He shall deliver the innocent man: and he is delivered by the pureness of your hands.
All Commentaries on Job 22:30 Go To Job 22
Gregory The Dialogist
AD 604
30. Which same sentence now if it be delivered touching the recompense of the kingdom of heaven, is supported by truth, in that whereas it is written concerning God, Who rendereth to every man according to his deeds [Rom. 2, 6], that man in the Last Inquest the justice of the Judge Eternal saveth, whom here His pitifulness sets free from impure deeds. But if a man is to this purport supposed to be here saved by the cleanness of his own hands, that by his own powers he should be made innocent, assuredly it is an error; for if Grace above do not prevent him when faulty, assuredly it will never find anyone faultless to recompense without fault. Whence it is said by the truth-telling voice of Moses; And no man of himself is innocent in Thy sight. [Exod. 34, 7] And so heavenly pity first works something in ourselves without the help of ourselves, that, our own free will following it up as well, the good which we now desire, it may do along with ourselves; yet the good coming by grace bestowed, in the Last Judgment, He so rewards in ourselves, as if it had proceeded only from ourselves. For whereas the Goodness of God prevents us to make us innocent, Paul says, But by the grace of God I am what I am. [1 Cor. 15, 10] And whereas our free will follows that grace, he adds, And His grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain, but I laboured more abundantly than they all. Who whereas he saw that he was nothing of himself, says, Yet not I, and yet forasmuch as he saw that he was something in union with grace, he added, but the grace of God with me. For he would not have said, with me, if together with preventing grace he had not had free will following it up. Therefore in order to shew that he was nothing without grace, he says, Yet not I, but that he might shew that along with grace he had worked by free will, he added, but the grace of God with me. Thus ‘the innocent man shall be saved by the cleanness of his hands,’ in that he who is here prevented by the gift, that he may be made innocent, when he is brought to judgment, is rewarded of merit. All which things, as was before said, Eliphaz though he delivered rightly, yet to whom he was delivering them he knew not; because one better than himself it was not his business to teach, but to hear. All which particulars however agree in a figure with the promises of heretics, who when they find any of the faithful afflicted in the present life suppose them stricken for the sin of misbelief, and promise them if they will follow their doctrine the saving health of innocency by cleanness of good works. But the mind of the faithful looks down upon them so much the deeper down, in proportion as it does not see them to possess the innocency which they promise. Whence it is well said by Solomon, Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any winged fowl. For the ‘winged fowl’ are the spirits of good men, which whilst in the hope of truth they soar up to the higher regions, shun the nets of bad men set for their deceiving.
