I won't presume that you haven't already thought of it from this perspective (because you're a thoughtful guy), but I'll comment anyway, because I am compelled to by the many teachers who've helped me understand scripture.
Here's my takeaway from the Book of Job: God reveals how Holy (set apart) and infinite He is a…
I won't presume that you haven't already thought of it from this perspective (because you're a thoughtful guy), but I'll comment anyway, because I am compelled to by the many teachers who've helped me understand scripture.
Here's my takeaway from the Book of Job: God reveals how Holy (set apart) and infinite He is and how small we are. The book also emphasizes how ugly Satan's character is and how depraved we are as fallen, sinful, rebellious creatures. How do we know what good is if we don't understand bad? Same with light and darkness, love and hate. An unholy (and changing) God wouldn't be worthy of worship. He can't change. We are the ones who change, have faulty judgments about each other, compromise when we shouldn't, don't forgive when we should, etc.
"Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?" God exclaimed in chapter 38. I kept waiting for you to discuss that line, which is the dramatic climax and overarching point of the book (in my opinion).
Another point I think might be helpful: God is not the author of confusion or suffering. Satan is the author of confusion and suffering in Job (and elsewhere in the Bible - including the false messiahs sent by Satan to do signs and wonders around the incarnation of Christ). In fact, Satan can only do what God allows. God restrains evil; he is not the author of evil.
Why does God occasionally not restrain evil? I don't know, and I'm comfortable with an unsatisfying answer. Maybe someday Christians will know: "For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known." (1 Corinthians 13:12).
The Bible teaches through countless stories that all are fallen and sinful as descendants of Adam, even Job and other heroic characters. The trial process in which Job defends himself is, I think, meant to show that Job is a sinner despite his insistence otherwise. There are sins of omission and commission, meaning, we do what we should not do... and don't do what we ought to do according to God's standard as revealed in the 10 Commandments (and Christ's explanation of them.
"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick," says the Book of Jeremiah. Job may have thought his heart was pure, but it was not pure by God's standard.
The whole Biblical narrative is about man falling short and God redeeming a faithful remnant, not because we deserve it, but because it's part of His redemption story through Christ. That's why trusting in Christ's righteousness as a substitution for our sinful life is the only way to eternal life - substitutionary atonement.
We don't merit salvation by our works - it's not even 0.0001% works-merit-based, even done by the most righteous Christian you've ever known. We are "dead in our trespasses" (Ephesians 2:1 - that's dead, not sick or just wayward or mistaken). The older I get, the more I see the most righteous, mature, admirable Christians grieve over their sins. This is hard to understand from the broader world's perspective, but makes sense to a reader of the Epistles - how they instruct Christians and churches to live a faithful life and model that faith to their children and broader community.
Salvation is by grace alone through Christ's substitutionary atonement. Good works are what we do with joy, not because we think it'll measure up to God's standard, but because it's a faithful response to Christ's Great Commission to go, make disciples, "teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you."
Sanctification is about conforming our character to Christ's character (with the help of the Holy Spirit). This includes Christ-like obedience to the Father, a Father who does not change. I submit that if anything changes, it's mankind's warped, judgmental perspective of God, and that as He reveals more and more about Himself in scripture, we, if anything, get more and more hard-hearted - unless we are granted the gift of faith. (Ephesians 2:8)
The American Christian church has been on an unhealthy streak (one being trying to look too much like the world, it has lost its "saltiness" and attracted many non-Christians... I know that sounds judgmental, but I think it's true. It takes faithful churches and pastors to preach effectively on sin because it's like a politician running on raising taxes.
The American church has done a poor job of discipleship as well - application of faithful preaching to all that we do in our vocations in order to (slowly) push back the forces of darkness ("The gates of Hell shall not prevail" (Matthew 16) against the slow advancement of the Church in the broad sweep of history (this is not a linear process, but has higher highs and higher lows.)
I hope that the American church's faithfulness will improve, as it has so many times in history. The faithless branches that have the outward appearances of being churches - the ones who seek to twist the faith into just a social club, a branch of a political movement or Marxist ideology, or a crass business - will either fade into the pages of history or, by God's grace, be renewed and refined by the Holy Spirit.
Good post. I agree. You're not being judgmental you're being honest and truthful about the current situation. There has been "over correction" by the church in the past 20 years to say the least; essentially shifting from a strategy to avoid and judge the world to looking and acting just like it. Neither are good.
