Self-righteousness Is Not Righteousness

A well known entertainer was asked about his faith in God and whilst he spoke about Jesus as Lord and Redeemer, when asked if he was going to heaven, his reply was, “I hope so.” Given that he sometimes sang about God and that he was of the Protestant persuasion rather than Roman Catholic, I was surprised to hear that response. Over the years I’ve heard a few well known people speak of their faith in God, and, “I hope so,” in relation to heaven. But in listening closely, their hope was based on their religious behavior, denominational beliefs, or charitable good works. Heaven may be where they are now, but how sad, “I hope so” was not, “I know so.” 

How can we know so? One word, righteousness … the righteousness of God – imputed (reckoned) to us, imparted to us Romans 4:22-24. The one who casts himself wholly upon the free grace of God by faith in the redemptive and finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross is a righteous person Philippians 3:9. That’s what God calls us; what a pity we don’t call us what God calls us. There’s no witness in, “I hope so.” Somebody listening to that thinks of their own eternal destiny and says, “I hope so too!” But there’s plenty of witness in the one who is trusting in the perfect righteousness of Christ. Better still when we can see and speak of ourselves as perfect in Christ! 

The Bible shows us that righteous means: ‘equitable in character or act’ ‘innocent’ ‘holy’ ‘just’ ‘right’. There’s only ever been one Man in human history to fit those descriptions – the Man Jesus. Righteousness is a characteristic of Christ; it expresses the rightness of all that He is and does. But it also describes whatever is pleasing to Him. And that’s where we Christians come into the picture because a most important use of the word is when it describes the right relationship people are brought into with God when they believe, trust and follow the Lord. It’s hard for me to think of a better blessing than that of becoming in Christ, all that God requires me to be. Jesus, made sin for me in order that I would be made righteous in Him? Yes! 

I love what C H Spurgeon said about the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, You will not find on this side of heaven a holier people than those who receive into their hearts the doctrine of Christ’s righteousness. When the believer says, “I live on Christ alone; I rest on Him solely for salvation; and I believe that, however unworthy, I am still saved in Jesus;” then there rises up as a motive of gratitude this thought, “Shall I not live to Christ? Shall I not love Him and serve Him, seeing that I am saved by His merits?” It is wise for me to daily give thought to some of my attitudes, thoughts and speech and see them as unholy, but once acknowledged and handed to Jesus, I reject all negative opinions and feelings about them because I offend God if I don’t do so.

I was with a group of Christian people the other day who I know have confessed Jesus as their Lord and Redeemer. But, they gave greater witness of having received into their hearts the doctrine of men’s religion rather than the doctrine of Christ’s righteousness. They’re good natured, good living people, but there was a lack of true spiritual joy and liberty among them … they looked like they were told to be on their best behavior. They gave little witness that they were living on Christ alone or resting solely on Him for their salvation and some witness that they were unworthy of such. How sad to witness what a “bushel” of religious man’s doctrine can achieve in smothering the light of Christ within Matthew 5:15. 

I’ve met lots of Christians over the years who’ve been reluctant to see themselves as righteous people in Christ. And as for seeing themselves as holy, innocent, just and right … you couldn’t offend them more if you told them you were a con-artist! Yet when it comes to this question of righteousness, if we don’t receive by faith what God says about it, we must ask, who’s conning who? To fail to accept this truth is a two-fold sin; one: the sin of unbelief; two: the sin of self-righteousness. Not only is self-righteousness the cause of all the world’s problems, it’s the cause of all the church’s problems too. It’s one thing to confess, “Jesus Christ is Lord,” but it’s quite something else to grant Him the opportunity to demonstrate the reality of such.

“Not possible,” some say in relation to righteousness imputed to God’s people. “There must be more to it than that.” When I share that the “more to it” is based simply on yielding and humbling ourselves to the Holy Spirit’s Scriptural witness and confirmation I am speaking a foreign language to them. What is not possible is our ability to attain this perfect righteousness on our own; the standard is simply too high. Yet, like multitudes of Christians, that’s not what they believe. There’s a lot more Romanism in Protestantism than we Protestants give credit for and it’s getting worse! No wonder the former is going to chew up and spit out the latter in the end times fast encroaching upon us.

