Can A Mortal Be Innocent Before God?

‘Can a mortal be innocent before God? Can anyone be pure before the Creator?’ [Job 4.17]

Eliphaz's question here is valid. It is a question each and every person should ask themselves AND seek to answer themselves.

The answer to Eliphaz's question is simple. Yes. And no. Or, maybe no, and yes.

The deciding factor between each answer above (for man) is forgiveness. Forgiveness is found only through Jesus Christ.

The fact that Satan is mentioned in the story of Job highlights a very important piece of information. There is a legal aspect to the story of Job that we must remain mindful of. Because of the fall of man in the Garden of Eden, Satan became a rouge free agent so to speak. Satan chose to rebel and, in so doing, went for God's prized possession, man. Satan deceived man and, in so doing, made a job for himself as a thief, a murderer, and destroyer. Once man sinned, Satan was legally free to exercise all his powers against him. 

The price for sin was blood. Sacrifices were put in place to help, but, the blood of animals weren't exactly an even trade for human error. God knew it and Satan knew it as well. Human blood was required because humans sinned. 

It seems to me that animal sacrifices were only effective if done in faith - faith that the animal sacrifices were in fact a symbol of human blood. To be sure, it was easy enough to go through the process of animal sacrifice without faith. It was too easy to miss the point. Besides, how easy would it have been to fail to comprehend a future human sacrifice that had not yet become current? The closest anyone ever came to understanding that was Abraham!

So, in keeping with the direction of this post, Eliphaz posed an excellent question. It was a question that had one answer for face value (no) and and the opposite answer for faith value (yes, because of human blood - that we are fortunate to know was the blood of Jesus).

I will point out here early in the reading of Job, that Job obviously eventually erred somewhere. God initially declared Job's innocence before and after Satan's first attack. However, after Satan's second attack (on Job's body), Job makes a lot of self-pitying and self-defending statements that are apparently at the heart of God's rebuke of Job later in the story.

Can a mortal be innocent before God? As long as he is a mortal, no. 

Can anyone be pure before the Creator? Yes, if He is the Son of God. 

We can start to see here how important it is to be IN CHRIST (in faith). We can see what Jesus and all the New Testament is talking about in Jesus telling us to do what He does (with all the authority of heaven).

As long as Job relied on his own righteousness (which the story reveals he was doing) then he was vulnerable to anything Satan desired to do to him. The thing is, Job was declared by God to be upright! BUT! God did not say Job was a man of faith! See where this is going?

Father, I am blown away how You continue to speak to my heart. I know I may not even be getting it all right here, but at least I am sensing that You are revealing more Truth to me. Thank You!