Journal 1999   ds 1999, June 21      God's standards. In his book The Gospel According to Job, Mike Mason speaks of God's standards versus human standards in the chapter "God's Scales." Mason, p319 -- Nothing could be easier than to find fault with Job, just as his friends do, and just as the Devil seeks to do.  According to their standards, Job is guilty as sin. But the miracle of the gospel is that it is not the standards of Job's friends, nor those of the Devil, nor even Job's own standards, that count.  Rather the only standards that count are the Lord's.  By any other standards than those of God the whole human race would be eternally condemned.  But by God's standards, those who live by faith in Jesus Christ are counted blameless. Mason, p320 – Faith, however, means accepting God's standards, not our own. Faith is what counts.  For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. (Galatians 5:6 NIV) We cannot achieve moral perfection.  In fact, moral perfection cannot be our goal; the love and righteousness of God must be our goal.  A true pursuit of God will expose our imperfections in glaring detail.  What counts is our faith in God's standard – forgiveness through the blood of Christ. The pursuit of moral perfection, and the insistence of living by our standards causes us to cover our imperfections, to build a facade of spirituality, and to step further away from reality. We must realize that the deepest darkness of our inner lives can be penetrated by the light of the gospel. And we must realize that God delights in doing so. In a way we are overly concerned about our sins, more so than God. Because as we attempt to achieve moral perfection we are building on self-righteousness. The righteousness of God, the pursuit of his holiness comes by honest, sincere, faith. Trust that God knows and has effectively and abundantly dealt with the problem of our fallennes through the shed blood of Jesus Christ.