Commentary on the Book of Job part five

                                     Job 2:1-8

Satan was not finished with Job. Satan challenged God to allow him to inflict a direct attack on the life that God had given Job from which all his goodness came. God allowed Satan to ruin Job's health but not to take his life which belonged solely to God. By his direct attack on Job's life, Satan aimed to force Job to give up the good life that God had given him, completely rebel against God, and become as totally evil as Satan was. If Satan could accomplish this, he would succeed in annulling a part of God's creations and thus prove that God's Love was not Almighty. God allowed Job's love for Him and faith in Him to be tested to prove His Love for His creations can never be abrogated. God's test of Job's love and faith was symbolic but limited since it applied only to Job's faith.

The ultimate test of God's Love for His creations happened when His Son was nailed to a cruel cross. Jesus bore the sin and eternal spiritual deaths of all mankind on that cross to save all mankind from eternal spiritual death which power Satan held over them at that time. Hebrews 2:9. No agreement existed between God and the Devil about this. God simply knew that the Devil would have to use the full force of sin and evil against Christ in order to have any chance of defeating Him. Satan wagered that Christ would not be able to endure all the terrible filth of all the sins and evils of all mankind as He suffered for them. Satan wagered that Christ's terrible suffering would break His faith and cause Him to become permanently separated from His Father. Satan wagered that God would become permanently dead and he would win. Jesus died just as the sinner dies, separated from God because of filthy sin and evil. But Jesus' spiritual death was only temporary. Satan believed that hell belonged to him, but God created hell for the Devil and his angels, to be His consuming fire to permanently separate all total sin and evil from all mankind not already saved by grace. Matthew 25:41; I Corinthians 3:11-15. God casts only the cursed part of man which is his total evil into the lake of fire. Revelation 20:15. God never cursed the living part of man which He created and which Christ will rescue from spiritual death. Revelation 20:5. Christ left all the filth of sin and evil of all mankind not already saved by grace behind Him in hell, and rose immaculate and triumphant from the dead victorious over all the evil works of the Devil. I John 3:8.

The good life that God put into Job He has put into every person no matter how evil that person may become. God can never lose anything He loves and has created. Ecclesiastes 3:14; Romans 11:29. No person can ever cause himself to become totally evil. This fact has been proven by the reality that some good has been done by the worst of men. By His death, burial, and resurrection, Christ came to rescue the good life of every person from spiritual death which is permanent separation from God, some through His grace and the rest through His descent into hell. Christ saves by His grace all who put their faith in Him while still alive in the flesh. Christ has saved the good lives of the rest of mankind by the use of His consuming fire of hell when He left their sin and spiritual deaths behind when His Spirit descended into hell. But this rescue does not become actual until a general resurrection and judgment in the end of the world. John 5:28-29; Revelation 20:5; I Corinthians 15:22; Luke 20:38; Luke 23:34; I Timothy 4:10; Colossians 1:15-20.