Opening Prayer
God, let me know Your holiness, that I may see my sin and fear Your judgment. Amen.
Text: Job 15:14–16
“What is man, that he could be pure? And he who is born of a woman, that he could be righteous? If God puts no trust in His saints, and the heavens are not pure in His sight, how much less man, who is abominable and filthy, Who drinks iniquity like water!”
Devotion
We might say that according to this text man is as unholy as God is holy. But that would not be correct, for nothing can be compared with God’s holiness. “The heavens are not pure in His sight.” The light of the sun is completely clear, yet God’s light surpasses it. – Now since God is so surpassingly holy, how then must we look in His eyes? “How can he who is born of a woman be righteous? … Man, who is abominable and filthy, Who drinks iniquity like water!” And how do the Pelagians1 explain this text? “Learn, O man, really to know what Adam’s fall and original sin are, that your filthiness cannot be expressed or understood. Learn to know yourself, what you have become by the fall into sin, that you were made in the image of God, but have become the image of Satan, with all his vanity and wickedness. For God’s holiness, purity, and all His deeds are just like His image. And just as man before the Fall was completely heavenly, spiritual, and pure as angels, so now inwardly he has become completely earthly, fleshly, and brutish. For isn’t your anger and cruelty like a lion’s? Your avarice and insatiable greed like a dog’s and a wolf’s? Your impurity and gluttony like a pig’s? Yes, if you really search your heart, you shall find in yourself a whole world, full of unclean animals, and just in one little member, the tongue, a whole mess of lizards and evil spirits, a ‘world full of unrighteousness'” (Johann Arndt).
This is Biblical teaching, almost like what Paul writes in Romans 3:10-18, truth for salvation. But why are there so few who hear it, and even fewer who recognize it in themselves? The trouble is that we have a faded image of God. Stand before Him who is “sanctified in holiness, awesome to praise,” before whom the seraphim hide their faces, when they call to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts” (Isa 6:3). Know Him from whom you cannot escape, who in His holy zeal did not even spare His only-begotten Son (Rom 8:32) when He took our sin upon Himself, but gave Him the full cup of wrath to drink, though He wept and prayed for pity (Mat 26:39). Know Him, “our God who is a consuming fire” (Heb 12:29). Then the dreams of your own piety shall vanish, so that you see your impurity and unrighteousness. One says: “Your affliction is incurable” (Jer 30:12). But the same One says: “I am the Lord who heals you” (Exo 15:26).
Closing Prayer
My God, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me (Psa 51:5), so my heart is only evil from my youth (Gen 8:21). Have mercy on me for Jesus’ sake. Forgive me, and heal me, that I may live and praise You. Amen.
Hymn
A wretched sinner here I stand,
My heart is full of sorrow;
The door of grace I now attend,
Lamenting till the morrow:
In my distress For wickedness,
Corruption fills me throughly;
With right You could, Most holy God,
For aye reject me duly.
But You, the Fount of goodness all,
Send down the Dew of heaven.
For here You find a thirsty soul
Who longs for sins forgiven.
O Sun of grace, Before Your face
And highest throne I bow me
With clemency O hear my plea:
Your mercy now bestow me.
Within Your heart there soon shall be
A Fount of grace unending.
O gentle Jesus, unto me
This gift in death You’re sending;
For there comes peace, Comfort, release,
For troubled souls outpouring;
Grant patience here And glory there,
My soul with life restoring.
Heermann: Jeg arme Synder træde maa L 48:1.9.10 tr. DeGarmeaux;
tune: Durch Adams Fall (ELH 430); alternate hymn: By Adam’s fall ELH 430:1.3.4