Seeing the Sin in My Self-righteousness

“It’s one thing to see the sin in your sin but it’s something else to see the sin in your self-righteousness.” – John MacArthur.  “Amen,” is my response to his statement. Unless I see the sin in my self-righteousness I should not expect to be a very effective witness for the Lord Jesus to the unbelieving world. ‘Sanctimonious’ ‘complacent’ ‘smug’ ‘self-satisfied’ ‘holier than thou’ – all have the same meaning, all are a turn-off for God, yes, but all are a turn-off for unbelievers too. Churches caught up in church-growth techniques might give this sin serious consideration. Deliverance from it will bring true growth.

By “true growth” however, I don’t mean hundreds will come flocking through the doors. On the contrary, it may mean they’ll go flocking out the doors! For the benefit of new Christians, as yet unskilled in the word of righteousness Hebrews 5:12-14, true church growth is spiritual, not numerical. That means a church with only two or three spiritually mature people has more spiritual power and authority in Christ than does the mega church with ten thousand spiritual babies jumping up and down with excitement the moment the charlatan in the pulpit speaks of riches, money and prosperity. The former have seen the sin in their self-righteousness and dealt with it. Not so, the latter; they’re blinded to any such reality.

In Jesus’ parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, perhaps it was the failure of the Pharisee to see the sin in his self-righteousness that was the Lord’s primary concern Luke 18:9-14. For until we do see it, I don’t believe we’ll see any sin like God sees it, whether we’re born again people or simply religious people like the Pharisee! I praise God for Christians who give testimony to their former way of living, but for some, the sin in their self-righteousness often shows up. They give the impression they’re proud of what they were once into; others will give impression they’ve done God a favor by turning away from those things. When that’s the case, it’s very easy to look down on unbelievers still in their sins.

Picking and choosing which Scriptures of the Bible to accept or reject is certainly a failure to see the sin in one’s self-righteousness. For example, it’s doubtful a church  would condone one among them approaching anyone who is near of kin to him, to uncover his nakedness……. the nakedness of your father or the nakedness of your mother……. the nakedness of your sister……. the nakedness of your son’s daughter or your daughter’s daughter Leviticus 18:6-10. But many churches condone men among them who lie carnally with your neighbor’s wife, to defile yourself with her. It’s doubtful a church would condone any member to pass thy seed through the fire to Moloch Leviticus 18:20-21. But it looks away from the sin of abortion within.

No Christian would protest God’s command, Nor shall you mate with any beast, to defile yourselves with it. Nor shall any woman stand before a beast to mate with it. They would agree with God, It is perversion Leviticus 18:23. So what is it that causes the same people to reject the verse above it, You shall not lie with a male as with a woman. It is an abomination. ? Why do they overlook that verse when God doesn’t overlook it? If He did, we would read of it elsewhere in Scripture. Yes, pulpit cowards tell us all sorts of godless rubbish to justify condoning the practice but the moral law of God is as unchangeable as God Himself is. I am the Lord, I do not change Malachi 3:6. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever Hebrews 13:8.

I am convinced the Western church’s failure to see the sin in its self-righteousness is a primary reason for the gospel of Christ not to be taken seriously today. Christianity urgently needs a fresh revelation from God on Romans 7:18, For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells. We’re fully aware my flesh speaks of the old nature or self before we reborn in Christ, but we’re not always fully aware of Satan the devil’s enticements to drag us back to the old, especially in our thoughts. He knows if we think like we once did on certain issues, sooner or later we’ll act like we once did – or not act, whatever that be to suit him. It’s not difficult for him either; once we stop drinking, lying, cursing and swearing, we can think we’re doing pretty good!

Another way we can be enticed into thinking we’re doing pretty good is through our church commitments – Sunday morning and evening attendances without fail, our financial giving, church working bees, fund raising for overseas missions and the like. “Doing church stuff,” in other words. That can stop us from seeing the sin in our self-righteousness, most definitely. “Am I serving God, or am I serving self?” We must be brutally honest here. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor John 12:26. There can be no honor from God if our motives are wrong and they will be wrong if Jesus is not the primary reason for our service. As the saying goes, “Jesus is either Lord of all, or He’s not Lord at all.”

Christian fellowships considering themselves more spiritual than other fellowships fail to see the sin in their self-righteousness. Christianity is replete with those, sadly. They believe themselves to be the sole possessors of special truths and teachings, making no allowances for development in other theological beliefs to bring balance. Everything spiritual is measured and evaluated according to their own carefully prescribed system. Rather than stick to plain-sense meanings of Scripture, they spiritualize and allegorize them so as to make them fit the doctrines taught. Not only will they “cut and paste” certain verses and passages of Scripture to make them fit, they’ll do the same with an entire Chapter if they have to!

There’s no sadder experience, I don’t believe, than to listen to a fellow Christian read a verse or passage from the Bible then make it say what God never intended it to say. And when challenged on it they simply cannot hear you. It’s not as though they’re merely religious either. They will say Jesus Christ is Savior and Lord, that they have repented of their sin and had them washed away in the blood of Jesus. They’ve been baptized by full immersion in water and should they die today, they have no doubts they’ll be go and be with the Lord. So it’s not as though they’re in a group that denies the deity of Jesus or the Trinity of God or the reality of hell like the Mormons or Jehovah’s Witnesses deny them. But they have an inability rightly dividing the word of truth 2 Timothy 2:15.

So what’s the solution to this problem? For it is a problem for everyone who names the name of Christ 2 Timothy 2:19. We see the problem in Jeremiah 17:9. The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? The solution is Jesus alone. The moment we turn to the Lord we’ll get a glimpse of that truth; we’ll “see the sin in our sin.” But it may take a long time to “see the sin in our self-righteousness” for it’s not often spoken about. When most churches speak about sin, it’s lying, stealing   swearing and sexual immorality they have in mind, But that’s only a fruit of the problem not a root of the problem. Self-righteousness is a root and that’s what Jesus goes after! We’re not free unless He does go after it!

John Wesley said of this, “There is nothing so false and deceitful as the heart of man; deceitful in its apprehensions of things, in the hopes and promises which it nourishes, in the assurances that it gives us; unsearchable by others, deceitful with reference to our selves and abominably wicked, so that neither can a man know his own heart, nor can any other know that of his neighbor’s.” Often I’m horrified by some of the ungodly thoughts that I can have. But I give God great praise too, for they are no longer in my heart – no longer part of me. Perhaps God allows them to come as a reminder that without Him I am nothing! Perhaps they come too as a reminder to be constantly aware of how easy it is to overlook seeing the sin in my self-righteousness.

I believe another reason why Christians fail to see the sin in their self-righteousness is because of a reluctance to rest in the truth that the moment they turned to Christ they were made righteous in Him. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him 2 Corinthians 5:21. Although they are familiar with that Scripture, for various reasons Christians will say to themselves, “I really don’t think that’s right. Surely there must be something I have to do.” So what do they then do? They set about “doing” – trying to achieve righteousness for themselves in the same manner that religious people do who are outside of Christ. And all too often they are manipulated into it all by their peers and their pastors. Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous 1 John 3:7.