Self Righteousness

"All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes; but the LORD weigheth the spirits." (Proverbs 16: 2)

"Every way of a man is right in his own eyes: but the LORD pondereth the hearts." (Proverbs 21: 2)

"The way of a fool is right in his own eyes..." (Proverbs 12: 15)

"There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness." (Proverbs 30: 12)

"Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!" (Isaiah 5: 21)

These verses emphasize a negative trait in fallen man, in everyone who is a sinner, in all who have a hard and spiritually rebellious heart.

Sinful man is given to self righteousness and self justification. He is very much unwilling to acknowledge his sin or his evil nature. The sinner is like the ugly witch, in the fairy tale, who saw in the mirror on the wall a beautiful rather than an ugly reflection. She did not see herself for who she was really. She was deceived about her true self. So too is every sinner.

Jesus confronted this sin and stumblingblock head on, as the prophets also did before him.

"And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God." (Luke 16: 15)

"But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour?" (Luke 10: 29)

Jesus saw this universal tendency to self righteousness and to self justification as one of the chief things keeping sinners from true righteousness and genuine justification before God and his broken law. To teach men more clearly about this matter, Jesus preached the following.

"And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted." (Luke 18: 9-14)

Every sinner who has confessed his sin, as did the publican, from a truly contrite and penitent heart, softened by divine grace, finds real justification, genuine heart felt forgiveness in conscience, and no longer is given to self righteousness. Wrote Paul:

"Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth." (Romans 10: 1-4)

Thus, the very heart of the Christian experience, that which forms part of the phenomenon of being "born again" of the Holy Spirit, is this riddance of the propensity to self righteousness and the replacement, in the soul, of a propensity to find righteousness and justification, before God, through Christ and his holy life and his sacrificial death.

Sin, for the newly born Christian soul, will not be hard to admit, as it once was, when he was in sin and given to self justification, but will be ready to own the shame of his sin, anxious to confess them to God and before the saints, and find continual forgiveness in behaving as the publican in the Temple. The Christian can say with Job:

"If I justify myself, mine own mouth shall condemn me: if I say, I am perfect, it shall also prove me perverse." (Job 9: 20)

Christians have been shown the evil of self righteousness and have been delivered from it. That is not to say that it is not ever visible in Christians, for many of them certainly do commit this sin, for they attempt to justify themselves in their sins, rather than confessing them; but, it does say that the true Christian does not practice this sin regularly as do unforgiven and unrenewed sinners. No sinner will be free from this sin until God open his eyes to see his true condition, until he is fully convicted of his sin, and until his own righteousness is shown to be as "filthy rags" (Isaiah 64: 6), and until he sees the preciousness of the righteousness of Christ made available to such sinners.

"The transgression of the wicked saith within my heart, that there is no fear of God before his eyes. For he flattereth himself in his own eyes, until his iniquity be found to be hateful." (Psalm 36: 1, 2)

Sinner friend, has God shown you your evil heart? Has he made the evil in your heart and life "hateful" and odious to you? If so, I urge you to pray as did the publican, "God, be merciful to me a sinner!"