Job 9:3

"How should man be just with God?" This is the guilty man's "hard question." Bildad's remarks drew this out of Job... It was all very well for Bildad to say "God will not cast away a perfect man." No one ever supposed He would, but where is the perfect man to be found? Job felt that he was not that man. Romans 3:21-26 gives the divine answer to the guilty man's "hard question." The redemption that is in Christ Jesus lets God justify by His grace, as a free gift, everyone who owns his guilt and believes in His Son.

The first is of course verse 3. Supposing man adopts a defiant attitude and contends with God; what then? Disaster, and no justification! Sin has made mankind into rebels, so defying God is their first instinct. But Job saw how ruinous such an attitude would be. God is so infinitely great that no rebel can prosper, and down to verse 19 he continues this theme.

The instant the soul is awakened, it sees with God's eye, and this is the only way of seeing right. When that happens, the soul stands in the light of God's judgment and says, "I could not answer him one of a thousand." God is infinitely good; but His way of goodness is not that of allowing evil. Could you answer for yourself in the day of judgment for everything you have ever said or done?

Our consciences may be quite at ease while we are far from God and not yet awake. But the moment we have to face what we are in the presence of God, we see that our case is desperate. We all know, more or less, what self-righteousness is, and we can get along with it well enough until God's eye is upon us. A man may have an excellent character, and deserve it too, but he does not have a perfect conscience... the moment we recognise God's presence, the veil is off. We see God, and His word searches the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Then we can understand the words of poor Job (and there was no one like him in all the earth), "He cannot answer him one of a thousand."

Job was a most righteous man, and God bore witness to him as such. He was no Pharisee, and he used language no Pharisee would use. Yet when he was put into the crucible, he was found to be secretly clinging to a testimony from his fellow men. In his heart of hearts he knew that testimony would not stand before God (Job 9:2-3, 20, 30, 31). And is there not a hidden root of self-confidence in every heart? Is there not a longing to compare ourselves with others, sure that the comparison will favour us, with God Himself as the Judge?

If we look at Christ, we shall find that He exactly meets the need that Job felt. I cannot answer God one in a thousand — but what do I find in Christ? God in His person came to me in this world because I could not do anything. The blessed Lord did not wait up in heaven, but came to these unrighteous people. He never said "Come to me," until He had come Himself.

We can see how immense the difference is when the gospel reveals the righteousness of God. It is no longer the question, How shall man be just with God? ... Now the gospel reveals God's righteousness. That shuts out everything on man's part except faith, so that it might be wholly grace on God's part. Yet it rests on the foundation of Christ's suffering for sins, the just for the unjust, to bring us to God.