“Character — homebrew” is the sign over the door of the self-righteous man’s life. He must admit weakness and failure, but he does not call sin sin or admit that he has any great need. There is nothing wrong with him that he cannot remedy himself if given time, a proper environment, and enlarged opportunities. The self-righteous man thinks that he starts with something already very good, something even with the very essence of the divine in it. His business is to make this good thing gradually better.

In this process of self-cultivation, the self-righteous man measures himself with himself, and he is very pleased; he measures himself also with other men and, like the self-righteous Pharisee of Luke 18:9-14, he is more than pleased. He congratulates himself on himself and even commends his virtues to God.

But there is one measurement that he has forgotten to take. He has never placed his self-righteous life alongside the spotless, stainless, sinless life of the Son of Man to see how infinitely far short he falls of a righteousness that God accepts. He ignores that the absolute righteousness of God demands nothing less than absolute righteousness in all who are acceptable to Him, a demand no human being can ever meet.

Someday when this man stands before the Lord Jesus Christ, once a proffered but a rejected Savior, now his Judge, he will expect Him to approve this manmade production of righteousness, to pronounce it as good as anything the Lord could have done, and to let him pass into Heaven to abide forever in the presence of an absolutely righteous God.

I was talking once with a friend concerning his need for a Savior. He was a man of splendid ideals, high standards, and excellent principles. He was cultured, kind, moral, and from a human standpoint, lived what the world would commend as a highly respectable life. When I pressed the necessity of accepting Jesus Christ as his Savior, he said, “Why do I need anyone to die for me? I do not want anyone’s blood shed for me!” The root of that reply was self-righteousness. That young man was trusting to be saved through character. God looks down upon all such “which trusted in themselves that they were righteous” and says,

Romans 3:10, 12

¹⁰ “As it is written: “There is none righteous, no, not one;”

¹² “They have all gone from the way; they have together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.”

And of the righteousness which has been so carefully cultivated, He gives His estimate through the mouth of His prophet.

Isaiah 64:6

“But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.”

To rely upon self-righteousness as the ground of salvation is utterly futile. God declares plainly that His wrath against it will be revealed.

Romans 10:3

“For they, being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.”

Romans 1:18

“For the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness.”

How very different is the self-righteous, self-made man from the one who has had a glimpse of the Holy One and His righteousness!

Isaiah 6:5

“Then said I, Woe is me! For I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.”

Job 42:5-6

⁵ “I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth Thee. ⁶ Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”

1 Timothy 1:15

“This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance: that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.”

The last quotation is from the lips of a man who, if anyone, could have rested upon his own righteousness as a sufficient ground of acceptance with God. With perfect sincerity, he said of himself that “touching the righteousness which is of the law,” he was “blameless.” (Phil. 3:6)

Yet after seeing the Lord of glory, he was convinced of the foolishness and futility of such confidence in the flesh. From that time, he had but one consuming desire, “that he might win Christ, and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith” (Phil. 3:8-9)

The only righteousness that makes any man acceptable with God is the righteousness of God by faith in Jesus Christ.

Romans 3:22-23

²² “Even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ, unto all and upon all those who believe. For there is no difference, ²³ for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”

No one whose eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts, and who has contrasted his own sinfulness with His holiness will have a shred of hope of acceptance with God through his own character. The man who relies upon any righteousness in himself as his ground of salvation and who refuses Christ’s imputed righteousness as God’s free gift only proves the Word of God that the god of this world has blinded his mind so that the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should not shine into his heart.

Source: “Life on the Highest Plane” by Ruth Paxson

Thank You, God, that we who have believed into your Son have been made acceptable in Your sight by faith in Jesus Christ.