The Book of Job

Job's Redeemer

Lesson #12 for December 17, 2016

Scriptures: Job 10:4-5; 19:25-27; John 1:1-14; Luke 2:11; 9:22; Galatians 4:19; Isaiah 53:1-6.

1.    After 35 chapters of conflicting views being presented, suddenly, God spoke and answered Job. God reminded them that He was the Creator and Sustainer of all. Was that primarily for Job? Or, was it for all of them? Then, when Job said, “I repent in dust and ashes,” God, in effect, said, “Not so fast!” In Job 42:7-8 (GNB), God said to Eliphaz: “I am angry with you and your two friends, because you did not speak the truth about me, as my servant Job did.”

2.    But, those main points leave us with some unsettling questions. Was it fair for God to try to solve some argument between Himself and Satan by using Job as a guinea pig? Or, pawn? We need to remember that it is Satan who usually accuses God of not being fair! Could there be more to this story? There certainly is. The experience of Jesus about 2000 years later answered many of the questions that were raised in the book of Job. And more answers will be provided when the people of God who live safely through the time of trouble are welcomed into heaven.

3.    Shouldn’t we be willing to be used as pawns by God if He can use us to defeat the Devil? Aren’t we all pawns in the great controversy? The Devil had claimed that God’s judgment of him was unfair and that no creature could or would live a righteous life because of his love for God. Satan believes that everyone-even God Himself-is motivated by selfishness; and thus, if given the choice, we would all turn against loving God and choose the selfish way of Satan.

4.    The speech of God in Job 38-41 points out clearly that He is the Creator. But, that is not His only role. Back in Job 19:25-27, Job called Him a goel, that is, a Redeemer, relative, avenger, etc. We recognize God as not only our Redeemer, but also our Savior, that is, our Healer. Remember that the Greek word for save also means to heal. God wants to heal us-not just to redeem us of our sins. A goel is a kinsman-redeemer who pays another’s unpaid debts and releases him/her. (See Ruth.) Enoch walked with God. (Genesis 5:21-24) What does that mean? To Enoch was God his “kinsman-redeemer”?

5.    What is a Redeemer? Our Bible Study Guide suggests that this is the most crucial and important truth in the Bible: God is our Redeemer.

6.    Do you agree that God is our Redeemer is the “most crucial and important truth in the Bible”? Jesus came and died not just for us on this planet but also for the unfallen angels. Did they need a Redeemer? This seems to be a very selfish approach to God and His universal plan of salvation. Do I only care about what God can do for me-and you too, of course? Or, do I care about God’s ability to correctly and effectively win the great controversy by revealing the truth about Himself and His Son? Isn’t God’s reputation more important than my salvation? (See Exodus 32:7-15,30-35.)

7.    Read John 1:1-14. God, the Creator and Sustainer, gives us the right to become His children. Does that involve a real change (saving/healing) in us? Or, does God just redeem us without any change on our part? Read Job 10:4-5. Did Job feel that God was being unfair to him? He certainly could not understand why he was being treated so badly when, in fact, he had not committed any terrible sin.

8.    But, Job was not the only one who was treated very badly. Jesus was treated badly without committing any sin at all! Read Luke 2:11; John 1:14; Luke 19:10; Matthew 4:2; 1 Timothy 2:5; and Hebrews 4:15. Jesus became fully human. He became hungry and tired, and He felt pain just like us. His most common name for Himself was Son of Man, or Human Being.

9.    But, was Jesus truly human?

It was not a make-believe humanity that Christ took upon Himself. He took human nature and lived human nature. Christ worked no miracles in His own

behalf. He was compassed with infirmities, but His divine nature knew what was in man. He needed not that any should testify to Him of this. The Spirit was given Him without measure; for His mission on earth demanded this.

Christ’s life represents a perfect manhood. Just that which you may be, He was in human nature. He took our infirmities. He was not only made flesh, but He was made in the likeness of sinful flesh. His divine attributes were withheld from relieving His soul anguish or His bodily pains (Letter 106, 1896).—Ellen G.

