The Bible reading plan I’m using has me in Job this week and today I read Job’s response to his friend Bildad in chapter 9.  Job starts by asking a question, “how can a man be in the right before God?” (v2)  It’s the one question that every human being of all ages, of all times, must ask.  Have you asked this question?  Are you sure of the answer?  “how can a man be in the right before God?”

Job lived before the prophets, and priests, and kings, and Jesus, and the disciples, and the Westminster catechism, and John Piper, but he knew enough about God and enough about man to see clearly the predicament of man.  Job was an upright and blameless man who shunned evil and feared God, he was one of only a few who did in a land full of idolatry.  He knew his morals and religion exceeded those of his neighbors but he also knew his righteous living could never pardon his sins.  “Though I am in the right, I cannot answer him; I must appeal for mercy to my accuser.” (v15)  In his sorrow, Job declares that no one is wiser in heart or mightier in strength then God, that God is Creator over all, that God is invisible, that God cannot be convinced of anything since He knows everything, and that God is not impressed by anything since He is sovereign over all.  “If it is a contest of strength, behold, he is mighty! If it is a matter of justice, who can summon him?” (v19)

Job had no confidence in his own righteousness, rituals, or religion.  He knew his own flesh would betray him and that in the end man has no ability to justify himself to God.  “Though I am in the right, my own mouth would condemn me; though I am blameless, he would prove me perverse.” (v20)  Even the very best of men, must ask “how can a man be in the right before God?”  Then, in hopeless desperation and emptiness Job cries out “There is no arbiter between us, who might lay his hand on us both.  Let him take his rod away from me, and let not dread of him terrify me.  Then I would speak without fear of him, for I am not so in myself.” (v33-35)  Can you feel Jobs anguish?  Oh!  If only there was an Arbiter!  Who might stand between God and man and lay His hand on us both!  Job asks the monumental question we all must ask, he defines the terrible problem we all have, and in prophetic allusion he introduces the glorious answer to it all.  Jesus.  The Arbiter, the One who brings peace.

Like Job, our own righteousness is inconsistent and incomplete, our heart, thoughts, words, motives, and actions betray us.  Our rituals are superstitious and idolatrous and make no atonement for sin and give no true worship to God.  Our religion is shallow, only producing a sense of pride, accomplishment, and self righteousness.  How could the Creator who is holy, and perfect, and righteous ever accept our righteousness, rituals, or religion that is so corrupt as a worthy payment for sin and still be called just?  He could not.  But how can He who is good, and merciful, and faithful leave us without hope and lost in our sins and still be called love?  He could not.  Then how can He be both the just Judge and the Justifier of men?  The apostle Paul answers this question, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.  This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.  It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” (Romans 3:23-26)

Jesus is the one Job cried out for, the Arbiter who’s righteousness is perfect, whose ritual (the cross) is effective and complete, whose religion is pure and true.  Jesus satisfies the judgment we deserve in His own death and in His resurrection secures our freedom from sin, and guilt, and death, and condemnation.  God is good and kind, and by grace He makes the provision that our own righteousness, rituals, or religion could not.  “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all.” (1 Timothy 2:5)

Have you asked the question “how can a man be in the right before God?”  Are you sure of the answer?  Job felt the great need for an Arbiter and somehow knew that one day He would come, “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth.” Job 19:25  Please don’t waste anymore time with the three deadly R’s (righteousness, rituals, and religion), instead trust in Jesus and experience the peace and assurance that we all need.