God Is the Same

Readings:
Job 33
II Corinthians 2

Focus:
Job 33:27-28: "If he affirms before everyone, 'I have sinned, turned right into wrong without a thought': then he saves himself from going down to the pit, he lives and sees the light."

One of the things that I love about the Bible is that it is all one whole. I have read it all the way through over and over, and I have found that it all tells the same story. Here in the book of Job, we find evidence of this.

Elihu, one of the friends of Job, proclaims before Job and his other friends what the true nature of God is, how compassionate God is, and how he longs to save us. Before the verse quoted above, Elihu says this of God, in verses 17 and 18: "To turn someone from his evil deeds, to check human pride, at the edge of the pit he holds him back alive and stops him from crossing the river of death." That is an amazing attribute of God--he actually holds people back from death to give them a chance for repentance.

And then in verses 27 and 28 Elihu declares what is necessary for salvation. What does God require? Confession that we have sinned. It is the same in the Old Testament as it is in the New. God does not ask for great or perfect deeds, but rather a heart given to him.