White, 5SDABC 1124.1-2. [Bold type is added.]

10.    This involves a real change in us; it is not just having Someone to redeem us and pay our debts and die in our place. Could we really be like Jesus?

11.    Read 1 John 2:6 and Galatians 4:19. Could we actually have the nature of Christ formed within us? Jesus is decidedly and unequivocally our perfect Model. He is our only true Model.

12.    Our Bible Study Guide for Tuesday, December 13, says:

We need more than that; we need a Substitute, Someone to pay the penalty for our sins. He came not just to live a perfect life as an example to us all; he came also to die the death that we deserve so that His perfect life can be credited to us as our own.

13.    Where are the texts for that? Why should we focus on our past sins which nobody can do anything about anyway? What God cares about is what kind of lives we will live in the future.

14.    If the Holy Spirit could work in us a complete transformation to the point where we become like the human Jesus, would we still need a Substitute? He died for the whole universe. Could a Substitute really pay for our past sins? Would that change our history and make us no longer sinners? How does the perfect life of Jesus Christ get credited to us? When our names come up in the judgment, is the Father fooled into thinking that we have lived the perfect life of Jesus? Is our guardian angel fooled? Can’t we remember our sins of the past? Are we the only ones who remember them? Is God’s memory faulty? Or, in the judgment, does God treat us just as if we had not sinned while all the time understanding perfectly well the truth about our past? Are we then just redeemed without any change? Or, are we saved and healed through the work of Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and the angels working in and with us? Could we be saved without being changed? Was the thief on the cross changed? Had he changed his opinion about Jesus?

15.    Read Mark 8:31; Luke 9:22; 24:7; and Galatians 2:21. These verses state clearly that Jesus had to die. Do they explain why He had to die? That truth is explained in Romans 3:25-26. God’s righteousness must first be demonstrated and proven before He can save us. Could we have any part—did Job have any part-in justifying God’s name and reputation? (Romans 3:1-4) God’s name and reputation needed to be “justified”; it would be better to say “vindicated.”

16.    Did Jesus have to die because no matter how much we try, obedience to the law can never save us? Then, how does the perfect life and perfect example of Jesus save us?

17.    Is a payment of some penalty necessary for salvation? Who/what is demanding that kind of payment?

18.    How well are we doing at keeping the commandments? If we are sinners, does that mean we need a Substitute?

Satan represents God’s law of love as a law of selfishness. He declares that it is impossible for us to obey its precepts.... As one of us He [Jesus] was to give an example of obedience.... He endured every trial to which we are subject. And He exercised in His own behalf no power that is not freely offered to us. As man, He met temptation, and overcame in the strength given Him from God.... His life testifies that it is possible for us also to obey the law of God.—Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages 24.2. [Brackets and content in brackets are added.]

19.    What is the role of a Substitute? If He can substitute for some sinners, why not for all sinners?

20.    Read Isaiah 53:1-6. What does this tell us about the sufferings of the Lord on the cross? “He endured the suffering that should have been ours, the pain that we should have borne.” But, notice the words that follow: “All the while we thought that his suffering was punishment sent by God.” [Italic type is added.] What is implied by those words? Did Jesus somehow take upon Himself all the sins that have ever been committed in the history of our world? How would that work? Is it possible to move sins around? Was it possible for people in the Old Testament to make lambs guilty for their sins? How do we go about making Jesus guilty for our sins? Was His death a demonstration of the truth that He had spoken in the Garden of Eden? Or, was it payment to some more powerful entity that demanded a pound of flesh to pay for the sins of the world? What does it mean to suggest that Christ took upon Himself all our sins? If we can know only our own griefs, how was it that Jesus as a human being experienced all our griefs? Was that because He was somehow more than human? Down through the ages, thousands of people have suffered and died for their faith. Was their suffering primarily physical? What kind of suffering did Jesus experience?

