Readings for today: Job 7-9, Acts 7:35-8:3
These words from Job served as a helpful if not sobering reminder to me today. I am a blessed man. I live a blessed life. I live in a country where I am given incredible freedoms and opportunity. I live in a community where health and well-being are high values. I serve a church that loves the Lord and loves others well. I work alongside some of my best friends. I am married to one of my spiritual heroes. I have four children that I adore. I could not have charted a better course for my life. At the same time, it is so easy for me to fall into the entitlement trap. It is so easy for me to fall prey to the temptation that I have accomplished these things on my own. It is so easy to assume I must be righteous because of all these blessings. That’s where these words from Job come in…
“But how can a man be in the right before God? If one wished to contend with him, one could not answer him once in a thousand times…How then can I answer him, choosing my words with him? Though I am in the right, I cannot answer him; I must appeal for mercy to my accuser…If it is a contest of strength, behold, he is mighty! If it is a matter of justice, who can summon him?…Though I am in the right, my own mouth would condemn me; though I am blameless, he would prove me perverse. For he is not a man, as I am, that I might answer him, that we should come to trial together. 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.” (Job 9:2-3, 14-15, 19-20, 32-35)
Job brings me face to face with the fundamental reality that undergirds my life. I am never righteous before God. I cannot contend with God. I have no ground to stand on before God. I have no evidence to plead my case. No justification for my sinful ways. I am not in the right. I can only appeal to God’s mercy. I am not strong. I can only appeal to God’s grace. I am not just. I can only appeal to God’s clemency. I have no appeal. I have no hope. Except for Jesus. The one who pleads my cause. The one who takes up my case. The one who stands as mediator between me and the Father. The one who bled for me. The one who died for me. The one who took my place. He covers me. He atones for my sin. He blots out my transgressions. He cleanses me and makes me white as snow. When I stand before the Father, all I have is Christ. Nothing more. Nothing less. Nothing else. Everything I might bring – my wealth, my position, my power, my achievements – all these things fall to dust before God. They are worthless. Only Christ is worthy.
Some might call such an outlook depressing. I call it beautiful. For life, at it’s most fundamental level, is all grace. It’s all a gift. Every moment. Every hour. Every day. Everything I’ve been given. Everything I’ve experienced. The joy. The pain. All of it is a gift from God’s own hand. Something He uses to make me more like Christ if I will be let Him do His work. And if it is all grace, then I do not need to hold onto it. I do not need to grasp after it or cling to it. I can simply walk with open hands before the Lord, trusting Him to guide and direct my steps.
Readings for tomorrow: Job 10-12, Acts 8:4-25