Job 1:1—If all are sinners, then how can Job be perfect?

Problem: God declared that Job was “blameless and upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil” (1:1). Yet the Bible insists that “there is none righteous, no, not one,” for “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:10, 23).

Solution: God’s praise of Job was not absolute, as is clear from His later condemnation of him (in chap. 38) and from Job’s own confession, “I abhor myself, And repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:6). Further, God only pronounced Job “blameless” before man, whereas Romans is speaking about no one, apart from Christ’s work, being blameless before God (cf. Rom. 3:19).

This excerpt is from When Critics Ask: A Popular Handbook on Bible Difficulties (Wheaton, Ill.: Victor Books, 1992). © 2014 Norman Geisler and Thomas Howe. All rights reserved. Used by permission. Click here to purchase this book.