“…the cleanness of your hands.” Job 22:30b

There you have it… Eliphaz believed, as do many today, that God offers His rescue – His deliverance – to those who only have clean hands. In other words, justification before God is only by one’s works. God, however has always focused on one’s heart and the faith He plants within.

Since the fall of man in the Garden of Eden… the fall of all creation… the heart of man has rebelled against justification by faith. It seems counterintuitive to all mankind that God would offer His hand of peace, unless one has achieved some measure of devotion or piety in exhibiting a good and upright life. With God, though, it has always been about the heart… and the heart of man is most wicked (read Genesis 6:5; Jeremiah 17:9-10; Matthew 15:18-20; Mark 7:20-23).

Mankind has always striven to work for one’s salvation, when what we are to do is work OUT one’s salvation. Even before Christ, God generated faith in the heart of those He chose to provide it to (read Ezekiel 36:26), and it was by their faith they were commended (read Hebrews 11:2). Jesus, even from eternity past, is the
author and perfecter of faith (read Hebrews 12:1-2), it is He and He alone Who makes it possible to please God, for it is impossible to please God except through faith (read Hebrews 11:6).

The pre-incarnate Jesus fed Job’s faith (read 19:27), for Job was certain of what he could not see – his hope was sure (read Hebrews 11:1). While Job had experienced a truly horrific sequence of tragedies, which naturally induced great pain and sorrow, he still maintained his faith and trust in God (read 1:20-22; 13:16&18; 14:14-17). Traumatized by his experience, Job revealed his own weakness of blaming God; for he, too, had grown up in a ‘faith-by-works’ theology – a ‘just world’ system of balancing one’s good deeds against one’s bad actions.

Christ is working, even now, to deposit faith deep within your heart. If your life journey has taken you through pain you never thought you’d experience, or sorrow so deep you never imagined your heart would ever recover, know that the faith being planted in you is an overcoming faith (read 1 John 5:4). I once heard a professor say faith is the basis for action and the antidote to fear. Jesus said that one’s faith, even if it were the size of the smallest seed for vegetable gardens, could move a mountain (read Matthew 17:20).

The cleanness of your hands will follow the faith God endows to your heart and mind. When we pray, “God
give us clean hands,” we should first be praying, “God add to our faith.”

Have a blessed day…