"In defense of my righteousness"    

In chapter 27.3-6 Job states adamantly his response to Bildad's insistence in chapter 25 that a person cannot be found "righteous before God." Job speaks for the case of defensible integrity.

Bildad said, "How then can a man be righteous before God? How can one born of woman be pure?" 25.4 This wasn't really a question. Bildad was expressing a cynical, rhetorical statement in the form of a question...'How could anyone think a person could be defensibly righteous before God?!'

Job's response? "...as long as I have life within me...my lips will not speak wickedness, and my tongue will utter no deceit. I will never admit you are in the right; till I die, I will not deny my integrity. I will maintain my righteousness and never let go of it; my conscience will not reproach me as long as I live." 27.3-6

I know that I know that I know...

How can we know?  

"Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God - " John 1.12 

"If we confess our sins he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." I John 1.9

In Romans, Paul spent the fourth chapter, and the fifth chapter, and the sixth chapter and the tenth chapter, talking about righteousness through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

It's that combination of faith and determination exhibited by these men of old who wrote about righteousness: Job, David, Paul, John. A combination that starts with faith and is continued on until kingdom come - by a determination that says as the Greeks who came to Philip, "...we must see Jesus."

That determination of Joshua who said, "as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."

This determination of Job, "...till I die, I will not deny my integrity. I will maintain my righteousness and never let go of it..."

What combination of faith and determination do you have?