As we listen to Job’s words in speech after speech, I wonder if you begin to question his integrity. The raw manner with which he challenges not just his friends, but the Lord God Almighty, seems very presumptuous. It is little wonder that his comforters lose patience with him. Listen to Zophar in Job 11:2-5:

“Are all these words to go unanswered? Is this talker to be vindicated?
Will your idle talk reduce men to silence? Will no-one rebuke you when you mock?
You say to God, ‘My beliefs are flawless and I am pure in your sight.’
Oh, how I wish that God would speak, that he would open his lips against you”

I wonder if you begin to think that Job needs to 'humble himself in the sight of the Lord'. Eliphaz seems very reasonable when he says in Job 22:21-23: “Submit to God and be at peace with him; Accept instruction from his mouth and lay up his words in your heart. If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored".

The problem for Job’s friends- and often for us- is that they have no place for undeserved suffering in their worldview. Job’s friends listen to him claim that he does not deserve the suffering he is experiencing, and their responses show that they think such talk to be dangerous, self-justifying and even arrogant.

And isn’t this much the same with the problem so many in our day have with the gospel? The message of undeserved grace is seen to be dangerous, as it undermines the motivation for good works. After all, what is the point if free grace forgives all my sin?

This is exactly the challenge given to the apostle Paul’s when he proclaims the gospel of grace: “Why not go on sinning, so that grace may increase?” (Rom 6:1). Christopher Ash comments on this contemporary application saying:

This is one reason why the gospel of free grace is continually leaking away from churches: the religious mind-set hates it. Those with assurance of forgiveness by grace are often accused of being arrogant. “You seem to think you’re better than everybody else. How else could you claim to be sure of going to Heaven?” Grace is said to be an emotional crutch for those who cannot cope with the moral realities of life, the perfectly adequate comforts of the simple system of moral reward. You only believe in grace, they say, because you are not prepared, having made your bed, to lie on it. Above all, grace is said to be unrealistic: how can a sinful human being really hope to be in the right before God? Ultimately, because the book of Job is about undeserved suffering, it is about undeserved grace too. The undeserved suffering of this righteous man foreshadows the undeserved suffering of the One who knew no sin, and his suffering makes possible the amazing grace of undeserved forgiveness to sinners.