In the book of Job, thirty-five chapters, 3—37, are a record of the words spoken by Job, his three friends, and Elihu. All of these five persons are God-fearing and God-seeking people, but the words spoken by them in the book of Job are very much according to their concepts concerning God's will for man, their understanding of the meaning of human life, and their realization concerning the perfection of human virtues, all of which contradict God's purpose in man, that is, that man should be filled with God to express God rather than all other things, including man's perfection of human virtues. Hence, God stripped Job of his uprightness and integrity that he might seek God Himself instead of anything else. Yet their words, which are against God's will in man, are written by them under the inspiration of the Spirit of God to serve the purpose of God to expose the mistake of Job, his three friends, and Elihu in knowing God that man may be enlightened to realize that, according to God's good pleasure of His heart's desire, man should be the expression of God only, rather than the expression of man's perfection of his uprightness and integrity.
After the speaking by those five persons in thirty-five chapters, God came in to rebuke Job by telling him that he darkened God's counsel by words without knowledge (Job 38:1-2). Some colleges use the book of Job to teach philosophy, but God told Job that his words were without knowledge. After the Lord finished His speaking, Job said to Him, "I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes" (42:5-6). Once Job saw God, he abhorred himself and repented. No doubt, he gained God instead of his perfection, uprightness, and integrity.
Today who understands the book of Job? Even James did not understand it properly. He told us that when we are suffering, we have to learn of the endurance of Job (5:10-11). Job's words without knowledge, however, darkened God's counsel concerning man. God's counsel concerning man is simple. He wants us to receive Him into us to be our everything, even to transform us into His image so that we can become His expression. The Christian perfection is for the expression of the Triune God, not for the expression of our integrity or uprightness.
Job highly esteemed his perfection, integrity, and uprightness, so God came in to strip him of this. Then God showed Himself to Job, and Job abhorred himself and gained God. But just to abhor ourselves is not sufficient. The Lord Jesus told us that whoever would follow him must deny himself and take up his cross (Matt. 16:24). To deny the self is to leave the self on the cross. To bear the cross is to remain on the cross. In today's Christianity there is a wrong thought that the cross is for suffering. This is the thought in the book called The Imitation of Christ. We need to see, however, that the ultimate goal of the cross is not for suffering but for terminating. To bear the cross is a killing. Christ has crucified us on the cross, and we should remain there. We should leave ourselves on the cross. Then the self is terminated. James's teaching of Christian perfection, though, is self-cultivation; it is to cultivate the bright virtue in man created by God. But the New Testament teaches that we have to deny ourselves and leave ourselves on the cross.