THIS question was proposed by the Patriarch Job thousands of years ago (Job 9:22I know it is so of a truth: but how should man be just with God? (Job 9:2)). But he was slow to arrive at a right answer. Sincere, but full of reasoning, his active mind suggested many plans, but his awakened conscience told him that these were all in vain.
How many today are like him! Thousands of souls, troubled about this momentous matter, seek to be “just with God” after their own fashion, instead of bowing to His faithful word. All the efforts and plans of Job ended in his abhorring himself in the presence of God. Then God met his case, and accepted him (Job 42:6, 96Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes. (Job 42:6)
9So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went, and did according as the Lord commanded them: the Lord also accepted Job. (Job 42:9)).
God will do the same now for any reader of these lines who comes to the, same point, and says with Job, “I abhor myself, and repent.” It is there God meets us in His grace; and the answer to Job’s question is, “God is just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus” (Rom. 3:2626To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. (Romans 3:26)).
In the ninth and tenth chapters of the Book of Job we may see four roads which suggested themselves to his mind in his difficulties, but which he soon discovered to be of no avail. They strikingly set forth the experiences of many a troubled soul at the present day.
1. First he said: “If I justify myself, mine own mouth shall condemn me: if I say, I am perfect, it shall also prove me perverse. Though I were perfect, yet would I not know my soul: I would despise my, life” (Job 9:20, 2120If I justify myself, mine own mouth shall condemn me: if I say, I am perfect, it shall also prove me perverse. 21Though I were perfect, yet would I not know my soul: I would despise my life. (Job 9:20‑21)).
This is the road of self-justification. The thought had arisen in his mind. “If I justify myself before God, what then?” And the consciousness. of his own condition brought the reply, “Mine own mouth shall condemn me, If I say, I am perfect, it shall also prove me perverse.”
“Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh” (Matt. 12:3434O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. (Matthew 12:34)). The mouth lets out what is in the heart. Job might seek to justify himself; he might say, “I am perfect”; but a sinful heart, “deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked,” would soon betray him (Jer. 17:99The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? (Jeremiah 17:9)). The lips would be sure to utter what was there, and very soon give the lie to his own boasted righteousness. “Though I were perfect, yet would I not know my soul; I would despise my life.”
Ah! it is “no good” for that old incorrigible “I” to talk about perfection. The man who talks like that clearly does not know himself; he does “not know” his soul. He deceives! Himself Job is sensible of this, he adds, “I would despise my life.” And well he might. Think of talking of perfection in a sinner in the presence of a holy God! Perfection in the flesh would be a total setting aside of “the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 3:2424Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: (Romans 3:24)).
“If I justify myself.” Well, God will judge me, that is certain. “But if I judge myself,” what then? Why, God will justify me. The self-justified are judged; the self-judged are justified. There is the difference. Say not, then, as Job at one time did, “My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go” (Job 27:66My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go: my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live. (Job 27:6)), even after he had confessed its worthlessness; but let your righteousness go at once, and submit yourself to God’s (Rom. 10:33For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. (Romans 10:3)). None other will do before Him.
Troubled in spirit, Job thinks of his short span of life, saying, “Now my days are swifter than a post: they flee away, they see no good. They are passed away as the swift ships; as the eagle that hasteth to the prey” (Job 9:25, 2625Now my days are swifter than a post: they flee away, they see no good. 26They are passed away as the swift ships: as the eagle that hasteth to the prey. (Job 9:25‑26)). He considers the three swiftest things that his eye had ever beheld: the post, the ship, and the eagle. Swifter than the camel with the post speeding across the wide expanse of land; swifter than the ships disappearing beneath the horizon of the mighty sea; swifter than the king of birds descending on its prey, Job’s days were passing away, and he saw “no good.” Death was rapidly approaching, and his soul was daily distressed with the momentous question, “How should man be just with God?”
2. A second thought suggests itself to Job. Suffering in body and in circumstances, and with the consciousness of God’s hand upon him, he says, “If I say, I will forget my complaint, I will leave off my heaviness, and comfort myself,” what then? How shall I get on if I travel this road? Supposing I ignore the thing, take it as a matter of course, leave God out altogether, and just look at it as if it were a mere accidental circumstance. But it is all “no good.” Conscience pricks him. He might say it, but what would be the result? First, he adds, “I will be afraid of all my sorrows.” And, secondly, “I know that Thou wilt not hold me innocent.”
Ah! yes, Job, it is “no good.” There is no getting out of it in that way; and you know it. And you too, sinner, may think to try the same road, but it is all in vain. There is no road back to innocence. Innocence was known in Eden only, and it is lost forever. You have a conscience, knowing good and evil, and naturally you have the evil.
Troubled in soul, you might try and forget it, and say so; but fear will still reign in your heart, and God will not hold you innocent. It is righteousness you need, not innocence. Your own is worse than useless. God’s is now revealed; to it you must submit (Rom. 1:17, 3:22). God alone can justify you.
3. But there is another road: I see it is “no God” justifying myself, and ignoring facts. I am in the difficulty, and it must be faced. Just with God I must be. I am not right now, anyway. I know I am not fit for His holy presence. Sin has defiled me, and He cannot look upon me thus, I know. I will cleanse myself. What could be more reasonable? I am black with sin; I will make myself white. Surely all will be right then. Surely I can be just with God thus. Hope for the moment springs up within the heart. But what can I wash myself with?
