How Can Anyone be Righteous Before God?

Job 25:1-6 

1 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said:

2 "Dominion and fear belong to Him;
He makes peace in His high places.

3 Is there any number to His armies?
Upon whom does His light not rise?

4 How then can man be righteous before God?
Or how can he be pure who is born of a woman?

5 If even the moon does not shine,
And the stars are not pure in His sight,

6 How much less man, who is a maggot,
And a son of man, who is a worm?"

Bildad spoke against Job and his apparent self righteousness.  He began by seeing God as the Sovereign Ruler to be feared by men.  His omnipotence requires no army, and He causes the sun to rise on the just and unjust (Matthew 5:45) to give light to live by in obedience and guidance by His word and works.  Since God is so completely righteous and holy, since He is all-powerful and all-knowing, since He shows us all His way to walk through life, how then can we be righteous in God’s estimation?  How can we be pure and holy since we are born in sin (Job 14:4)?  There truly is none who is righteous as Romans 3:10-12, 23) makes more clear to our spiritual understanding.  He compares the moon and stars shining as less than perfect, these which appear to be so very perfect, to make the point how much less chance man has in all creation to be perfect and holy before God and His righteousness as the standard.  Unlike Job who was called upright by God, we see clearly through all of scripture that every one of us comes up short of His righteousness, and that Ephesians need God’s own righteousness counted as if it were ours to be acceptable in His holy sight.  That is why Christ Jesus suffered and died in our place for our unrighteousness, and rose from death to life to pay our life’s debt of death for our sinful nature and actions.  Then He imputes that holy righteousness to us by His judgment, His decree (Romans 3:21-22, 26, 4:22-25, 6:23), that we are then counted as righteous and holy in Christ alone.  In this way, Bildad had the truth, but not all of it, and had misused it against Job as if he was more righteous than the one God had called upright.  May we humbly see ourselves as sinners yet apart from the imputed grace of righteousness and holiness of the gospel, and not judge others; His word has already judged them (John 3:18-19, 12:48), it is not for us to do, especially not for our brothers and sisters in Christ who still sin as we also do (Romans 14:4).  Grace in Christ makes us clean as we continue to admit we are sinners saved and sustained by grace (1 John 1:8-10).  How then can anyone be righteous before God?  Only in the grace of Christ by faith.