Innocent before God - Martin Wiles

How can a mere mortal stand before God and claim to be righteous? Job 25:4 NLT

I love questions—especially the ones I have to ponder deeply.

I often ask difficult questions to encourage my middle school students to use their critical thinking skills. These include, "Why is there something rather than nothing?" "How do I know the universe really exists and is not merely an illusion?" "Do we have free will?" "Does God exist?" "Is there life after death?" "Can we really experience anything objectively?" "What is the best moral system?" and "What are numbers?"

Job offers an even deeper philosophical question: "How can a person be innocent before God?" Going free while being guilty is possible—at least in the American judicial system, if the judge sets bail and I can afford to pay it. But with God…

The Bible’s pronouncement on my predicament is clear: "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). Although I walk around in apparent freedom, a day will come when I’ll be tried…unless.

Unlike in the court system, we cannot pay our way out of our spiritual predicament. We don’t have enough money to bribe God or offer him a deal. Nor can we perform enough good works to make up for our sinful acts. Job’s fair-weather friends told him that sin caused his bad fortune. Yet, Job maintained his innocence. Although he asked, "How can a person be innocent before God, he honestly thought he was.

The good news is that we can be innocent before God. God declares our innocence through a big theological phrase: imputed righteousness. God takes what characterizes his Son, Jesus Christ, and imputes it to us. He credits Jesus' righteousness to our account. 

We're not righteous because we’ve attained perfection or a sinless state. Instead, we're righteous because God has made us so in Christ. When God looks at us, he views us in Christ. Living with that knowledge gives a new perspective on life. It changes how we view ourselves and others. It also gives us a more profound love for God. He did for us what we couldn’t do for ourselves.

So, yes, Job, a person can stand innocent before God, but only because of Christ's actions. Now that you know the answer, how are you standing?

Father, thank you for the standing you have granted me in Jesus Christ. 

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