2010 – September 15 – Can A Man Be Righteous?

Study from God’s Word… Job, Chapters 25 – 31 … Passage for Reflection: Job 25: 4 – 6 … NIV 4 How then can a man be righteous before God? How can one born of woman be pure? 5 If even the moon is not bright and the stars are not pure in his eyes, 6 how much less man, who is but a maggot — a son of man, who is only a worm!"

My Journal for Today: Bildad again [in today’s highlight text], one of these railing friends of Job’s, spouting off obvious truths mixed in with their assumptions of Job’s unrighteousness. And here we have a statement of some obvious truth.

Certainly man – when compared to God – cannot stand righteous before God. But then again, why, throughout all of Scripture, both Old and New Testaments, do we read of God’s value on man being righteous and following God’s ways. If man cannot be righteous, then why does God value man’s attempts to be righteous. And if man could NEVER be righteous, no matter what he did, what’s the point of even trying to be righteous? Let’s just go be sinners and enjoy it; right?

Have you ever felt like copping out to the “give up” mentality, as Flip Wilson, used to cry out, “… the devil made me do it?” It’s easy, when we’re having trouble with temptation or trials in life, to just give up and declare, “… I’m just a sinner; and I’ll never be able to be as good as God wants me to be.” And of course, in one respect, that is right-on truth. But what do we do with the commands from God Himself in the OT and NT (see Lev. 11: 44-45 and 1Pet. 1: 14-16) to “be holy as God is Holy?”

Well, I’m not going to get into a long discussion here about “positional holiness” versus “practical holiness,” which is pertinent, but not necessarily “in-the-trenches” helpful. Save it say that Jesus was the answer to Bildad’s question: “How can one born of woman be pure?” He was born of a woman; and most certainly, He was pure! And it was God’s plan to allow His Son to be the one – and only one – born of a woman who could provide a way for me (and you), who are but maggots, to be seen as pure and holy in God’s sight.

And when our hearts seek after righteousness; and when we – in any given moment – ARE righteous, it is because God has given us the grace to be such; and we hide behind the robes of righteousness offered by God’s very Son, Jesus, so that we can be holy as God is Holy.

And how wonderful is that?

My Prayer for Today: Oh, glory, my Lord … that You would allow me to wear Your robes of righteous to hide my rags of sin. Amen