1 ¶
Then Job answered and said, 2
Even to day is my complaint bitter: my stroke is heavier than my
groaning. 3 Oh that I knew where I might
find him! that I might come even to his seat! 4
I would order my cause before him, and fill my mouth with arguments. 5 I would know the words which he would answer
me, and understand what he would say unto me. 6
Will he plead against me with his great power? No; but he would put
strength in me. 7 There the righteous
might dispute with him; so should I be delivered for ever from my judge.
In spite of all
of these accusations by his friends, Job’s pain and anguish of body and spirit
are far worse than his complaining about it. He ponders as to where he might
find God, even to appear before His throne.
Hebrews 4:16
Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may
obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
The Spirit of
God dwells in each believer today.
John 14:23
Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my
words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our
abode with him.
Romans 8:9
But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit
of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none
of his.
On a side note
we have an advantage over the Gentiles before Abraham, as in Job, or the Hebrews
under the Law given to Moses, in that we are always in the presence of God who dwells
within us. It is, therefore, incumbent upon us not to bring anything in our
bodies or unite our bodies with anything that common sense or good doctrine
would show that God would not want in His presence.
1Corinthians 3:16 ¶ Know ye not that ye are the temple of God,
and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
1Corinthians 6:19 What? know ye not that your body is the
temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not
your own?
But, Job
doesn’t want to speak to God in prayer only. He wants to see Him face to face.
He believes his argument is so good that he thinks he could make a good case
for himself. Job, in his troubles, is steering further and further into
self-righteousness trying to justify himself. He says that the righteous do
have an argument before God and that he is so right that even God’s great power
would not make it null and void.
Romans 3:19
Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who
are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may
become guilty before God.
We know that we
are sinners before a holy God and that has come down to us through our first
ancestor, Adam. We are not compared to other people as in a hierarchy of good
to bad people. That’s a purely human invention in all faith traditions. You
will think you are more righteous than a drug-addicted prostitute laying in a
back alley of a building strung out on something he bought from a dealer on the
corner. But, God isn’t comparing you to that poor wretch. He’s comparing you to
Himself in the physical form of Jesus Christ. You cannot stand up to that
comparison.
When you stand
before Christ your self-righteousness will fail you. You will not be able to
present a defense of any kind no matter how often you went to church or how
many people you badgered into saying 1-2-3-repeat-after-me or how many rock
concerts for Christ you attended as a part of your church’s youth group. Job is
wrong. His righteousness will not give him the strength to justify himself. And
today, the only justification you have is Christ’s righteousness. If you aren’t
counting on Christ’s righteousness to get Heaven or have eternal life you won’t
possess either one. You will have eternal life or not based solely on Christ’s
righteousness and your trusting in it. You have none, compared to Him, and that
is the only comparison that matters to God.
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