The New Testament
confirms that it is the just[i] or righteous man
who will live by faith.  The just are so for two reasons.  First, arising out of the decree of the Father, they have
been accounted perfectly righteous legally[ii]
on the sole basis of the imputed righteousness of the perfectly righteous
Christ,[iii]
who has the very righteousness of God.[iv]
Second, the just have also been made inwardly righteous—although imperfectly in
this life (Romans 3:10), since they will not be completely “made perfect” until
their departure from this world (Hebrews 12:23)—through regeneration and
progessive sanctification by the Holy Spirit.  Before their regeneration, the just were entirely abominable
sinners without any righteousness,[v]
but after being born again they possess both inward and outward righteousness
rather than inward wickedness and a hypocritical or even a sincere but merely
outward righteousness.[vi]  The just man characteristically acts in
a righteous way, a way that is in accord with the righteousness that God has
placed within his heart in regeneration and strengthens in progressive
sanctification (Matthew 1:19).  At
times the just are specified as righteous
without distinguishing between their perfect judicial justifying and imperfect
but still real inward righteousness,[vii]
for both are necessarily conjoined; 
all the righteous possess both imputed righteousness and imparted inward
holiness,[viii]
for without both (1 John 3:7) men are cast into hell fire,[ix]
the place of those who are “disobedient”[x]
and “unjust,”[xi] those who
practice evil (1 Peter 3:12), the “filthy,”[xii]
the “ungodly”[xiii] and the
“sinner,”[xiv] rather
than the righteous.  Just men are
characteristically “good,”[xv]
“devout,”[xvi] and “holy”
(Mark 6:20), “walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord
blameless” (Luke 1:6) as “doers of the law” (Romans 2:13), who
characteristically practice righteousness (1 John 2:29), for they have been
inwardly renewed in regeneration and are being transformed into Christ’s image
by sanctification.  These men—those
perfectly righteous by justification solely on the basis of Christ’s imputed
righteousness, and characteristically growing progressively more inwardly holy
through sanctification by the Spirit—are the just who shall live.

As in Genesis 15:6
the reckoning or accounting of Abraham as righteous was a reference to a legal
or judicial imputation of righteousness, not to an infusion or inner
impartation of holiness, so when the New Testament speaks of righteousness
being counted, accounted, or imputed[xvii] to Abraham or to believers in general, reference is made
to a legal reckoning of righteousness, not an infusion or a making inwardly
just.  While inner transformation
in progressive sanctification is the necessary and certain result of the
receipt of Divine imputed righteousness through justification, the root and
fundament of the designation of the people of God as just or righteous is
the legal accounting of their persons as righteous on the basis of Christ’s
substitutionary atonement.  Many
references to the verb to account or impute[xviii] are very clear instances of a declarative or an accounting
idea, and no reference in the New Testament with the verb speaks of a
transformation or infusion of new personal qualities by means of
imputation.  Similarly, the verb to
justify[xix] always refers to a reckoning or declaration of
righteousness, and never to a transformation into an inwardly righteous
state.  Consequently, in line with
the truth affirmed in Genesis 15:6, the New Testament references to Genesis
15:6 and Habakkuk 2:4 affirm that the righteousness of the just is
fundamentally forensic and legal, a righteousness received by all the people of
God through the imputation or crediting of Christ’s merit.

Habakkuk 2:4, as
quoted in the New Testament,[xx]
promises that the just shall live by
faith.  The verb to live[xxi] is employed for the essential life of the Triune God,[xxii]
for physical life on earth in its different aspects,[xxiii]
for the life of individuals who have been raised from the dead through a
miracle worked by Christ or the Apostles in the first century,[xxiv]
for the life of those who will be raised from the dead in the future
resurrection of all men and for life possessed in the resurrected
eschatological state,[xxv]
for Christ’s life after His bodily resurrection,[xxvi]
for the Messianic theanthropic life,[xxvii]
for the life of the unconverted in bondage to their sinful nature,[xxviii]
for the believer’s spiritual life on earth,[xxix]
for the believer’s enjoyment of life with God after his death but before his
resurrection,[xxx] and for
all aspects of eternal life, including both present and eschatological
spiritual and resurrected eternal life—that is, for “life” in all senses
associated with salvation.[xxxi]  Similarly, the noun life[xxxii] is employed for physical life,[xxxiii]
including life in the Millenial kingdom,[xxxiv]
life in both its spiritual and physical aspects,[xxxv]
and the Theanthropic life of Christ,[xxxvi]
but is used the large majority of the time for eternal life in all its aspects,
from present spiritual life to eschatological resurrected life.[xxxvii]
 As in Habakkuk 2:4 the just would live—have life in its spiritual, physical, and eschatological
blessings as a gift from their God and Redeemer with whom they had been brought
into saving union, so in the New Testament the just receive life in the like manner. 
Eternal life—both spiritual life in this present age and eschatological
life, which includes the life of the resurrected and glorified physical body—are
promised to the just in the New Testament.

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