Job 32:1-22
For these very reasons, Acts 17:30 does not mean that God has ever excused man's sin. This verse simply teaches that God understands that humans are condemned to sin. Avoidance of sin is impossible. God's Love extends His compassion toward man's hopeless condition which caused Him to break that hopeless condition Himself. If Christ had not broken that hopeless condition, then all of humanity would have been lost forever in the horrors of the lake of fire. Christ came to revert a hopelessly lost humanity to a sinful condition caused by his weakness. Christ can have compassion on the hopeless weakness of man and can cleanse his sin when he cries out to God for mercy and grace. Luke 18:9-14. But God hates those who hate Him and will never forgive their total evil. Matthew 12:31-32. God extends His grace to all who will repent and believe in His Son while still alive in the flesh. John 5:24. God extends His mercy to all other humans because He can and He will renew their faith in His Son as recorded in Revelation 5:11-14; II Peter 3:9. Who can thwart God's will?
Man cannot avoid sin, but man can avoid becoming evil. Evil results from man's willful and deliberate choice to rebel against God. These humans become demonic, and demons never repent. Evil humans possess only a very small image of God within their beings, but God will recover and recreate even that small image of Himself. The evil in man is that part of man's being that is dead. In the final judgment in the end of the world, Christ will use His consuming fire to permanently separate the evil deaths of all humans within the regions of the dead from their living images of Him, and He will cast their evil deaths into the lake of fire to purge all evil from His creations forever. Revelation 20:11-15; I Corinthians 3:11-15; I Corinthians 15:26; II Timothy 4:1; Luke 20:38.
Job 32:8 teaches that every human possesses a spirit which is the living image of God within him, and God can use the inspiration of His Word to cause man's spirit to gain understanding and wisdom if they listen to him. Job's spirit heard God's revelations to him, and he became righteous by obeying them, but he was still a sinner. God allowed evil to cause Job to suffer greatly in order to test his faith that still remained in his spirit. Job passed his test by refusing to give up his faith that was still in his spirit. Job passed his test although he became fearful that his sin would cause his permanent separation from God. Job 13:14-15; Job 7:21. God gave deeper revelations to Job because he searched for a daysman who could make him absolutely right with God. God revealed to Job that he had a Redeemer who could bring him alive to God, and Job accepted God's revelation by faith and became saved by grace. Job 19:25-27; Job 23:10.
Like Job, Elihu was also a sincere searcher for the truth about God. But Elihu depended solely on God's revelations to his inner spirit to gain knowledge about God, and he failed to take into account that man's sin and evil had completely separated man from God. Elihu's condition caused him to come to right and wrong conclusions about the nature of God. Elihu's faith failed to search for a Redeemer who could make him absolutely right with God. Elihu believed he could somehow make himself right with God. Elihu could not believe Job when he claimed that he had found a Redeemer who could bring him alive to be with God. Job 34:4-7.
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