Job 40:3-4 Then Job answered the LORD, and said, On the whole, the design of this portion of Scripture is to teach men that, having a due respect to the corruption, infirmity, and ignorance of human nature, they are to lay aside all confidence in themselves, they are to labour continually after an unwavering and unsullied faith, which is the gift of God only, and to submit, with becoming reverence, to the trials which He may call them to endure in this their probationary state. In this book the state of man as a fallen creature is to be manifested. Job's expressions prove him, at worst,, not to be an irreligious man, but a man possessed of integrity, and too confident in it. And they give peculiar interest to his deep self-abasement and repentance when convinced of sin...What further light, what directions, does the Gospel supply in doing this necessary work of repentance and self-humiliation? We are all in danger, while performing the very duties which we owe to God, of placing too great a reliance upon them. Our virtues may be a snare to us. We may misapply to the injury of our soul's health those very things which are set forth for our good. The great scope and end of Christian doctrine is the consolation, not of those who are vainly puffed up with such fleshly conceits, but of those whose hearts are overcharged with the burden of their sins. There never was, nor is there, any mere man absolutely righteous and free from sin. If Christ hath paid the ransom for all, then were all captives and bondsmen of the great enemy, and under sentence of death. If one have died for all, then were all dead in sin, and none is able to justify himself. (J. C. Wigram, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: Then Job answered the LORD, and said, |
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