Many take verses like these to mean that people are wrong to emphasize a need for greater righteousness, or to have any thoughts measuring themselves and concluding that they are living righteously. That we are to forgo this sort of thinking — and that any real attempt after righteousness, any measuring ourselves by this, is pride and is opposed to the Gospel.

The tragedies of this thinking are many. To start with, such people often miss that someone who believes they are “righteous”, as in this example, is not a person who is truly pursuing righteousness, but is actually a person who is content in themselves without it. They are choosing to believe this narrative of themselves as “righteous” in order to put off the call of God to walk in true righteousness. If you can believe yourself to already have this, then you can pacify your conscience.

This scene shows a person loving the lie of being called righteous without any true righteousness. We can see how far this person is from a heart of righteousness, and yet how they walk in the terrible evil of loving a lie about themselves (Is 59:4).

We are shown here the sin that sinful man relishes the most: pride. How a person chooses the “high” of pride over true righteousness, by living in a false narrative about themselves. And we see the means by which a person walks in this pride: conceit. Taking up an attitude of being superior to others in order to support this sinful narrative of self.

All of this is an illustration of how sinful self works, how we cultivate private beliefs in us that work to serve a feeling of being “higher” than others, and we use this to feel value and security, instead of seeking true value and security through righteousness. We delight ourselves in a false peace, confidence, and approval — approving of ourselves rather than truly seeking the approval of God..

Some of the evil of such a state is that we love to believe we are wise, clever, compassionate, gracious, and yes, righteous, all while not truly being so. We never truly look at the fruit of our lives, we are content to merely believe these narratives rather than seek the true form of these things.

We always love to imagine that our sinful hearts and private beliefs are harmless, but by this window we see just how gross and vile such an attitude is. That by believing in a self righteousness (which is to take in the lies of being righteous while not truly seeking righteousness), we cheat the race. We give ourselves a false crown, born from a wicked “approval” and false reasons (I’m enlightened, better, smarter, prettier, deeper, braver, etc), rather than seeking the true crown. For this pride and conceit we will devote our whole lives to it, we strive endlessly for it, commit violence in our beliefs against others, rebel against real virtue - thereby rebelling against God — and are willing to “forsake all” for this.

The issue we also see here is another way self works, whereby we take up the attitude of believing we are “the right” apart from true righteousness. This is one of the great “fortifications” of self. We give ourselves reasons to believe we are “right” on whichever grounds we choose. The flesh loves to believe this narrative, failing to see that a person is only “the right” when they are truly walking in righteousness.

The error we see in Scripture among the Jewish people is how they believed they were “the right” because they were Jewish. They believed themselves to be automatically great because they were sons of Abraham, because they were connected to the true God. They assumed by this connection that it made them automatically righteous, wise, and enlightened, above all others around them. They assumed they were automatically “the right”, that they were already perfect. They were blind to the true nature of their ways, because they failed to see that even though they were born of Abraham, lived beneath the true religion of God, they were only made righteous and wise if they sincerely sought these things. The great sin and self deception for them was that they forsook actually seeking these things by imagining these things were already theirs. They were shown to be most wicked because they presumed to be the darlings of God though they never put their hand to the plow for this righteous work (Matt 3:7-12).

They exchanged the true call of God to righteousness for the evil belief of favoritism with God. Believing they had a means of acceptance and favor with God apart from living a righteous life. They presumed to believe that they were accepted with God because they were living beneath the true religion of God and in proximity to the one true God of heaven and earth. They believed that God was prejudiced for them. This belief greatly deceived them and led to their destruction, and was a great offense to everyone around them (Rom 2).

Their refusal to sincerely seek righteousness was the very thing that condemned them, they busied themselves thinking of how great they were and letting this love of lies keep them away from the true work. While their lives continued to pass them by and the window of opportunity was being poured out, they never awoke to true righteousness.

The great sin we see among the Jewish people was not a business for righteousness, but was choosing to be content without it. Choosing all of these sins over a real working for goodness, justice, and holiness. The nature of self righteousness is that of being content in our own “goodness”, thereby not seeking true righteousness in God. Thinking that our goodness is satisfactory and not as lacking as it is. Yet we see in this Pharisee the truth of such a nature and “goodness”, how far it is from real good.

The Jewish people failed to see that the judgment of God was not for them but against them because they did not take hold of God for the true purpose of God — to make a righteous people. They failed to see that God would condemn them if they did not produce the true fruits of righteousness, and that there was no favoritism with God.

“Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” (Matt 3:10)

“Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous.” (1 John 3:7)

All of these things were the errors that the Jewish church fell into, and all of these are the very same spiritual errors that the church today is falling into.

All of this begins with rejecting the foundation of God’s Gospel being righteousness. That the purpose of God in Christ is to bring us out of our sins and to put us into a real righteousness, and that this is essential to salvation. To believe in a gospel that denies that this leads us into the very same spiritual errors, because we have rejected God’s judgment of us being founded upon righteousness or wickedness. Removing these great scales of God’s judgment in our beliefs leads us into spiritual error.