Upon Christ as our substitute and surety was laid the iniquity of us all. He was counted a transgressor, that He might redeem us from the condemnation of the law. The guilt of every descendant of Adam was pressing upon His heart. The wrath of God against sin, the terrible manifestation of His displeasure because of iniquity, filled the soul of His Son with consternation. All His life Christ had been publishing to a fallen world the good news of the Father’s mercy and pardoning love. Salvation for the chief of sinners was His theme. But now with the terrible weight of guilt He bears, He cannot see the Father’s reconciling face. The withdrawal of the divine countenance from the Saviour in this hour of supreme anguish pierced His heart with a sorrow that can never be fully understood by man. So great was this agony that His physical pain was hardly felt.

Satan with his fierce temptations wrung the heart of Jesus. The Saviour could not see through the portals of the tomb. Hope did not present to Him His coming forth from the grave a conqueror, or tell Him of the Father’s acceptance of the sacrifice.

He feared that sin was so offensive to God that Their separation was to be eternal. Christ felt the anguish which the sinner will feel when mercy shall no longer plead for the guilty race. It was the sense of sin, bringing the Father’s wrath upon Him as man’s substitute, that made the cup He drank so bitter, and broke the heart of the Son of God.—Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages 753.1-2. [Bold type is added.]

21.    Read Hebrews 2:14. How did/does/will God destroy the Devil? He could have done it as easily as one casts a stone to the ground. God just reveals the truth, and Satan will be defeated.

God could have destroyed Satan and his sympathizers as easily as one can cast a pebble to the earth; but He did not do this. Rebellion was not to be overcome by force.—Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages 759.1.

22.    Many Christians have suggested that Christ suffered more than any other human being ever did or could. What is implied by that?

23.    Christ’s suffering was because even as a human being, He had known such a close relationship with God that a sense of the loss of that relationship was so terrible that His physical pain was hardly felt. What does that mean? Isaiah 59:2 (GNB) says: “It is your sins that separate you from God when you try to worship him.” God the Father allowed sin to cause a separation between Himself and His Son; that separation caused the intense suffering that Jesus felt. It is called the second death; it is what the wicked will feel when they die at the end of the millennium. He went through that experience in order to show us what the ultimate results of sin will be. We can choose to live the kind of loving lives that Jesus lived-realizing that we will never fully live up to the standard-or, we will finally die the death that He died.

In the Garden of Gethsemane Christ suffered in man’s stead.... Human nature would then and there have died under the horror of the sense of sin, had not an angel from heaven strengthened Him to bear the agony.

...Christ was suffering the death that was pronounced upon the transgressors of God’s law.—Ellen G. White, MS 35, 1895; 5SDABC 1103.1-2; 7aSDABC 223,463; AG 168.2-4; BTS September 1, 1915, par. 5; TMK 64.3.

Christ felt much as sinners will feel when the vials of God’s wrath shall be poured out upon them. Black despair like a pall of death will gather about their guilty souls, and then they will realize to the fullest extent the sinfulness of sin.—Ellen G. White, 2T210.1; Mar 271.3; ST, August 28, 1879, par. 1; February 15, 1883, par. 4; PH169 10.2.

If the sufferings of Christ consisted in physical pain alone, then His death was no more painful than that of some of the martyrs.—Ellen G. White, 2T 214.1 (1869); AG 171.3; OFC 209.1; ST August 28, 1879, par.11; February 15,

1883, par. 13; PH 169 14.3.

But bodily pain was only a small part of the agony of God’s dear Son. The sins of the world were upon him, and also the sense of his Father’s wrath as

he suffered the penalty of the law. It was these that crushed his divine soul. It was the hiding of his Father’s face, a sense that his own dear Father had forsaken him, which brought despair. The separation that sin makes between God and man was fully realized and keenly felt by the innocent, suffering Man of Calvary.—Ellen G. White, 2T214.1 (1869); AG 171.3; BEcho January 1,

1887, par. 9; 2MCP 514.5-515.1; ST, August 28, 1879, par. 12; February 15, 1883, par. 14; PH 169 14.3.

His heart was broken by mental anguish. He was slain by the sin of the world.—Ellen G. White, Desire of Ages 772.2 (1898).

