“‘Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer You? I lay my hand
over my mouth’” (Job 40:3-4 NKJV).
Job describes himself as vile?! Wait,
what? Didn’t God Himself describe Job was as “a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil”
(Job 1:8)? Yes. But, when Job saw God, he could only say, “I am vile.” Think
about Abraham, who is called “the father
of all those who believe” (Rom 4:11). When he presumed to talk to God,
however, Abraham said, “I who am but dust and ashes have taken it
upon myself to speak to the Lord” (Gen 18:27). Let’s consider David – the
man called “the sweet psalmist of Israel”
(2 Sam 23:1) – in 1 Sam 13:14, he’s even called “a man after God’s own heart.” Yet, in Ps 51:3-4, this great man
says, “…my sin is always before me. Against You, You only, have I sinned…”
What about the “greats” of the New Testament? In Luke 5:8, Peter said, “I am a sinful man, O Lord.” Paul calls
himself the chief of sinners (1 Tim 1:15).
This is not intended to depress you! In fact, this should
be encouraging! Often I hear a couple different ideas about our spiritual
lives. Some folks think they’ll never be good enough for God. Some others think
they want nothing to do with “religion” because, you guessed it, “they’re all a
bunch of hypocrites!” So, considering these pillars of the faith just
mentioned, let’s deal with those lines of reasoning.
The
closer one becomes to God, the more clearly one sees his own sinfulness. The
fact is – we WILL never be good enough for God! God is holy. He is the very
standard of holiness! We come to know Him and are accepted by Him through our
great Mediator – Jesus Christ, “and the
blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7).
Secondly, I know I’ve mentioned my friend in Topeka, KS who referred to the
congregation there as his “favorite group of sinners.” That is so true. We’re
ALL Romans 3:23 people (look it up…). But, that doesn’t make us hypocrites! Surely
we all want to walk in the light. But, it’s a challenge. And, the
truth is, sometimes we’ll slip up. We try! We do our best! But, even Paul
describes, in Romans 7, the struggle of doing what we don’t want to do and
vice-versa! So, if you’re walking with Christ, but you see mistakes made in
your life on occasion, just remember – you’re in good company. Only our Savior
was sinless. And through His sacrifice we can trust God’s promise, seen in
Hebrews 8:12: “…their sins and their
lawless deeds I will remember no more.”
(Idea adapted from icr.org - "Saints and Sinners" - 7/11/13)
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