“Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?” (Job 14:4)
Job is here referring to himself as the “unclean thing” out of which no “clean thing” can come forth. Yet, by God’s own acknowledgment, there was none that compared to Job in all the earth as “a perfect and upright man, one that feared God and escheweth evil.” (Ch. 1:8) A man that “escheweth evil” is one who habitually avoids (shuns) evil on moral grounds. Why, then, did Job see himself as unclean? Ironically, the chief reason is found in the fact that he was morally upright and God fearing. The closer one draws to the Lord, the more aware he becomes of his own impurity. The pure in heart do not lower the standards to suit themselves, as so many who are impure are want to do. The righteousness, which is of faith, which Job clearly possessed, had produced practical holiness in him, but his standing before God was in the impeccable righteousness of faith. What we as believers are in Christ, and what we are in our personal character are quite different. In the one we rejoice. In the other we mourn and say like Job, “unclean,” or like Paul, “O wretched man that I am.”
As Job considered himself unclean, we need not wonder at this question: “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?” What does this mean? For one thing, it means that it is impossible for unholy parents to produce a holy child. “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one.” Jesus said to Nicodemus, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh…” (John 3:6) We all must say with David, “I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.” (Psa. 51:5) Though loving parents may see much beauty, there is a sinful nature that cannot be ignored. Scripture says they come forth from the womb speaking lies, and it will not be long until that truth is born out. Not only do they learn to deceive before they can talk, they also soon reveal temper, vengeance, and selfishness. Children need not to be taught to sin, it comes quite naturally. For this reason, they cannot please God apart from a radical change of nature. They are born “children of wrath,” (Eph. 2:3); and they must as Jesus said, “be born again.” (John 3:3)
Along the same lines, another impossibility is to bring a pure nature out of a depraved nature in any person. “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one.” People need more than education; they need more than rehabilitation. You cannot make a polluted stream pure by stirring it. Souls need more than a change of environment. Bad environments are created by sinners. It is proven that renewed people improve any environment. Fallen humans, regardless of one’s age or gender or race, needs more than religion. Many things about good religion may improve people morally, but concerning the great matter of being made clean in the sight of God, it is all to no avail apart from a spiritual new birth. A sinner can no more change his nature than an Ethiopian can change his skin, or a leopard, his spots. “Ye must be born again.”
Another impossibility is for pure acts to come from an impure heart. “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one.” Admittedly, unregenerate men and women may do a great deal that is good and commendable. God extends many general graces to the world through the charitable efforts of the people of the world. But cleanness of heart that pleases God is another matter altogether. As long as one has an unrenewed heart, nothing he does can truly please God. Yet many are trusting their “good works” to recommend them to God, and get them to heaven. That can never be. “Except a man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God.”
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