God’s Spirit will not always be grieved. It will depart if grieved a little longer. After all has been done that God could do to save men, if they show by their lives that they slight Jesus’ offered mercy, death will be their portion, and it will be dearly purchased. It will be a dreadful death; for they will have to feel the agony that Christ felt upon the cross to purchase for them the redemption which they have refused.—Ellen G. White, Testimonies for the Church, vol. 1, 124.1 (1855);

CCh 41.3; 4bSG 11.1 (1864). [Bold type is added.]

24.    Read Philippians 2:6-8. Hopefully none of us will question the fact that Jesus descended from His throne as Ruler of the universe in heaven to die the death of a common criminal. How should that impact us? If only one of us had sinned, would Christ still have had to die?

25.    After God revealed Himself to Job in the storm, Job said: “I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” (Job 42:6, NKJV) Does God ask us to abhor ourselves? Or, does He ask us to accept His healing? Do we need to abhor ourselves in order to accept His healing?

26.    What did Jesus accomplish on the cross? Did He pay the legal penalty for sin? Does that reconcile the fallen world to God? Is God the Father the One who demanded this legal payment? Who paid it? To whom did He pay it? Does God owe Satan anything? Did Jesus pay it to His Father? Why would that be necessary? Could the law demand payment? Who established that law? Wasn’t it Christ together with the Father and the Holy Spirit? If Jesus paid the debt for our sins on the cross, how does that change our lives? Or, does it? Does God admit sinners to heaven that have not been changed? We have looked at many quotations suggesting that Christ’s death was for the benefit of the angels as well as man. Did the heavenly angels need to

abhor themselves to take advantage of it?

27.    What questions were raised by Satan that were answered by Jesus and that were left unanswered in the book of Job?

28.    Satan had made many false claims against God. Falsehood can be refuted only by telling and demonstrating the truth.

A.    Satan had claimed that God was not willing to be self-sacrificing. Jesus completely disproved that claim.

B.    Satan claimed that it was impossible for any human being to live a sinless life here on planet earth. Jesus did.

C.    Satan had claimed that he should be treated like Christ because he was equal with Christ. By coming forth from the grave in His own power, Christ proved His divinity which Satan could never do. (John 2:19; 10:18)

D.    Satan had claimed that sin does not lead to death. Jesus proved that sin does lead to death. He died the second death which results from separation from God. (Genesis 3:1-4; Isaiah 59:2)

Consider the following by Ellen White.

When the voice of the mighty angel was heard at Christ’s tomb, saying, Thy Father calls Thee, the Saviour came forth from the grave by the life that was in Himself. Now was proved the truth of His words, “I lay down My life, that I might take it again.... I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.” Now was fulfilled the prophecy He had spoken to the priests and rulers, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” John 10:17, 18; 2:19—Ellen G. White,

The Desire of Ages 785.2. [Bold type is added]

29.    We are studying the book of Job. How does Christ’s death at Calvary relate to the sufferings of Job? Would it be correct to say that in both cases Satan was proved wrong and God and Christ were proved right in their judgments? Amen!

30.    Why is a substitutionary death necessary?

31.    Jesus had to die to demonstrate the truth about sin and its consequences. Without that demonstration, we might be tempted to believe the Devil’s lies. There would be no answers to Satan’s questions and accusations, and the entire universe might eventually be tempted to believe Satan’s lies. Trust-which is the same Greek word as faith-would be destroyed.

32.    Did Jesus really suffer? Did the Father really suffer? Absolutely. If God was manipulating the whole story of Jesus to make it come out right, then how can we trust Him? And what would Job say if it turned out that his whole experience was just a charade?

But God suffered with His Son. Angels beheld the Saviour’s agony. They saw their Lord enclosed by legions of satanic forces, His nature weighed down with a shuddering, mysterious dread. There was silence in heaven. No harp was touched. Could mortals have viewed the amazement of the angelic host as in silent grief they watched the Father separating His beams of light, love, and glory from His beloved Son, they would better understand how offensive in His sight is sin.—Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages 693.2.

