Self-Righteousness

This morning I was blessed to sit with a few guys at Shoney's talking about the righteousness of Christ, the gospel, and an enemy of it: self-righteousness (yes it was a blessing even at Shoney's). We are going through The Bookends of the Christian Life by Jerry Bridges. Today's chapter was called "Gospel Enemy #1: Self-Righteousness."

The thing that stuck out to me most was this question: "If God were to ask you, 'Why should I answer your prayer?' How would you answer? Would you begin immediately adding up your recent merit and demerit points?" (44-45).

To do so is self-righteousness, whether the conclusion is, "I'm worthy of you answering my prayer because of my recent achievements," or "Nevermind, now that I think about it, I'm not worthy. I'll come back when I've cleaned up and ask again."

Self-righteousness is relying on ourselves for our sense of worth, value, or acceptance before God. The ultimate question is whether God is our rock our something in us is our rock. And for us to rely on ourselves even in the smallest way is to nullify the grace of God, and treat Christ as if He died for no purpose (Galatians 2:21).

Self-righteousness "disregards, devalues, and discredits the gospel provision of the righteousness of Christ--the sinless life He lived for us and the sin-bearing death He died for us" (43). "God can't possibly get all the glory if an essential part of [our] acceptance depends on [us]" (48).

May God get all the glory for our righteousness because it is found solely in His Son and not in us. May we always and only magnify the righteousness that has been given to us freely not because of our worthiness. May we think often of the cross, and by so doing kill the creeping self-righteousness of the flesh. May Jesus Christ be praised.