There is much that goes on today in the church that believes that truly calling people to this righteousness is opposed to the Gospel, that it opposes the grace of Christ, when it is the sole purpose of the Gospel.

And what we have today are many things that fill up this great place that righteousness is meant to take. Because we reject that true righteousness alone is the purpose of God, that this is the only way we have acceptance with God, that this is the work we are to be busy with in our lives, we have many things we busy ourselves with in place of this. Many do not know how to rightly spend themselves in their lives because they have rejected the very course that God has given to us in holiness, justice, and good works. They fill themselves up with much work, but do not see how empty, vain, and even wicked their works are.

In addition to this, we have the very same sins among us as the Jewish church had in it: The great sin of being content without a real righteousness. The great sin of calling ourselves righteous and children of God without seeking and walking in true righteousness. The sin of denying the whole purpose of God’s grace and deliverance of us. We have the sinful works among us of putting off conscience, of putting off the fear of God, and calling this grace! When all this is doing is teaching people to be content in their sin, and to not fear remaining in sin. The very beliefs we have of what the Gospel even is is rooted in taking up the lie of calling ourselves righteous without any real righteousness. The very same sin this Pharisee walked in — calling himself righteous and believing this in his heart against reality of his true nature. We have become a people who take comfort in lies, loving lies about ourselves, saying this is the purpose of God’s grace towards us, just as the Jewish people said it was the purpose of God! Many believe this is the love and strength of God when it is the very way the worldly heart works. To delight in a false peace, to think our lives are great and meaningful, blinding ourselves against the true nature and direction of them is not the strength of God but is the very nature of the flesh. And many deceive themselves because they believe that in religion they cannot be deceived, when it was a multitude of Jewish people, in their religion, that were deceived!

All of this “faith in God” is doing little to make people walk in real righteousness, instead it is making people walk in the same religious conceit and hatred that filled the Jewish people, yet very few have the courage to really access the fruit of their beliefs about God. People labor endlessly for these narratives about themselves, the narratives that make them feel “safe” in these beliefs about God, and completely miss the true work to be done. Such people live in the same dream as the Jewish people, that they are approved by God, when just like them, they put off truly seeking the approval of God through laboring in righteousness before Him.

And just as the Jewish church fell into the error of believing they were right, enlightened, and good because of their proximity to the True God, so multitudes of Christians have fallen into the error of believing that this is true of them simply when they become Christians. Many believe of themselves that they uphold the Word of God, believe they know God’s will, can approve of what is excellent, are able to instruct others in the Word of God, are sure they are guides to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, and an instructor of the foolish and depraved (Rom 2:16-20). They are falling into the same self conceit as the Jewish people. Just as many of the Jewish people would have believed, these people today believe that they are champions for God and His religion, failing to see that without truly accepting the foundation of God’s religion being that of righteousness, we are as far from God and oppose Him (Is 58). The outcome of such beliefs corrupts the heart, taking it away from true goodness and fills it with pride and evil.

The Jewish people were often very busy in the religion of God and yet they rejected the heart of God’s purpose and therefore were opposed to God and became evil rather than good. This was the very heart of why the Jewish people persecuted Christ. They wanted to believe in this false acceptance with God through favoritism, rather than accepting the truth that had always been clearly revealed in the Scriptures — that it is only the righteous person who has acceptance with God.

The Jewish people hated the expectation of God for them to live righteously and so they tried to turn Abraham into a means of favoritism for themselves. They sought to deny the truth that all were accepted or rejected by God based upon how they lived (Rom 2:5-11). And they hated Jesus because He taught them that they were only sons of Abraham as much as they did the works of Abraham (Jn 8:39). Today there are many Christians who walk in this very same spirit. They hate the call of righteousness, and see it as evil. They believe that being delivered from this call is “gracious”, failing to see how this comes from a sinful heart that is delighting in lawlessness. They do not see how this heart desires a great partiality for themselves, an exemption from justice, and nothing about this is gracious — it is the pinnacle of self-serving.

Such people seek to turn Christ into a means of favoritism with God the very same way the Jewish people sought to turn Abraham. They have misunderstood the grace of God to mean this perverted favoritism with God, believing this is grace, failing to see what the true grace of God is: “God, having raised up his servant, sent him to you first, to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness.” (Acts 3:26). They desire to believe the grace of God is releasing them from the call of righteousness rather than releasing them from their sins to walk in righteousness (Rom 6:18). They hate the just judgment of God, the fairness of God, and seek an evil self bias from God, the very same way the Jewish people did, seeking this instead of a right acceptance with God in holiness. They do not see how this “grace” is the deepest sort of self-prejudice, whereby they seek to remove all the scales of judgment and justice equally judging their sins as much as everyone else, but seek lawlessness for themselves, just as the Jewish people sought to pervert the grace of God towards them into this evil prejudice for themselves.

