Job’s friends could ask good questions, but they had wrong answers. Furthermore, they could speak insightfully about God, and yet they knew nothing about Him. That should give us great caution.
Bildad asked a good question, “How then can man be justified with God? Or how can he be clean that is born of a woman” (Job 25:4). Before he asked this question he was keenly aware of God’s righteousness: “Dominion and fear are with him, He maketh peace in his high places” (Job 25:2). God reigns supreme. His holiness and purity are brighter than the moon and stars. According to Bildad man is but a worm in the sight of God. The apostle Paul would agree with Bildad. Paul said, “As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one” (Romans 3:10).
Paul is emphatic in the first three chapters of Romans that all of humanity is under the power of sin. The Mosaic Law is unable to free humanity from sin’s grip. It is only through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ that humanity can experience spiritual freedom. Paul puts all of humanity under the umbrella of his theology of sin. Jews believed they were righteous due to being God’s chosen people and for their attempts of keeping the Mosaic Law.
Due to humanity’s lack of righteousness, and their ungodliness, God’s wrath is being revealed (Rom. 1:17-18). But what does Paul mean by God’s wrath? Sinners are condemned to an eternity without God and cannot inherit the Kingdom of God (Gal. 5:19-21).
Humanity is in need of salvation from sin, death and God’s wrath. Nothing within humanity has the ability to save (Rom. 7:18). It is only through the obedience of Jesus Christ in his life, death and resurrection that humanity can experience justification. The question is then: how is God’s righteousness imputed into sinful humanity? Is it by works of the Law? Not according to Paul.
Paul argues that justification and righteousness are obtained by faith, “What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith” (Rom. 9:30). Justification and righteousness are not obtained by works of the Law. The only way for one to be saved is through Jesus Christ (Rom. 3:21-26; 5:1-21). One can be justified by faith and have the righteousness of Christ imputed to them only by faith.
Yes, we are but filthy worms before a Holy God. I think of the lyrics from one of my favorite hymns, At the Cross:
Alas! and did my Savior bleed
And did my Sov’reign die?
Would He devote that sacred head
For such a worm as I?
At the cross, at the cross where I first saw the light
And the burden of my heart rolled away
It was there by faith I received my sight
And now I am happy all the day
Beloved, will you put your faith in Jesus?