Redeemed from guilt and shame forever

What do you do when friends or family judge and shame you? Job was brutally shamed by his friends for calamities which had came upon him – even though God declared him “blameless!” Job lost all 10 of his children, thousands of livestock, and very many servants. Then he lost his health to horrible skin tumors. So it had to be devastating when his friends turned on him in such epic fashion!

First they listened to Job lament for 5 chapters (Job 3-7). Then they took turns blasting him for secret sins (Job 8-37). God finally speaks in chapter 38!

So that’s why the book of Job is so long!
The sheer length of their attacks, covering 30 chapters, may have been the hardest of Job’s sufferings! When we’re sick or fighting cancer like I did, we are most vulnerable to guilt and shame. Yet Job clung to One Who lives and would someday take His stand on earth, his “Redeemer.” We can cling to Him too!

Job 19:25-27 – “Yet as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will take His stand upon the earth. Even after my skin has been destroyed, yet from my flesh I will see God. Whom I, on my part, shall behold for myself, and whom my eyes will see, and not another.”

Job also trusted in his “Advocate” in 16:19, Someone who would represent him before God. “Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and my advocate is on high.”

So who is this Redeemer/Advocate?
1 John 2:1-2 tells us His name and role, “My little children, I write these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He Himself is the propitiation (satisfaction) for our sins.”

Jesus took on our sin and sin’s penalty at the cross to redeem us or “buy us back” from sin and God’s wrath. God was satisfied by Jesus’ sacrifice! Jesus is our forever Advocate/Redeemer! As Paul said, “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:14)! So like Job, hide yourself in your Redeemer Jesus when the guilt and shame flies.

Only Jesus can redeem and take away the penalty of your sin – see how here!