The False Righteousness of Men

"His own perfect work in Jesus Christ satisfies God. The one who believes only, declining to work for righteousness, comes to God lacking all justifying works, only guilty, wholly ungodly in the matter of righteousness, supplicating and magnifying the grace of God."

- Rev. David Engelsma, "Gospel Truth of Justification," pp. 193-4 

In the comment above, Engelsma is paraphrasing several references in the Bible, such as Romans 5:6: "While we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly." Jesus didn't come to purchase salvation for those who are moral, or who clean up their lives. Rather, he came to save the one who realizes how unclean he is, with nothing of himself to offer. As the Apostle Paul continues (verses 8-11): "God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by His blood, much more shall we be saved by Him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by His life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation."

We also have the words of Jesus Himself, describing His salvific purpose: "I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance" (Luke 5:32). He is referring to those who are self-righteous, since "none is righteous, no, not one" (Romans 3:10). Since the Fall of Adam, no mere human being has any righteousness in himself by which to please God. All are sinners (Romans 3:23), under the well-deserved wrath of the thrice-holy God, as described above. Every act claimed by a man as his own righteousness is condemned by God, for "whatever does not proceed from faith is sin" (Romans 14:23).

Instead, we depend on the righteousness of Jesus, which is imputed to the believer the moment he believes: "For our sake He [i. e., the Father] made Him [i. e., Jesus, the Son] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God" (II Corinthians 5:21; see also Isaiah 26:12 and Hebrews 13:20-21).

There is an absolute contrast here: a person can depend on the good works that he imagines he does, and be damned; or he can condemn his own works as the wickedness that they are, under the wrath of God, and seek instead to receive forgiveness and righteousness by faith alone from Jesus alone, and be saved for eternal life.