Ah! Job, that is the question, a question as yet far beyond Job, intelligent as he evidently was. And that is the all-important question for you, dear reader. Washed, cleansed you must be, but with what?
Hear Job’s conclusion, as he weighs the matter seriously in his deep distress: “If I wash myself with snow water, and make my hands never so clean, yet shalt Thou plunge me in the ditch, and mine own clothes shall abhor me” (9:30, 31).
Of nothing purer or more cleansing than snow water can he think; yet so deeply ingrained is sin, so hopeless his condition, that cleanse himself as he may, he would still be before God as a man plunged in a black ditch, his own clothes abhorring his filthiness. O sinner, sin is far deeper and blacker than you think. Snow water cannot cleanse you. Yea, “though thou wash thee with nitre, and take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord God” (Jer. 2:2222For though thou wash thee with nitre, and take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord God. (Jeremiah 2:22)).
Washed you must be; but it is only God who can do it. All your moral and religious efforts to cleanse yourself are in vain. The road of mere reformation in the flesh leads straight to hell. The one thing you need is the blood of Christ.
“Nothing but His precious blood
Can do fallen sinners good.”
Job, almost at his wits’ end, complains, “My soul is weary of my life” (Job 10:11My soul is weary of my life; I will leave my complaint upon myself; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul. (Job 10:1)). Sinner, have you ever come to that? Have you ever found sin to be such a terrible plague, as to complain thus? Never was a soul brought to God without having some such experience. It is when we get quite to our wits’ end, when we despair utterly of ourselves we learn God’s thoughts about us, and that He meets us in grace, and shows us what He is, a Saviour-God.
4. But stay, Job has a fourth road. One more thought suggests itself. He sees that self-justification, ignoring of his real state, and reformation are all alike “no good.” No, those three roads lead straight to the lake of fire. Now, thinks Job, supposing that I were to throw conscience over-board altogether, and live in sin. I was conceived in it; do what I will it clings to me, and I cannot get rid of it; why should my life be one long groan? How will it be if I let slip the rein, and go on in it.? I am not the only one to do so. Ah! it is all in vain. I cannot get away from God. If I sin, what then? Perhaps He will be merciful, and take no notice of it! No, that is impossible. God is. holy, He cannot pass it by thus. “If I sin, then Thou markest me.” I may treat it lightly, ignore it, justify it; but God never. “And Thou wilt not acquit me from mine iniquity. If I be wicked, woe is me” (10:14, 15).
Job is getting to his wits’ end. His misery is so great that as he thinks of the day when he was born into the world, he exclaims, “Oh that I had given up the ghost, and no eye had seen me! I should have been as though I had not been” (Job 10:18, 1918Wherefore then hast thou brought me forth out of the womb? Oh that I had given up the ghost, and no eye had seen me! 19I should have been as though I had not been; I should have been carried from the womb to the grave. (Job 10:18‑19)). But he had to go vet deeper still, and when he had learnt to abhor himself, God accepted him (Job 42:6-96Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes. 7And it was so, that after the Lord had spoken these words unto Job, the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, My wrath is kindled against thee, and against thy two friends: for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath. 8Therefore take unto you now seven bullocks and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering; and my servant Job shall pray for you: for him will I accept: lest I deal with you after your folly, in that ye have not spoken of me the thing which is right, like my servant Job. 9So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went, and did according as the Lord commanded them: the Lord also accepted Job. (Job 42:6‑9)).
Ah! sinner, sin is sin, and God marks it. Live in it, and He will damn you. Every sin that you have committed, in thought, word, or deed, has been “marked” by Him, and the smallest unpardoned would sink you into, hell. To go on in it is folly, madness. Death, its wage, is at your door, and judgment after, judgment eternal (Heb. 9:2727And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: (Hebrews 9:27)). Sin is a foul blot before God. A sinner you are, and if you die in your sins, your case is hopeless.
Try which you will of these four roads, they all lead to one goal.
1. If you justify yourself, you will be judged.
2. If you ignore your state, you will be judged.
3. If you cleanse yourself, you will be judged.
4. If you live in sin, you will be judged. But if you abhor and judge yourself, God will justify and accept you. How?
God is “just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus” (Rom. 3:2626To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. (Romans 3:26)). “Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 3:2424Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: (Romans 3:24)). “Now being justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him” (Rom. 5:99Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. (Romans 5:9)). “To him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness” (Rom. 4:55But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. (Romans 4:5)). “By Him all that believe are justified from all things” (Acts 13:3939And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses. (Acts 13:39)). “Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification; therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 4:25, 5:1). “Being justified by His grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life” (Titus,7). “It is God that justifieth, who is he that condemneth?” (Rom. 8:33, 3433Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. 34Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. (Romans 8:33‑34)).
The question is plain, and the answer is no less plain. Will you believe it? The moment a guilty but self-judged sinner believes in Jesus, he is justified by God’s grace, through Christ’s blood, in Christ Jesus, on the principle of faith, from all things, to walk henceforth in Christ’s footsteps, till He come abounding in good works, and so practically justified in the sight of all.
Reader, you now know how you may be “just with God.”
E. H. C.