17. God is my Justifier
God is my Justifier
Surely, then, this must give perfect deliverance: God is my Justifier — Jesus is my Advocate. Oh! what freshness of soul this gives. ’His flesh shall be fresher than a child’s; he shall return to the days of his youth’.
It is no longer now, ’Oh! that I was as in months past’.I is now done with. It is no longer I, but Christ in me; no more wretched striving to justify I — old me. No! but my soul filled with freshness in contemplating God’s ransom, and God’s perfection in justifying me by that ransom. How sweet is prayer now with God. ’He shall pray unto God, and he will be favourable unto him; and he shall see his face with joy; for he shall render unto man his righteousness’.
Very wonderful! Man, who has no righteousness of his own, has now the righteousness of God rendered unto him. It is ’upon all them that believe’ (Romans 3:1-31). What a blessing — Christ is made righteousness to believers — they are the righteousness of God in Him; and, above all, as it were, our justification in the risen Christ is the very righteousness of God. And nothing stays the full outflow of all this blessing and enjoyment, but the striving to be righteous in self. Only confess the real truth, for ’He looketh upon men, and if any say, I have sinned, and perverted that which was right, and it profited me not, he will deliver his soul from going into the pit, and his life shall see the light’.
’How very simple this verse is’, some one of my readers may say. ’I begin to see plainly that I never was a Christian at all. My religion has been nothing else but trusting in self’. Well, mark those words, ’If any say, I have sinned’. Is this the language of your heart now? Can you cast yourself at the feet of Christ a confessed sinner?
You may take that place without any fear of being a hypocrite. In owning what you are, as a sinner, before God, there is no fear of deceiving yourself, much more of deceiving God. If this is your confessed state, God shall deliver your soul from going into the pit, and you shall be enlightened with the light of the living. Rest not satisfied until you are assured, ’God has justified you freely through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus’.
It is indeed a great thing for God to say in this passage; yet it must be true, it is the word of God. Not one, then, shall ever be found in the pit who has been brought to God as a lost sinner. ’He willdeliver his soul from going into the pit, and his lifeshallsee the light’.
How important, then, is the question, Have you been thus brought in real confession before God? It is not, If any have served me, or If any have not sinned. It is, If any have sinned. ’If any say, I have sinned’. Now, my reader, God marks your thoughts at this moment. What do you say to God? Can you say, I have sinned?
Elihu says, ’If thou hast anything to say, answer me; speak, for I desire to justify thee’. Now, surely it is a wondrous fact, that God’s very object, His desire, His purpose, in sending His beloved Son into this world, was to justify ungodly sinners. Let, then, the anxious, awakened sinner know this, that, in coming to Him, He is most ready, and He desires to justify you. The moment you believe on Him who raised up Jesus from the dead for our justification, that moment you are justified from all things. See Acts 13:38; Romans 4:24-25; Romans 5:1.
Elihu now speaks to them that have an ear to hear. He shows in what Job had so grievously erred. First, in saying, ’Iam righteous’; and then for saying it was no use serving God. Thus self-righteousness is shown to lead to infidelity and the deepest spiritual wickedness.
God is then shown to be just in all His ways. Whether man perceives it or not, there is needs be for every act of God and every permission of God, both in His dealings with a nation or with a man. ’For his eyes are upon the ways of man, and he seeth all his goings. There is no darkness, nor shadow of death, where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves’.
Whatever, then, may be God’s providence with the world, or discipline with His own children, be it chastisement or even removal by death (1 Corinthians 11:30-31), all His ways are in righteousness and truth.
Elihu applies all this to Job himself (Job 35:1-16), and then proceeds to justify God. ’To speak on God’s behalf, to ascribe righteousness to Him’. It is very striking how the work of Elihu is to justify God. This reminds us of the words of Jesus: ’O, righteous Father, the world hath not known thee; but I have known thee!’ The great business of Jesus, the Son, was, by His death, to glorify the Father in justifying the ungodly. It is all-important for the soul really to understand this: that God is perfectly righteous in justifying the ungodly by the blood of Jesus. And that, being thus justified, they are looked at as righteous in the risen Christ.
God never takes His eyes off them in Christ. ’He withdraweth not his eyes from the righteous; but with kings are they on the throne; yes, he doth establish them for ever, and they are exalted’ (Job 36:7). Certainly, it must be so. If when God once sees the poor, guilty sinner righteous in Christ, and He never takes His eyes off him thus in Christ, then he must be established for ever; for Christ is established for ever. If Christ is exalted for ever, then the believer in Him is exalted for ever.
I may get my eye off Christ, my living righteousness before God, and get looking at what I am. God will never do this. My fellow-believer, does not this make your heart leap for joy — at this moment God sees you righteous in Christ — established for ever. You say, ’It is very strange, then, that I should pass through so much sorrow and affliction — so bound in fetters and held in cords’. Then Job’s lesson is not yet learnt.