salvation and are not yet quite assured, or those who know that they have passed from death unto life, and now need

to be built up in their faith. And so we pass by `the mystery of Godliness' and consider some of its implications.

The book of Job is perhaps the oldest book in the world, and though difficult to follow, has one or two

illuminating passages with which we can start our enquiry :

`He is not a man, as I am, that I should answer Him, and we should come together in judgment. Neither is there

any daysman betwixt us, that might lay his hand upon us both' (Job 9:32, 33).

Here Job is crying out for `the one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus' (1 Tim. 2:5) . The

margin tells us that the `Daysman', which is an old English legal term, is an `Umpire'. Something of its meaning

can be seen in the reference Isaiah 1:18, `Come now, and let us reason together', or in Elihu's intervention when he

says :

`If thou canst answer me, set thy words in order before me, stand up. Behold, I am according to thy wish IN

GOD'S STEAD: I also am formed out of the clay' (Job 33:5, 6).

`If there be a messenger with Him, an interpreter, one among a thousand, to shew unto man his uprightness: Then

He is gracious unto him, and saith, Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom' (Job 33:23,

24) .

`A messenger'. This word (Heb. malak) means :

(1) An ambassador. (2) An angel. (3) A messenger.

In the N.T. the word messenger is angelos, the Gospel is an evangel or a `good message', to preach is to evangelize,

and a preacher is an evangelist. This is the message and the messenger spoken of to Job.

`An interpreter'. This word (Heb. luts) places the one needing an interpreter in an invidious situation, or as Paul

put it :

`That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens ... strangers ... far off' (Eph. 2:12,13).

The first office of this messenger or interpreter is :

`To shew unto man His uprightness'.

This takes place in Job 42:5,6 :

`I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes'.

Let us observe the implications of these two passages. Job is described in chapter one as being `perfect and upright'.

He was so proverbially `righteous' that Ezekiel 14:14 declares :

`Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they should deliver but their own souls by their

righteousness, saith the Lord GOD'.

It is one thing to have a righteousness that delivers one from `famine' and `pestilence' (Ezek. 14:13, 19) , it is quite

another to possess a righteousness that will stand the scrutiny of the Living God, and provide a perfect acceptance in

His Presence. We are provided with a N.T. parallel in Philippians three. When it is a matter of comparison between

Paul and other men for boasting in the flesh, he can say `I more', for `Touching the righteousness which is in the

law' he could write that he was `blameless'. This is something deeper than the oft repeated excuse `I'm as good a

man as my neighbour'. Yet, this selfsame blameless Paul, just as Job before him, continued :

`I count all things but loss ... but dung (and garbage) ... and be found in Him, not having mine own

righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of

God by faith' (Phil. 3:8, 9).