Job 15:14 Commentary and Bible Study

Eliphaz emphasises again that man is not meant to be perfect (verses 14-16) – the ‘schoolmaster’ theory. Just as a schoolmaster does not expect his pupils to score 100 percent, but is pleased if they reach 70 or 80 percent, so God is content with a less than perfect life in his creatures. Job might have used the very same words and yet he would have meant something completely different by them. Eliphaz uses these words against Job to show that it is impossible for man to reach a standard of purity that is equal to God’s own purity. Man is flawed in his inner being and only what is corrupt can come out of him. Even the best of his acts are tainted by sin. God will therefore never treat expect man to live up to his standard. Because man is born in sin – he has sin imputed to him from his first parent, and he inherits a sinful nature from his immediate parents – he can never be regarded as fully righteous by the Lord. Therefore, because God does not expect the impossible, he is satisfied with a lower standard of righteousness from man. To Eliphaz, it was obvious that God must adjust himself to the shortcomings of his creature. He must accommodate himself to man’s fallen state and start dealing with man in the state in which nature finds him, or else have no dealings with man at all. For Eliphaz, it was humility to recognise that he could never be anything other than impure in his present state. The religious man has a form of humility but it is very different from the humility of the believer. He is prepared to accept that he falls far short of the righteousness of God, but he still wants to insist that in his native state he can attain to a level that God will accept. He believes in a God who lowers his standard to man’s capacity, but he still believes that man must present his own works to God. This form of humility leaves man’s works based approach to God intact. Job on the other hand sees that the problem is so great that a far more radical solution is required. He does not believe that God can ever accommodate himself to the shortcomings of man because God can never change or deny his own holy character. Only one standard can be acceptable to him and that is his own perfect standard. Therefore if man is ever to be accepted, he must be clothed in a righteousness which is not his own, but which is provided by the Lord. This was Job’s position. Though they could agree about man’s state, they could not agree about the nature of the solution. And this is the difference between all those who believe in a works-based religion, and those who believe that it is by grace.