The very same words that John the Baptist spoke to the Jewish people God speaks today to His Christian church: “Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father…’ Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. (Mt 3:8-10)

The Jewish people were condemned because they refused to seek righteousness. They chose these evil lies of favoritism and self-bias over truly seeking what was just and right before the Living God. Such love for these things made them the darkest and meanest people of the earth. Where they should have been made into angels they were made into devils, though they had all the grace of God in their midst. All of this was because of how they chose to try and take hold of God: for pride, loving lies, and for favoritism. This corrupted them and made them more evil than even the Gentiles around them. This is the very same danger that exists for us, when we reject the foundations of God’s call and judgment being righteousness, we cannot but become at best,  immature, and at worst, devils.

When we reject the simple truth that all of us will be judged for how we have lived in this life, and that all of us will only have acceptance with God, and acceptance into heaven if we become truly righteous people, we reject the very Spirit of God’s Word, and deceive ourselves to destruction, just as the Jewish church destroyed themselves.

God’s religion is meant to give us an opportunity that doesn’t exist in ourselves, to truly change. That we would humble ourselves before God’s wisdom and light, to truly become holy and wise and good. To see the foolishness and darkness of our own thinking and ways, and to come into what is truly good. It is only the person who takes hold of God in this humility, who becomes cleansed in body and in spirit, who is righteous, and who will be saved.

The Jewish people fell into the great sin of pride because they confused God’s light as an approval of themselves, as making them secure, failing to really seek the light of God for themselves, which was the sole purpose of God’s grace towards them. And many Christians have fallen into this very same sin, thinking they are wise and good, not seeing how foolish and evil they still are. The fruit of their lives is that they are falling short of the grace of God, by failing to see what the grace of God is for. By these false beliefs of God’s grace, they become bitter and rotten with sin. Their sin and worldly minds simply adapt to their religion, and they fail to see all the ways of worldliness abiding in them (such as believing it is “gracious” to escape justice), failing to see all of these things are still of a worldly mind. Thinking they are wise, they remain in darkness, remain foolish, naive, and immature. Believing they are zealous for God and His truth, they actually oppose these. The sin in them becomes more and more manifested in their religion, all because they take hold of God in a wrong way, for sin, rather than for righteousness.

The heart of all self-righteousness is that of being content as we are and not seeking true righteousness in God. This is at the very core of worldliness, thinking our ways are satisfactory and refusing to seek real righteousness, being willing to change in all ways that are necessary for this. Instead, such a person is content to make others suffer as they remain in their “good enough” state. So many in the church profess to regard Christ, uphold the Gospel, and scorn self-righteousness, yet they prove themselves to be of the sin of self-righteousness because they refuse to truly seek righteousness, instead, they are content to remain as they are, calling this “grace”. They are actually those who are deceived about their own goodness! Thinking it is not as bad as it is, and convinced that their “good enough” is adequate. They reveal that their hearts are just as worldly as the unbelievers. The worldly heart is that which is blind to the true nature of one’s goodness and ways, and they are those which profess to love grace, yet all “grace” really means is permitting them to remain in their sins. Just like the worldly heart, they want a gospel that does not demand their change, blind to the great need of their change, and all the ways they are still so evil. It is this self deception about ourselves, this self-righteousness, that is one of the great cornerstones of a worldly mind. This is the sin of multitudes in the world, content with the way things are. Content with our own wisdom and goodness, and not willing to go beyond it.

Everyone who abides in this hates God and hates their neighbor. This is why God will condemn all people who do not seek true righteousness through Christ, because they consent to evil and delight in it, doing so most for this wicked self-prejudice.

This judgment of God will fall on all people, Christian or unbeliever, there is no partiality with God. The Jewish people believe that because they had the law of God they would not be judged. When the very purpose of God giving the Jewish people the law was in order to make them righteous, thereby preserving them and rewarding them in God’s judgment. And this is the very same issue we have in Christ. God has not given us Christ as some prejudice for us, but in order that we might truly walk in righteousness through Him, coming out of sin, foolishness, and darkness, and this preserving us and rewarding us on the day of judgment. Righteousness through Christ is the means of God’s salvation of us, the narrow path that we walk in that delivers us in the day of God’s wrath.

Just as God spoke to the Jewish people in Romans 2, that He would judge everyone according to what they have done, everyone whether outside the law or within, so God will judge all Christians for what they have done in this life, judging all people whether they are inside of Christ or without. The law was no refuge for the Jewish people from the truth, and Christ is no refuge for wicked people to escape justice. The desire for this comes from an evil and worldly heart, not a godly one.

Many Christians today do not want to believe this, and they fail to see that their motivations in rejecting this are of the very same spirit of evil that existed in all the Jewish people. Wanting God’s law and grace towards them to be a perverted prejudice and to make them exempt from justice and judgment, and so people try to take Christ to this end. Yet just as this destroyed the Jewish people, so it will destroy all Christians who walk in the same sin. God’s axe is laid at the root of the tree, all who do not produce the fruits of godliness and righteousness will be condemned (Mt 3:10). There is no partiality with God.

“He will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. For God shows no partiality.” (Rom 2:6-11)