MANY people would think that these words were very suitable in the mouth of an openly wicked, bad, immoral man or woman. But they were not spoken by such. On the contrary, they were the words of a man who lived an outwardly blameless life — a man who “was perfect and upright, and one who feared God, and eschewed evil.”
Mark, Job does not say, “I have done wrong things”; everyone will admit that; it is not a question of what he has done, but of what he is: “I am vile.” Job lived early in the world’s history; but, as it was then, so it is now, the great difficulty is to get people to give up all pretension to any righteousness or goodness in themselves, and simply take the lost sinner’s place.
Job struggled hard against the hand of God upon him: he thought, Well, “if” I had done such and such bad things, then I could understand all this evil which has come upon me; in chapter 31. he closes his pleading with sixteen “ifs.” But at last the light broke in, and Job saw himself as he really was. From that moment there was no excuse, no “if.” He goes down on his face before God, and says, “I am vile,” “I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” And so it ever must be. Every soul who gets blessing must take this place. Christ died for the ungodly. He came to seek and save that which was lost.
This great fact I was trying to make plain to a person living beside a wide river by the following illustration. Suppose you saw a man struggling in the middle of that river who could lot swim: all his efforts are useless — he cannot keep himself afloat. One thing can meet his desperate case, and one thing only. Some one, seeing his utterly helpless condition, at once launches a boat, rows over and takes him onboard, and he is brought safe to land without any effort on his part. So Christ is a full and complete Saviour for the lost and helpless sinner.
Oh, the blessing to be had by simply taking; he lost sinner’s place, casting aside every shred of self-righteousness, and then proving what a Saviour Jesus is!
When speaking on this subject a few days ego, some one said to me, “Oh, yes, we can do nothing without His help.” True, but Christ will never help you to save yourself; no, He has completed the work of salvation, “it is finished,” you have but to accept Him by faith. Christ offers Himself as a full, complete, and all-sufficient Saviour, and He is able to save to the uttermost all those who come unto God by Him. B.