How Can a Man Be Just Before God?

Welcome to the Days of Praise podcast, a daily devotional by the Institute for Creation Research. How can a man be just before God? Then Job answered and said, "I know it is so of a truth, but how should a man be just with God?" Job nine one through two. Job was the most just man of his age, according to the testimony of God Himself. Yet his friends insisted his terrible suffering had been sent by God because of his sins.

He knew he was innocent of the sins of which they were accusing him, and he knew he had earnestly tried to be obedient and faithful to God. Yet he also knew that he, like all men, had come far short of God's holiness. I have sinned. He confessed, "What shall I do unto thee, O thou preserver of men? Cause me to understand wherein I have erred." And then comes the plaintive plea in our text: "How should a man be just with God?

There is indeed no way by which a man can make himself righteous before God, for he is even born with a sin nature inherited from father Adam." If I justify myself, mine own mouth shall condemn me. If I say I am perfect, it shall also prove me perverse. Yet God created man for His own glory and wants all men to be saved. The great enigma is how can God justify unrighteousness in men and still be righteous Himself? The answer, of course, is that God in Christ has paid the price to make us righteous by dying for all our sins.

God commendeth His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace. Even Job finally realized that God must somehow become His redeemer. For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and in my flesh shall I see God. It is indeed wonderfully true that God can both be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Romans three, twenty-six.

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