Reflections From the Psalms
He hath said in his heart, I shall not be moved: for I shall never be in adversity. (Ps. 10:6)
The human race is cursed with the delusion of self-sufficiency, which is equal to self-righteousness. You don’t have to be religious to be self-righteous. Self-righteousness is simply the delusion that you are RIGHT – it is thinking that you have a RIGHT-NESS — that you are sufficient in yourself. The fact that this is often carried over into Christianity is because those who claim to profess Christ have never seen the Truth about themselves. Thus, they continue on in this delusion.
Self-righteousness is deception; it is truly a delusion. But self-righteousness is also SIN. It is unbelief. Although usually in ignorance, it is a denial of not only what Jesus DID, but it is also a denial of who He IS in the believer. There simply is NO righteousness in any human being by nature. The only righteousness that exists, or that God has to give, is a Person. Jesus Christ is the righteousness of God who dwells in each born again believer. Christ is, “made to be unto us, “….righteousness.”
What we see here is that when we put our faith in Jesus Christ, God does IMPUTE to us the righteousness of Christ, and does IMPUTE to Christ our sin. But that is only the legal description of what happens. The reality is that God IMPARTS to us Christ Himself – joins us to Him in spirit – and because Christ is the righteousness of God, when we are joined to Him, He is our righteousness. Thus, to continue under the delusion of self-righteousness means that, “Christ is of no effect,” for us. (see Gal. 5:4) He may as well not be dwelling in us, for our faith is not in Him, but in our own righteousness.
The solution is that God must expose our self-righteousness for what it is: A delusion. Sin. A lie. He often does this by simply letting us do the inevitable: Fail. Only then will many of us become open enough to see that Jesus Christ is the only answer.
Christian people display their self-righteousness between two extremes: Either by continually beating themselves up over their failures, or by continually exalting themselves. But BOTH are a quest for self-righteousness, based in blindness to Christ. And BOTH are a pre-occupation with MYSELF. If we see the Truth, we will be delivered from self – which equals being delivered from self-righteousness. And we will begin to put our faith in ONE OTHER THAN OURSELVES – Jesus Christ, the Righteousness of God.