Job CCCXL

 Job 41:23-34, “The folds of his flesh are joined together; they are firm on him and cannot be moved. His heart is as hard as stone, even as hard as the lower millstone. When he raises himself up, the mighty are afraid; because of his crashings they are beside themselves. Though the sword reaches him, it cannot avail. Nor does spear, dart, or javelin. He regards iron as straw, and bronze as rotten wood. The arrow cannot make him flee; slingstones become like stubble to him. Darts are regarded as straw; he laughs at the threat of javelins. His undersides are like sharp potsherds; he spreads pointed marks in the mire. He makes the deep boil like a pot; he makes the sea like a pot of ointment. He leaves a shining wake behind him; one would think the deep had white hair. On earth there is nothing like him, which is made without fear. He beholds every high thing; He is king over all the children of pride.”

If even one such as Job, whom God deemed blameless and upright, could not justify himself before God, what hope do we have? What hope do we have of standing in our own righteousness? What hope do we have of working our way into heaven? What hope do we have of standing before the all-knowing God and maker of all that is, the Creator who spoke the behemoth and leviathan into being, and insisting that it was by our machinations, labors, the traditions we held to, or rites and rituals we practiced that we are worthy and deserving of being welcomed into His kingdom?

It is not man who justifies himself before God; it is God who justifies man by the faith one exhibits in the sacrifice and atoning power of the blood of His only begotten Son, Jesus. Does this mean we ought not to strive? No, Jesus Himself said that we must strive to enter through the narrow gate. Does this mean we ought not to be holy? No, God Himself said that we ought to be holy, for He is holy. It’s not an either-or proposition.

What it does mean is that all our striving, all our perceived holiness, would not tip the scales in our favor without the grace, mercy, love, and redemption of the God we serve, who facilitated our being reconciled to Him anew through what Jesus did on the cross.

It’s not works salvation; there’s no such thing, but by the same token, faith without works is dead, as the Book also states. True faith compels us to be active in our pursuit of sanctification. It will not allow us to be sedate and stagnant, or remain in the sorry state Jesus found us in.

Faith is transformative. If the faith a man claims to have does nothing to draw him closer to God, compel repentance, and create a hunger for more of Him, then it is not true faith but words spoken on the wind.

James 1:27, “Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit the orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.”

Millennia before James penned these words, Job was practicing them. By his own words, he never turned away the hungry, the poor, or the downtrodden; he went out of his way to care for the widow and the orphan, and his heart was always tender toward those in need. Likewise, he feared God and shunned evil, committing his ways to the Lord. Even so, Job could not justify himself.

When it comes to this topic, there are two distinct camps: the first is to raise a hand, then stare at your navel for the rest of your days, because by the raising of the hand and the saying of a prayer you’ve secured your place in eternity. The second is to whip oneself into a frenzy, endlessly checking off boxes of performative tasks someone told you must be completed, even if your heart’s not in it and you’re just going through the motions. Usually the motivation isn’t love or a desire for more of God, but a ritualistic sort of muscle memory, like brushing your teeth in the morning or taking a shower when you get home from work.

When Job cared for the poor, it was not performative. When he fed the hungry, it wasn’t hoping someone would see him doing it. When he cared for the widow and the orphan, it wasn’t for brownie points, but a sincere desire to be a comfort and a source of joy. He did these things because they were the right thing to do, and not because he believed doing them would make him holier. Nobody had to force Job’s hand to do good; nobody had to twist his arm or present him with the choice between a carrot and a stick. His relationship with God framed his worldview in such a way that if he could be a comfort, a help, the means by which the hungry could be fed and the naked clothed, he did not hesitate.  

James 2:18, “But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without works, and I will show you my faith by my works.”

If man is undone at the sight of God’s creation, how much more so ought he be before the God who created them? If one feels small standing before the behemoth or the leviathan, how much smaller ought he feel standing before God? The evidently similar reactions to the presence of God we see throughout the Bible are not the exceptions; they are the norm. This is how creation rightly reacts when presented with its Creator, not flippantly, arrogantly, or laissez-faire, but with reverence, holy fear, and a vivid knowledge of how insignificant we are in the presence of His infinite power.

We are precious in God’s sight because He deemed it so.     

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.