Not only are we made righteous and accepted as righteous by God, but we are also treated as righteous by Him. That’s how He deals with His redeemed people; that’s how He wants to deal with unredeemed people. We see this all over both Testaments of the Bible. What would happen if we could treat each other the way God does? Where are the shepherds today to treat their people as such? For every one of them that are (God’s best blessings to them!), too many are putting their people under condemnation and all kinds of religious legalism or, they’re fleecing them of their hard-earned dollars with all sorts of false promises, lies, deceits and silliness. They’re a cursed bunch, every one of them.      

God’s, Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasture! Jeremiah 23:1 is every bit as applicable today as it was back in Jeremiah’s day. Indeed, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS Jeremiah 23:6 must be our clarion call as redeemed sinners and if the shepherds won’t do it, we must do it! Speak it over your life every day or every hour if you have to. Let it sink deep within and shout it out loud till you believe it without one shadow of doubt. Think of it … here’s perfect, pure, holy, sinless Jesus hanging on the cross being treated as a vile sinner because that’s what God made Him and here’s me … defiled, depraved, dissipated and dissolute now righteous, innocent, just and holy because that’s what Christ made me.

Think of it … on account of what the Lord Jesus endured on our behalf, each redeemed person is now treated as if he or she had entirely fulfilled God’s Law and had never become exposed to its penalty. The one who can only say, “I hope so,” in relation to their eternal destiny is not being humble, he’s being foolish. He should immediately drop everything he’s doing, cast aside everything he has and go find out. Jesus didn’t draw attention to the parables of the Hidden Treasure and the Pearl of Great Price Matthew 13:44-46 so that Christians in this generation could sit around saying, “That’s nice, what beautiful thoughts” and then walk away and forget all about it.

Sad it is to learn of Christians going to the same extremes as their worldly brothers and sisters to secure their material possessions. Some strip themselves of all that they have to cling to their “stuff.” Imagine what God could do with a group of redeemed men and women committed to clinging to the deeper truths of the gospel in the same measure. I think of a couple of older church men whose passion it was to pamper their vintage motor cars. No price too severe in maintaining them, no time considered wasted in getting them out on the road. But when it came to discussing Jesus and the gospel, neither had anything to offer … and one of them was an elder. They could discuss old cars for any length of time but not righteousness. 

“I’m redeemed, I’m redeemed, praise the Lord” so says the song … and indeed, praise the Lord! What is very often not praiseworthy is the sermon that follows the worship. For some, they endure endless messages on the need to be faithful, to be obedient, committed, giving, etc – but when one listens carefully, one finds it’s all centered towards the leaders and the people as a group. There’s next to nothing centered towards the individual. In other words, as a group they can speak of themselves as righteous people because they’re believing and doing “all the right things.” But step away from the group plus everything it stands for and you’ll be made to feel anything but righteous. Ask that one then about his eternal destiny and he’ll probably say, “I hope so.”

Then there’s the other group. They’re full of praise and sing about redemption too. But that’s about where it stops. They believe themselves redeemed because they, “made a decision” for Jesus years ago and besides, they’re baptised and they know all the words of the best hymns and praise & worship songs. Into the mix, the smiling pastor assumes them all to be Christians even though he hasn’t a clue where many of them are at, spiritually. His sermons always mention sin too, but if he thinks he’s going in too hard he’ll pull back a little, crack a joke and mention yesterday’s football match. Sin and football … if you’re a preacher, you can’t lose! Are the people righteous? Some are, but don’t explain what it means … they won’t believe you.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled Matthew 5:6. The late Derek Prince said, “God has no use for any man who is not hungering and thirsting for yet more of Him and His righteousness.” That’s the key – to  hunger and thirst. As Christians we already have it, so he’s not implying we don’t have salvation; but God can’t do anything with us if we’re content with what we have. And that’s the problem; some are. That’s why when asked if they are going to heaven, they consciously know they’ve fallen short of what the Holy Spirit within them has spent years nudging them to seek after, so they dare not say anything other than, “I hope so.”

Similar applies to those who allow themselves to be indoctrinated by religious men rather than Redeemer Christ. The voice of A shepherd is not always the voice of THE Shepherd. We need to know when it is and when it is not. Self-righteousness is not righteousness. In relation to heaven, one says, “I hope so,” the other says, “I know so.” “The work of righteousness will be peace, and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance forever” Isaiah 32:17. “For if by one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ” Romans 5:17.