Being Right Before God

Then Job answered and said: “Truly I know that it is so: But how can a man be in the right before God? If one wished to contend with him, one could not answer him once in a thousand times.
Job 9:1-3
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Being Right Before God
Job does not question Bildad’s assertion which says God does not act arbitrarily or capriciously. Job does agree God’s justice is never withheld and He continuously acts according to His holy nature.  This is why Job asks how a man can be right before God.  A righteous God will not be in the presence of a sinner, which leaves us fallen and sinful creatures with no hope.  That is, no hope outside of God Himself.  Job recognizes this and it leads him to understand his need for an advocate.  Someone who can speak for Job, who can stand in his place.  So far, his friends have not fit that bill.  Ultimately, no mere man could ever do this.  It would take God incarnate to rectify this hopeless situation.  And in Jesus Christ, “true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the Virgin Mary” we have such an advocate.  He is the one who takes our sins and gives us His righteousness through the His Means of Grace.  It is Christ whom St. John assures us, “…if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1). So being right before God is not something we achieve, but is a gift given to us by Christ on the cross. He has justified us before the Father, and “with his wounds we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5).