Hi Darryl,
Happy Easter!
I won't presume that you haven't already thought of it from this perspective (because you're a thoughtful guy), but I'll comment anyway, because I am compelled to by the many teachers who've helped me understand scripture.
Here's my takeaway from the Book of Job: God reveals how Holy (set apart) and infinite He is and how small we are. The book also emphasizes how ugly Satan's character is and how depraved we are as fallen, sinful, rebellious creatures. How do we know what good is if we don't understand bad? Same with light and darkness, love and hate. An unholy (and changing) God wouldn't be worthy of worship. He can't change. We are the ones who change, have faulty judgments about each other, compromise when we shouldn't, don't forgive when we should, etc.
"Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?" God exclaimed in chapter 38. I kept waiting for you to discuss that line, which is the dramatic climax and overarching point of the book (in my opinion).
Another point I think might be helpful: God is not the author of confusion or suffering. Satan is the author of confusion and suffering in Job (and elsewhere in the Bible - including the false messiahs sent by Satan to do signs and wonders around the incarnation of Christ). In fact, Satan can only do what God allows. God restrains evil; he is not the author of evil.
Why does God occasionally not restrain evil? I don't know, and I'm comfortable with an unsatisfying answer. Maybe someday Christians will know: "For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known." (1 Corinthians 13:12).
The Bible teaches through countless stories that all are fallen and sinful as descendants of Adam, even Job and other heroic characters. The trial process in which Job defends himself is, I think, meant to show that Job is a sinner despite his insistence otherwise. There are sins of omission and commission, meaning, we do what we should not do... and don't do what we ought to do according to God's standard as revealed in the 10 Commandments (and Christ's explanation of them.
"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick," says the Book of Jeremiah. Job may have thought his heart was pure, but it was not pure by God's standard.
The whole Biblical narrative is about man falling short and God redeeming a faithful remnant, not because we deserve it, but because it's part of His redemption story through Christ. That's why trusting in Christ's righteousness as a substitution for our sinful life is the only way to eternal life - substitutionary atonement.
We don't merit salvation by our works - it's not even 0.0001% works-merit-based, even done by the most righteous Christian you've ever known. We are "dead in our trespasses" (Ephesians 2:1 - that's dead, not sick or just wayward or mistaken). The older I get, the more I see the most righteous, mature, admirable Christians grieve over their sins. This is hard to understand from the broader world's perspective, but makes sense to a reader of the Epistles - how they instruct Christians and churches to live a faithful life and model that faith to their children and broader community.
Salvation is by grace alone through Christ's substitutionary atonement. Good works are what we do with joy, not because we think it'll measure up to God's standard, but because it's a faithful response to Christ's Great Commission to go, make disciples, "teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you."
Sanctification is about conforming our character to Christ's character (with the help of the Holy Spirit). This includes Christ-like obedience to the Father, a Father who does not change. I submit that if anything changes, it's mankind's warped, judgmental perspective of God, and that as He reveals more and more about Himself in scripture, we, if anything, get more and more hard-hearted - unless we are granted the gift of faith. (Ephesians 2:8)
The American Christian church has been on an unhealthy streak (one being trying to look too much like the world, it has lost its "saltiness" and attracted many non-Christians... I know that sounds judgmental, but I think it's true. It takes faithful churches and pastors to preach effectively on sin because it's like a politician running on raising taxes.
The American church has done a poor job of discipleship as well - application of faithful preaching to all that we do in our vocations in order to (slowly) push back the forces of darkness ("The gates of Hell shall not prevail" (Matthew 16) against the slow advancement of the Church in the broad sweep of history (this is not a linear process, but has higher highs and higher lows.)
I hope that the American church's faithfulness will improve, as it has so many times in history. The faithless branches that have the outward appearances of being churches - the ones who seek to twist the faith into just a social club, a branch of a political movement or Marxist ideology, or a crass business - will either fade into the pages of history or, by God's grace, be renewed and refined by the Holy Spirit.
Good post. I agree. You're not being judgmental you're being honest and truthful about the current situation. There has been "over correction" by the church in the past 20 years to say the least; essentially shifting from a strategy to avoid and judge the world to looking and acting just like it. Neither are good.