Saintless Saints.
The failure of the self-righteous is in not knowing that the pretense of self-righteousness is the pretending that it is Godly righteousness. The attitude of I'm right, you're wrong is prevalent in their speaking, they listen to respond with a rebuttal rather than listening to learn. Why? Because in their mind they are right and therefore, can't be wrong.
This "superior" religious attitude was around in Jesus day and were the people He spoke His harsh words to.
Jesus told the sell-righteous leaders of His day; "Verily I say unto you, the Publicans and the harlots will go into the Kingdom of God before you!" (Matthew 21:31) And He told His disciples, "For I say unto you, that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!" (Matthew 5:20)
He un-fearfully told them, "Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess! Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also! Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye are like unto whited sepulchers, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness! Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity!" (Matthew 23:25-28)
Why were the Scribes and the Pharisees so self-righteous and hypocritical? Because they were so self-righteous they did not think themselves to be sinners like everyone else, they refused to admit that there was anything wrong with them. Therefore they were "blind leaders of the blind" and they all fell into the ditch, and they committed the sin of self-righteousness and rejection of Jesus Christ, thus they were sinners. (Matthew 15:14)
The self-righteous of today tend to think because they have said the "sinners prayer" they are not the same as the self-righteous Pharisees. Saying the "sinners prayer" to gain salvation and then try to do things to maintain that salvation is declaring that Jesus' work was not enough thus, the doing that the do are self-righteous acts. Self-righteous people feel good about not admitting they are bad. That's why the worst kind of people in the sight of God are the self-righteous hypocrites who sit on high on their superior religious horse pretending to be good and look down on the nonreligious, disgusting bunch of no-gooders!
"There is none righteous, no, not one!" "For by grace are ye saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of WORKS lest any man should boast!" (Romans 3:10; Ephesians 2:8,9) This principle is true of everything! So we just need to give up on trying to be good ourselves and admit, "I'm a sinner, of course I make mistakes!" God then can work things to our good to become His righteous righteousness.
The the self-righteous are deceived to the point where what they think is righteousness is just the opposite of God's ideas of righteousness. They don't realize what God's righteousness is and they practice their own idea as to what it is.
Self-righteousness is spawned in the cesspool of the devil's religious hog-wash and is totally the opposite of God's righteousness! This self-righteous, holier-than-thou do-gooder, the supposedly sinless perfectionist is an attempt of the devil to deceive people that Jesus needs our help with our salvation relationship thus, living in rebellion to Jesus and His finished work!
Whereas God's idea of righteousness is the pitiful, hopeless, lost, humble, sinful sinner who knows he needs God. "He came not to call the righteous to repentance, but sinners!" (Mat.9:13) So God's idea of goodness is godliness, a people who know they need God and depend on Him for salvation, not the do-gooder, churchy self-righteous hypocritical Pharisees who think they can maintain their salvation by their doing of goodness.
God's idea of saintliness is not sinlessness or self-righteousness. It's a sinner saved by grace, a sinner who has no perfection, no righteousness of his own at all, but is totally dependent on the grace and the Love and the mercy of God to save him and maintain his relationship with God!
Listen...there is absolutely no reason to pretend to be saintly by covering up our sin. God knows we are anything but perfect and can't be perfect while living in our earth suits. So the only question, the only standard is: Do we depend on the Lord totally, trust Him and His grace and His Love and His mercy and give HIM all the glory and all the credit?
That's what the Lord looks to as saintliness, the person who knows he's a sinner and therefore gives God the credit for working through him for any good that results from his doing. As Paul said, "I know that in me, my flesh, dwells no good thing." (Rom.7:18) There's nothing righteous about me or my flesh, anything good is only the Lord's doing.
In God's eye that's SAINTHOOD!
This "superior" religious attitude was around in Jesus day and were the people He spoke His harsh words to.
Jesus told the sell-righteous leaders of His day; "Verily I say unto you, the Publicans and the harlots will go into the Kingdom of God before you!" (Matthew 21:31) And He told His disciples, "For I say unto you, that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!" (Matthew 5:20)
He un-fearfully told them, "Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess! Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also! Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye are like unto whited sepulchers, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness! Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity!" (Matthew 23:25-28)
Why were the Scribes and the Pharisees so self-righteous and hypocritical? Because they were so self-righteous they did not think themselves to be sinners like everyone else, they refused to admit that there was anything wrong with them. Therefore they were "blind leaders of the blind" and they all fell into the ditch, and they committed the sin of self-righteousness and rejection of Jesus Christ, thus they were sinners. (Matthew 15:14)
The self-righteous of today tend to think because they have said the "sinners prayer" they are not the same as the self-righteous Pharisees. Saying the "sinners prayer" to gain salvation and then try to do things to maintain that salvation is declaring that Jesus' work was not enough thus, the doing that the do are self-righteous acts. Self-righteous people feel good about not admitting they are bad. That's why the worst kind of people in the sight of God are the self-righteous hypocrites who sit on high on their superior religious horse pretending to be good and look down on the nonreligious, disgusting bunch of no-gooders!
"There is none righteous, no, not one!" "For by grace are ye saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of WORKS lest any man should boast!" (Romans 3:10; Ephesians 2:8,9) This principle is true of everything! So we just need to give up on trying to be good ourselves and admit, "I'm a sinner, of course I make mistakes!" God then can work things to our good to become His righteous righteousness.
The the self-righteous are deceived to the point where what they think is righteousness is just the opposite of God's ideas of righteousness. They don't realize what God's righteousness is and they practice their own idea as to what it is.
Self-righteousness is spawned in the cesspool of the devil's religious hog-wash and is totally the opposite of God's righteousness! This self-righteous, holier-than-thou do-gooder, the supposedly sinless perfectionist is an attempt of the devil to deceive people that Jesus needs our help with our salvation relationship thus, living in rebellion to Jesus and His finished work!
Whereas God's idea of righteousness is the pitiful, hopeless, lost, humble, sinful sinner who knows he needs God. "He came not to call the righteous to repentance, but sinners!" (Mat.9:13) So God's idea of goodness is godliness, a people who know they need God and depend on Him for salvation, not the do-gooder, churchy self-righteous hypocritical Pharisees who think they can maintain their salvation by their doing of goodness.
God's idea of saintliness is not sinlessness or self-righteousness. It's a sinner saved by grace, a sinner who has no perfection, no righteousness of his own at all, but is totally dependent on the grace and the Love and the mercy of God to save him and maintain his relationship with God!
Listen...there is absolutely no reason to pretend to be saintly by covering up our sin. God knows we are anything but perfect and can't be perfect while living in our earth suits. So the only question, the only standard is: Do we depend on the Lord totally, trust Him and His grace and His Love and His mercy and give HIM all the glory and all the credit?
That's what the Lord looks to as saintliness, the person who knows he's a sinner and therefore gives God the credit for working through him for any good that results from his doing. As Paul said, "I know that in me, my flesh, dwells no good thing." (Rom.7:18) There's nothing righteous about me or my flesh, anything good is only the Lord's doing.
In God's eye that's SAINTHOOD!
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