"Then Job replied: 'Indeed, I know that this is true. But how can a mortal be righteous before God?
Though one wished to dispute with him, he could not answer him one time out of a thousand.
His wisdom is profound, his power is vast. Who has resisted him and come out unscathed?'" - Job 9:1-4
A dear, older friend of mine once summed up things like this, "God good; sin bad." Job used only slightly different words in today's verse, saying, "Indeed, I know that this is true. But how can a mortal be righteous before God?"
Answer: We can't.
We can no more be righteous, in and of ourselves, before God than I can reach out my screened window and grab these beautiful stars that I'm looking at this very moment.
Yes, yes, I remember that, just a couple days ago in this devotion, we noted from Job 1:1 how God speaks of Job as being "blameless." Surely Job could be righteous, in and of himself, before God, couldn't he? But, biblically speaking, "blameless" merely means a person who is confronted by their sin and doesn't have to be dragged into a legal courtroom to get them to admit that they messed up.
So Job was blameless, but he was not sinless.
No one is sinless, except Jesus, which means that no one's heart is so in tune with the will of God the Father that they constantly act in accord with God's will. Only Jesus.
Which throws us back to Job's original question in Job 9:1, "How can a mortal be righteous before God?"
Only through faith in Jesus, which means that we trust Jesus to make all things right, including us.
To be sure, sometimes in surrendering to Jesus, he sends us to do something like pray for an enemy or pay retribution to someone we hurt.
But there is no way to pay back God. All we can do is thank Him.
So, "How can a mortal be righteous before God?"
Answer: 1) Don't wait to be dragged to court to admit a wrong. 2) Put your faith in God's Son, Jesus, who makes all things right. 3) Thank God. 4) Serve people...with a joy that springs from thanks to God.
That should make for a Happy Monday and a Happy World. Let's go!
Praise God!
Pastor Chris
"The gospel is the story of Jesus [what God's only Son has done for us that we can't do for ourselves], spoken as a promise." - Robert Jenson
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