If I Be Wicked

“If I be wicked, why then labour I in vain?” (Job 9:29)

Excellent question!

The word “wicked” used here means not only to act in a vile and unseemly manner but to actually be as one so seems. There is no façade, you act wickedly because you are in fact, wicked.

To “labour” is to be weighted by a toilsome burden.

And finally, “in vain”.  A literal transliteration of vain is “vapor” or “breath”. Like a cloud without water, the end product of your toilsome labors is vapor, its mist. Empty, very temporal, it is here, then gone. Captured only in a brief moment of time.

So Job asks, if I am by all accounts, “wicked”, why then do I subject myself to the drudgery, pain and moil of righteousness?

We are all wicked. We are all born of sin. That is not the issue.

First of all, the elect of God are called. They are predestined to salvation. This calling is a process. Predestination is not only an end, but is also a means, a way to that end. Moving to God in the way of God is a process of predestination. It’s growth. Like a seed ridding itself of the husk, we must consciously rid ourselves of sin to be able to grow in His image.

Jesus warned us that we would have troubles and tribulations in this life (John 16:33), so why be surprised when they occur?

Friction occurs where opposing forces meet. The righteous, those with the spirit of God within, live in an unrighteous world. Expect friction. If not, then you need to check to see how much of the world is in you.

Accepting Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and being washed clean of sin through His blood is part of the predestination process. But during our earthly journey, the clean will encounter the dirt and dust of this world.

“Jesus saith to him, He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit: and ye are clean, but not all” (John 13:10).

Getting a little dirty as we journey through this earthly domain is to be expected and does not mean we are some lost cause sinner or that we need to be baptized again. Nothing makes baptism and our commitment to Christ null and void, so there is never a need to re-baptize.

Repentance, like baptism, is part of the predestination process. Although we are baptized once, we must continuously search, discover, and repent of our sins. Part of repenting is realizing the dirt (sin) we have accumulated while being engaged in the world. (For this reason, Jesus warns us to be “wise as serpents, and harmless as doves” as we endeavor to be citizens of this domain.)

We’ve been washed clean, but we still have the need to wash our feet from our earthly travels.

 “And if the house be worthy, let your peace come upon it: but if it be not worthy, let your peace return to you. And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet. Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment, than for that city” (Matthew 10:13-15).

Sometimes we are fully aware of the sinful environment we are in. Sometimes we are well aware of our participation in it. Shake it off and continue moving forward in Christ.

Job asked, “If I be wicked, why then labour I in vain?” Job had lost everything and everyone in his life, was sick with disgusting sores covering from head to toe when he asked that question. Pain and misery let loose will always paint an exaggerated picture of itself. Now add the element of time and that exaggerated picture of pain and misery becomes grossly distorted. Job was on the edge of hope and ruination. There is no man when there is no hope. Why put yourself through the struggle to escape ruination if there is no hope to escape to. Let go. Who needs the pain of the fight if there never can be a victory in the fight.

Right? Wrong!

Wickedness abounds in this earth. We will be battling it every moment of our lives while here. The devil wants you to think that you are wicked. He proves to you that you are wicked by reminding you of all the things you have done. The devil shows you no hope by focusing on today, looking backward. You have no hope in the past because you can’t change the past. Hope is a held belief in a future event.

God is nothing but forward motion. Your past sins are washed clean through Jesus Christ. This secures your hope in tomorrow.

“Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14).

Why hold onto what you’ve been washed clean of? “Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith” (Hebrews 12:1-2).

Don't let past sins become a stumblingblock. Realize that as a child of God who is active in the way of God that you are covered by the blood of Christ and can sin no more.

“Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God” (1 John 3:9).

“Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, and that seek him with the whole heart. They also do no iniquity: they walk in his ways” (Psalm 119:1-3)

Past and present sins are gone and forgiven. Focus on Christ and move forward in Him.

Bill Hitchcock