Radical Depravity in Job

Man is pervasively unclean in the depths of his being. What is more, there is absolutely nothing that he can do to make himself clean:

“Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? There is not one.” —Job 14:4

Job asked a penetrating question that he quickly answered. No one can bring clean works that are acceptable to God out of an unclean life. Every good work a person does is tainted by sin to some extent. Pointing back to the problem of original sin, Barnes writes, “As a historical record, this passage proves that the doctrine of original sin was early held in the world. Still it is true that the same great law prevails, that the offspring of woman is a sinner—no matter where he may be born, or in what circumstances he may be placed.” The pervasiveness of radical depravity has polluted the entire inner life of fallen man.

—Steve Lawson, Foundations of Grace (Reformation Trust, 2006), 127.