#39 out of Nothing Comes Nothing

Job had a deep sense of the need of being clean before God, and indeed he was clean in heart and hand beyond his fellows. But he saw that he could not of himself produce holiness in his own nature, and, therefore, he asked this question, and answered it in the negative without a moment’s hesitation. The best of men are as incapable as the worst of men of bringing out from human nature that which is not there.

I. MATTERS OF IMPOSSIBILITY IN NATURE.

Innocent children from fallen parents.
A holy nature from the depraved nature of any one individual.
Pure acts from an impure heart.
Perfect acts from imperfect men.
Heavenly life from nature’s moral death.

II. SUBJECTS FOR PRACTICAL CONSIDERATION FOR EVERY ONE.

That we must be clean to be accepted.
That our fallen nature is essentially unclean.
That this does not deliver us from our responsibility: we are none the less bound to be clean because our nature inclines us to be unclean; a man who is a rogue to the core of his heart is not thereby delivered from the obligation to be honest.
That we cannot do the needful work of cleansing by our own strength.
- Depravity cannot make itself desirous to be right with God.
- Corruption cannot make itself fit to speak with God.
- Unholiness cannot make itself meet to dwell with God.
That it will be well for us to look to the Strong for strength, to the Righteous One for righteousness, to the Creating Spirit for new-creation. Jehovah brought all things out of nothing, light out of darkness, and order out of confusion; and it is to such a Worker as He who we must look for salvation from our fallen state.

III. PROVISIONS TO MEET THE CASE.

The fitness of the gospel for sinners. “When we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.” The gospel contemplates doing that for us which we cannot attempt for ourselves.
The cleansing power of the blood. Jesus would not have died if sin could have been removed by other means.
The renewing work of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit would not regenerate us if we could regenerate ourselves.
The omnipotence of God in spiritual creation, resurrection, quickening, preservation, and perfecting. This meets our inability and death.
- Despair of drawing any good out of the dry well of the creature.
- Have hope for the utmost cleansing, since God has become the worker of it.

Observations

The word which we render “clean” signifies shining, beautiful: a substance so pure and transparent that we may see through it, so pure that it is free from all spot or defilement, from all blackness and darkness. Who can bring such a clean thing out of an unclean? The Hebrew word (Tama) comes near the word (contaminatum), which is used by the Latins for “unclean,” and it speaks the greatest pollution, the sordidness and filthiness of habit, the gore of blood, the muddiness of water, whatever is loathsome or unlovely, noisome or unsightly. All these meet in and make up the meaning of this word, “Who can bring a clean thing out of this uncleanness?”—Caryl.

The depravity of man is universally hereditary. Adam is said to have begotten “a son in his own likeness,” sinful as he was as well as mortal and miserable. Yes, the holiest saint upon earth communicates a corrupt and sinful nature to his child: as the circumcised Jew begat an uncircumcised child; and as the wheat, cleansed and fanned, being sown comes up with a husk. John 3:6.—Gurnall.

It would be labor in vain to endeavor to cleanse the stream of a polluted fountain. No, the source must be changed, or the flow will be unaltered. Prune the crab as you please, it will not bring forth apples: nor will a thorn under the best cultivation produce figs. Regeneration is a change of nature, but it is by no means a natural change; it is supernatural in its origin, execution, and consequences. It must be wrought by a power from above, since there is neither will nor power to work it from below.