seeking after Paul’s thoughts. The translator of Habakkuk 2:4, in casting the Hebrew into Greek, substituted my in place of his as follows: “But the righteous one will live by my pistis,” referring to God’s own faithfulness rather than human faith in God or the faithfulness of the human agent. So, although we are left uncertain as to Paul’s exact meaning, faithfulness or loyalty rather than faith appears to be in view in any case.
Bates goes on to provide an extension of Habakkuk talking about the faithfulness (i.e., allegiance of) Jesus to the Father into a like allegiance of men to Christ as King. The implication is that if Jesus was loyal to God the Father even to a death on the Cross and descent into the very depths of hell itself, then what are we to be to Christ as King? Following Jesus is somewhat about how we think, speak, and act, but those things are measured in the metric of loyalty to Christ as King and no longer to fallen Watchers and demons as former rulers of our life.
Moreover—it implies that the Cross (the instrument of our freedom and rebirth by God's power) and the empowering of the indwelling Spirit of God are provided to our now Cross-freed and Cross-reborn free-willed spirit to follow after Jesus' example in believing-loyalty and allegiance to Him as King just as He followed His Father in believing loyalty and allegiance even unto the Cross.
This story could not be more powerful and stark and generally flies openly in the face of the flimsy gospel portrayed through much of Christianity today. It literally turns what most Christians deem as the "full gospel" on its head, where the common version has little to do with Christ's loyalty to God and our follow-on loyalty demonstrated in how we live to Jesus as King. Thus, the common message of the 21st century church has been watered down to a mere skin-and-bones powerless picture of its former self (first century).
It is here that I must point out the theme and title of this article once more: Enoch is now blunted. The matter of Jesus is not Enoch. The matter is that Enoch is (like all else) subjugated to Christ as King and its detailed message of fallen Watchers, giants, demons, wicked, and righteous is now a vehicle that takes us from a me-centered gospel to a properly Christ-centered gospel. It personally moves me from even the larger story of Enochic epics to the largest and most supreme story of Jesus as the King of all heaven and earthly realms and God's testing of me following in the footsteps of His example of loyalty (e.g., faith).
My own sense of the matter for me is having come full-circle back to Jesus—BUT a view of Him that is far bigger than I imagined, even in the last 11 months of my life, where God has done so much and delivered so much into me. Jesus is just that much bigger and the biggest of all. Worship and obedience to Him above all is now what must follow and is (in fact) demanded of my soul by the Spirit of God within me.
How about you?