Albert Barnes Commentary Job 9:2

"Of a truth I know that it is so: But how can man be just with God?" — Job 9:2 (ASV)

I know this is true – Job here refers, undoubtedly, to something that had been said before; but whether it is to the general line of reasoning, or to some particular expression, is uncertain. Rosenmuller supposes that he refers to what was said by Eliphaz (Job 4:17); but it seems more probable that it is to the general position which had been established and defended: that God was just and holy, and that his actions were characterized by fairness. Job admits this, and proceeds to show that it was a truth just as familiar to him as it was to them. The object of his focusing on it seems to be to show them that it was no new thing to him, and that he had some views on that important subject which were very much deserving attention.

But how can man be just with God? – A marginal note reads “before God.” The meaning is that he could not be regarded as perfectly holy in the sight of God; or that so holy and pure a being as God must see that man was a sinner, and regard him as such (see the sentiment explained in the notes on Job 4:17). The question asked here is, in itself, the most important ever posed by humankind: “How shall sinful man be regarded and treated as righteous by his Maker?” This has been the great inquiry which has always been before the human mind. Man is conscious that he is a sinner. He feels that he must be regarded as such by God. Yet his happiness here and hereafter, his peace, and all his hope depend on his being treated as if he were righteous, or regarded as just before God.

This inquiry has led to all forms of religion among various peoples, to all the penances and sacrifices of different systems, and to all the efforts that have been made to devise some system that will make it proper for God to treat people as righteous.

The question has never been satisfactorily answered except in the Christian revelation, where a plan is disclosed by which God “may be just, and yet the justifier of him that believeth.” Through the infinite merits of the Redeemer, man, though conscious that he is personally a sinner, may be treated as if he had never sinned; though feeling that he is guilty, he may consistently be forever treated as if he were just. The question asked by Job implies that such is the evidence and the extent of human guilt, that man can never justify himself. This is clear and indisputable. Man cannot justify himself by the deeds of the law.

Justification, as a work of law, is this: A man is charged, for example, with the crime of murder. He argues in defense that he did not kill, or that if he took life, it was in self-defense, and that he had a right to do it. Unless the fact of killing is proven, and it is shown that he had no right to act as he did in the situation, he cannot be condemned, and the law acquits him. It has no charge against him, and he is just or justified in the sight of the law.

But in this sense, man can never be just before God. He can neither show that the things charged against him by his Maker were not done, nor that, if they were done, he had a right to do them. Being unable to do this, he must be held to be guilty. Therefore, he can never be justified by the law. It is only by that system which God has revealed in the gospel—where a conscious sinner may be treated as if he were righteous through the merits of another—that a man can ever be regarded as just before God (see the notes on Romans 1:17 and Romans 3:24-25).