Today's passage is Job 9:1-24.
Bildad's reply in Chapter 8, basically said God does not reject or punish an innocent man. He gave the deaths of Job's sinful children as examples. Job replies in chapter 9. He asks a lot of questions. How can anyone argue with God? Who can resist his power? Who can judge him or act as intermediary between God and someone who has a complaint? Job reaches verse 24 by saying God seems to be indifferent to good people and evil ones, treating them both in the same way a scourge does not discriminate in its destruction of everyone.
Job's opening question in chapter 9--"How can a mortal be righteous before God?"-- is not rhetorical.
It's at the heart of my salvation. Unless I can be righteous before a just God, I can't be saved. And as a sinner, I don't stand a chance of being saved on my own.
No number of good works earns me a divine passport.
No single good work can change me from who I am. It's Jesus' death that provides the righteousness I need.
He takes my place. The cloak of his righteousness covers me and I go free, undeserving. That's grace, that's love, and in faith I accept it.
Over the years, this matter of righteousness kept coming up in my faith walk and I kept avoiding looking at seriously enough to understand it, to truly accept it. It's been a knotty point for me.
The emotional moment of Jesus' crucifixion continues to move me to tears. I cried through a lot of Max Lucado's "He Chose the Nails." Last weekend at the worship service during the conference I attended, I heard the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir sing "Worthy is the Lamb". I wept aloud at it.
The strong emotion comes from my deep gratitude. Without Jesus, I'm condemned by my sin, going nowhere but to hell.
Intellectual understanding of what Jesus' death means has been slow in coming to me.
First, I didn't think I needed an intellectual understanding. Second, I moved through three different denominations--Presbyterian, Anglican, Roman Catholic, and back to Presbyterian. The Presbyterian and Anglican view of righteousness is the same but the Catholic is different.
Since I was saved by faith in Jesus' death and resurrection, I thought the business of righteousness was best left to theologians to argue about. What did it really matter? I was saved, that's what was important.
This year it became important. And suddenly here's Job asking the question I'd been wrestling with and seeking an understanding of.
Because Job asks it, I saw the question as more than intellectual. Job is in every kind of agony--physical, spiritual, emotional, social, moral and intellectual agony.
He believes in God but now nothing makes sense anymore.
Right and wrong aren't the way they used to be. Friends oppose him. His body is painfully diseased. His worldly success is gone. In the midst of this chaos he asks how he can be righteous before all powerful God.
It's a vital question for him. Without an answer, he has no hope. In my hard time, I didn't ask this question because I was busy being angry and full of self-pity.
This year I've been asking the question of righteousness and chasing down an answer.
For Catholics, when you believe in Jesus, you become righteous, literally.
It is like the Catholic view of the eucharist.
They believe the bread and wine literally become the flesh and blood of Jesus.
I discovered I don't believe this.
I believe the bread and wine remain bread and wine but they symbolize Jesus.
"Do this in remembrance of me," said Jesus. The eucharist is a memorial.
Paul explains righteous in the same way. When I believe in Jesus, then God sees me through Jesus' righteousness. I remain a sinner but God looks at Jesus' righteousness covering me, not my sinful self.
So, at last for me, I both believe and understand.
Job's question has an answer for me.
He asks, "How can a mortal be righteous before God?"
The answer--Through faith in Jesus' righteousness covering you.
Lord, let me not dismiss my questions of faith or run away from them.
Give me the faith I need in order to know what I need to know. Let me not be a mindless believer. Let me be a balanced and discerning believer, able to do your will in my life. Heal my knee, Lord. Help me know why I can't stand on my leg.
Help me stand on your legs, Lord, that I may serve you better tomorrow than I have today.
