Job 9:2 I know it is so of a truth: but how should man be just with God?

Job continues his complaints. He is replying to Bildads’s charge that his children must have sinned so grievously that God punished them with tragic death (Job 8:4) and Job himself likewise had committed sin to have this punishment upon him. Job opens his defence and says: “I know it is so of a truth: but how should man be just with God?” (Job 9:2).

I know it is so of a truth - What he is saying is: " Yes, I agree with what you said is the truth. That God is just and does not pervert justice and judgment (Job8:3), and, of course, He punishes evil-doers.”

But how should man be just with God? - The meaning is, God is so pure and holy, and therefore, when compared with the immaculate holiness of God, all my righteousness is nothing. This agrees with the Prophet Isaiah who wrote: “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousness are as filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6). Hence, it is obvious that God would see him as a sinner and punishes him for it.

Job says moreover: “If I wash myself with snow water, and make my hands never so clean; Yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch, and mine own clothes shall abhor me” (Job 9:30-31). The meaning is, even if Job would do his very best, say to get the purest water and scrub himself till there is not even a single spot or stain, yet, God would still see him as one wallowing in the gutter. It means, there is no way a man can be just before God.

This is an important question: How can a man be just before God? How can sinners such as us be righteous and holy with God? The scriptures clearly declare: “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23) and “There is none righteous, no, not one” (Romans 3:10). Man is sinful and God is holy; how can the two meet together?

Job laments that no man can argue with God and win (Job 9:30). He says that not once in a thousand times could we win our case if we take God to court (Job 9:3). It is futile to argue with God and prove his innocence. Job desires an arbiter, that is, an umpire or a judge, before whom the case could be argued, and who would be competent to decide the matter in issue between him and his Maker. But sadly, there is none among all beings wiser and mightier than God.

Job’s longing is literally and fully met in the person Jesus Christ: “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5).

Jesus, who is the Son God and Son of man, became the perfect mediator between God and man. John wrote: “And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1). Man is sinful but Jesus Christ is righteous. Jesus is the only righteous being who can stand shoulder to shoulder to God’s righteousness and therefore, He is qualified to be man’s advocate. How can man be just with God? It is through Jesus Christ.

It is indeed wonderfully true that God can both "be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus" (Romans 3:26). Not only is God just but He justifies those who have faith in Jesus Christ. To justify is to “to declare, pronounce, one to be just, righteous” (Thayer’s Greek Lexicon).

Job’s problem is resolved in Jesus Christ. Job asks: “Who can be just before God?” The answer is found in Jesus Christ. Christ’s blood washes away our sins and makes us righteous: “In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:14).

Jimmy Lau

Psa 119:97  Oh how love I thy law! It is my meditation all the day.