33.    How did Job learn about a Redeemer? Ellen White tells us that Enoch, Abraham, and Moses saw the life of Christ in vision. Is it possible that Job also saw it? The Adult Teacher’s Sabbath School Bible Study Guide on page 158 suggests:

We understand the substitutionary death of our Redeemer, whose suffering encompasses the total sum of all sufferings and sorrows that this world’s generations have and will ever live. This saving knowledge leads us, through our sufferings, into the life of the redeemed.

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Do you know of any passage in Scripture or in the writings of Ellen White which states that?

34.    How would you feel at the end of your life if God could say about you what He said to Eliphaz about Job: “You did not speak the truth about me, as my servant Job did”?

35.    What happened in heaven as Jesus was suffering on the cross?

With amazement angels witnessed the Saviour’s despairing agony. The hosts of heaven veiled their faces from the fearful sight.... In that thick darkness God’s presence was hidden.... God and His holy angels were beside the cross. The Father was with His Son.—Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages 753.4-754.0.

36.    A common view of the plan of salvation held by many evangelical Christians is that we are in legal trouble before God; our past sins declare us guilty. Therefore, they think that justice and law demand that we be executed, that is, unless something can be done about our legal standing. So, they think we must be preoccupied with forgiveness from God because if we are not justified or forgiven, then God must execute us. They think that if He does not execute us, then He has failed the requirements of the law; then, who would trust Him?

37.    But, in the cosmic conflict view which takes all 66 books of the Bible seriously-and also respects the writings of Ellen White-sin is not a legal problem. Sin is a deadly problem. It affects us physically, mentally, spiritually, even socially. The Bible describes sin primarily in three verses: 1 John 3:4; James 4:17; and Romans 14:23. Romans 14:23 is the most comprehensive and describes sin as a breakdown of faith or trust.

38.    If sin began in heaven, as we believe, what did Lucifer do wrong? Did he commit adultery? Did he steal? Did he bow down to graven images? No! He misrepresented the character of God and lied about God’s love and His government. Trust was completely broken. One-third of the angels sided with Satan in that rebellion.

39.    And unfortunately, Adam and Eve did the same. So, now we are not just legally but also actually separated from God. Isaiah 59:2 says that sin has separated us from God, and sin leads to death. (Romans 6:23) So, we are not just in legal trouble; we are dying. God does not need to execute anyone! When someone is dying, he needs help. Doctors do not kill their dying patients. But, if we refuse to cooperate with the doctor, we may die anyway. If God has to let us go, we die. (Hosea 4:17) Jesus did not need to have a huge pile of sins placed on top of Him to cause His death. When God treated Jesus as if He were a sinner, He died. In fact, the Bible says that God left Him; that is why He died. When God’s wrath is poured out on someone, He leaves that person to suffer the consequences of his own rebellious behavior. Of course, Jesus was not a sinner; but, He was treated as if He were. God left Him, and He died. See Romans 1:18,24,26,28 to see that God’s wrath involves His handing people over-to do what they insist on doing. Then read Romans 4:25 which says that Jesus was handed over. In the original Greek, there is nothing in that verse about death. It just says that Jesus was handed over. And what did Jesus say about being handed over? Matthew 27:46 says clearly: “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” which means: “My God, my God, why did you abandon me?” That is what will happen to the wicked in the end. God will leave them to the consequences of their own choices.

40.    So, why is it crucially important to emphasize the substitutionary character of Christ’s sacrifice? If any of us or even an angel were to die of sin, we would remain dead forever. That is what will happen to the wicked including evil angels at the end. But, Christ’s death makes it possible for us to avoid death and live eternally instead of dying eternally. In this lesson we have seen two contrasting views of the plan of salvation. Which of them has greater appeal to you?

© 2016, Kenneth Hart, MD, MA, MPH. Permission is hereby granted for any noncommercial use of these materials. Free distribution of all or of a portion of this material such as to a Bible study class is encouraged.

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Last Modified: October 28, 2016

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