As the New Year begins...think on this.

Self-righteousness is a word used to describe an ethical, moral and spiritual self-deception. God has made it perfectly clear that there is no one righteous as God define righteousness. No one comes to human perfection by human effort. Since He declares that ALL have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, there is no one who can honestly vaunt themselves pridefully thinking they are better than anyone else.

The term “self-righteousness” is, self-contradicting. The concept that one is a moral and ethical person is always based on some kind of comparison between oneself and someone else. You have an internalized “scorecard” by which you evaluate yourself and others and the line for what is acceptable, laudable and “OK” is always drawn behind you.

There is an internal mechanism in the human soul that actually verifies there was a Garden of Eden and that there was a “fall” out of that singular life-giving relationship with God, our Creator. The “conscience”, at its best, tells the difference between “good” or “evil”. THAT is a direct effect of Adam and Eve thinking that could live without reference to God, or the necessity of being in a relationship with Him IF they knew the difference between “good” and “evil”.

That internal moral compass, though, is a broken device in everyone. We deceive ourselves in thinking WE determine what is “good” and what is “evil”. Righteousness is a singular term that is definitive of God and His character and His alone. Our concept of “righteousness” is desperately flawed.

Yes, we can see what a righteous life would look like if we could actually live it out on our own. The Ten Commandments define such a life, but the straightedge of God’s Law serves to bring into sharp relief the crookedness and fecklessness of our nature because we have been separated from God. The tenth commandment, in essence, states that you shouldn’t even want to break the other nine. BOOM!

Truth is no one can be self-righteous, or made right with God by mere human effort and striving. A Rabbi once said, “If you actually could keep the Law of God perfectly for 99 years, but then on your 100th birthday broke one singular Law, it would be as if you had never kept any of the Laws of God, ever.” Holiness, righteousness is something only God can give. It can never be earned or merited. The gift of God, eternal life, can only be received when we turn from the folly of what we think we can accomplish and, in turning from unreliable self and turning to God, we put our trust in what God has done to restore us to Himself.

God has done in and through Jesus Christ what no other human who has ever lived could do. Being fully God and fully human, Jesus Christ was able to bear in Himself on a Roman cross the sin and penalty of the entire human race, for all time. He paid the price for our rebellion and indifference, our sin against God and our neighbor. Only God could reconcile us to Himself.

All who will believe, turn from self (repentance) and turn to God, surrendering ourselves to Him in trust and faith for His forgiveness and the transformation of our lives by the indwelling Presence of the Holy Spirit will be made righteous before God. We must believe God; believe that what Jesus said He had come to do, He did. Salvation has become a reality for all who believe and receive.

That righteousness given to a believer, the new heart and new spirit given to make us a new creation in Christ Jesus, begins to be lived out in us and through us by God Who alone transforms a life. God alone can bring people who are essentially dead, spiritually dead, into life that is eternal, never ending, and only becoming more and more new. His life is us enables us to be obedient to the very things that make for life rather than continuing to live deceived, dead-ended lives.

Anyone may come. God has made a way for all people, every ethnic group, every language, every tribe…everyone in the whole world to come to Him. As the Apostle John wrote in his first letter to a young church, “My dear children, I am writing this to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an Advocate Who pleads our case before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the One who is truly righteous. He Himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins—and not only our sins but the sins of all the world.” 1 John 2:1-2

You don’t have to live any longer in self-deception, strife, blind arrogance or pride. You can pass from death into Life. Put you trust in what God has done. Surrender to Him and receive from Him what you could never achieve. It is His gift to all who will believe.