Individuality

There is a lot of human drama in the book of Job.  Most of it is centered on long dialogues between the human players in this story. What I love about Job was his endurance to stay the course in getting the answers straight from the mouth of God.  'Righteousness' is a big deal. 'Righteousness', when truly understood, is an individual right. It is not  a 'group' thing. 'Rightness' comes from God in working through  and in any situation. That is where Job stayed the course.

Job's three friends had flaws in their thinking. Job had obvious questions for God , and  we are made aware of the big questions he had in his own thinking.They were all products of the world around them. In the end, God told Job to pray for for the three friends.  God does not take sides, he is all about what's right (Joshua 5:13-15). God's intent was growth for all of them: Job, and the three 'miserable comforters'. God showed himself to all 4 of them. I assume Job's friends learned that it is about looking for God rather than sin. Job learned about 'seeing' God! All's well that ends well!

There is another player in the scenario: Elihu. He disappeared in the end. When one honestly reads through his drama, he's not someone you would like to encounter in your local bible study. Job did not answer or argue with him and it seems, despite man-made chapter breaks, God's whirlwind swoops down, interrupts and clears the air.

The lesson of 'righteousness' a big theme in the Book of Job. Despite our questions and flawed thinking at times, we have the right to humbly ask for answers to life's questions. We have the right to the throne room of God. Guilt and shame can shut the door but Jesus Christ opened it for us in the New Testament.  Guilt and shame clouded and covered the light, Jesus Christ unveiled it. We have access to God, not thru some veil, but with clear bold access we too get to 'see' him distinctly.

Righteousness and Justification?

In working my way through the book of Romans, I am amazed at the depth of the wholeness given to us in this age of grace. Romans is the foundational book of the New Testament. Essentially it is the "bottom line" of believing. Ephesians springs off of this bedrock not the other way around. It represents the humility required to walk the  'walking worthy' in Ephesians 4 and the understanding how God has rescued us (quickened us)  as referred to in Ephesians 2:1-5.

There are some very key words repeated over and over again in Romans. Faith/believing occurs 59 times times. Sin appears 47 times.  Righteousness/righteous appears 43 times. Justify, justification, judicial sentence is used 22 times.

There is much discussion about justification and righteousness (Link to word study) as these words come from the same root in Greek. They are intertwined and in the religious world come loaded with weighty definitions. In regards to the Old Testament Hebrew, here's a quote from Canon R.B. Gladstone in his Synonyms of the Old Testament (quoted in Charles Welch's The Just and the Justifier):

"It is unfortunate that the English language should have grafted the Latin word justice, which is used in somewhat of a forensic sense, into a vocabulary which was already possessed of the good word righteousness, as it tends to create a distinction which has no existence in Scripture.... No distinction between the claims of justice and the claims of love is recognized in scripture.... We have no one word which can convey the idea of righteousness, and that of justification, as they are set forth  in Scripture.... We see the wisdom of God in selecting Hebrew as the means of communication with His creatures, because here the ideas of righteousness, justification, and acquittal all cluster round one verbal root, and are seen to be parts of the whole."

All these words form the inner and outer structure of Romans. In the outer structure the major theme is justification by believing and righteousness (Romans 1:1 -5:11, 9:1- 16:24). Jew, Gentile, Abraham and David are mentioned in these outer sections. The creamy caramel inner core of Romans is about the first Adam and the second Adam, Jesus Christ (5:12-8:39, 16:25-27) and the result of ‘Sin” (It means the root of sin as being alienated from God. It is used 41 times). ‘Sin’ is used 6 times in the outer sections.