Self-Righteousness

a deceptive force

Scripture Reading: Luke 11:37-53

              Self-righteous. It’s one of those words that needs to be defined. Often, it is used as a pejorative. We call anyone who says sin is sin or anyone won’t join us in our evil “self-righteous.” In our world, pursuing holiness is seen as being self-righteous. But that’s not what self-righteousness is.  Not from a biblical perspective.

              So, what is it? It is exactly what the word sounds like it is. It is a righteousness that comes from and is produced by one’s self. The self-righteous person relies upon their works to justify them before God. They do not rely upon what Christ has done but upon what they are doing.

              This lawyer whose actions prompted Jesus to tell the story of the Good Samaritan is a perfect picture of self-righteousness. He asks Jesus, “who is my neighbor,” because “he desired to justify himself.” That is what the self-righteous person does. They justify themselves. In contrast, the Christian is justified by Christ. While they might fall into an attitude of self-righteousness, no true Christian can be self-righteous because they are justified by Christ and not by their own righteousness.

              Self-righteousness is not as easy to discern as we think. The way the charge of self-righteousness is tossed around, it appears most people think self-righteousness is as easy to spot as a pimple on a nose. But is it? Not according to Jesus. According to Jesus, the self-righteous don’t see it in themselves and other people don’t see it in them either.

              In the text, we read that Jesus was hammering a Pharisee about self-righteousness. Jesus could spot it easily because, well, he is God. Jesus uses a lot of “woes.” Woe is from the Hebrew “oy” and later became the Yiddish “oy vey.” It means “you are in big trouble” when spoken about someone else, or “I have big problems” when someone says it about themselves.

              The Lord pointed out the hypocrisy of the Pharisee’s religious practices. Their religion was an external show. They emphasized the non-essentials and ignored the weightier matters of faith. They were personally proud of their strict religiosity and harshly critical of those outside their own circles. The underlying issue was self-righteousness. They believed that their goodness would justify them before God. That is a huge problem. Oy vey!

              The kicker is, they didn’t see this about themselves. They were true believers in their own goodness. They were self-deceived. That is an even bigger problem. It is one thing to be blind, it is another to be blind and think you see. That is the Pharisees. Oy vey!

              While the Pharisees were blind to their self-righteousness, they weren’t the only ones. We hear the name “Pharisee” in a negative light, but people in Jesus’ time looked on them as paragons of holiness. Therefore, Jesus described them as unmarked graves that people ignorantly walked over. What is that about? If you walked on a grave you were ceremonially unclean and could not participate in the spiritual life of the Jewish people. Jesus was saying that the Pharisees made everyone they came in contact with spiritually worse off. But the people couldn’t see it because they were like “unmarked graves” In other words, the self-righteousness of the Pharisees wasn’t obvious to most people.  

              The Pharisees were deceived. The people were deceived. No one was able to discern the self-righteous nature of the Pharisee’s religion. That is a problem. Oy vey! We are no different today. People have a hard time recognizing their own self-righteousness or that of others. We label those who pursue holiness and sanctification as self-righteous, and that isn’t what self-righteousness is. And we fail to realize that people who are trusting in themselves to be justified before God are truly self-righteous.

              Self-righteousness isn’t easy to discern. Not like we assume it to be. Thankfully, Jesus comes to the rescue. He always does. He comes and shakes us out of our spiritual stupor. In the text, the Pharisee had invited Jesus over for dinner. Jesus gives him a tongue lashing. Some might read that and think Jesus was being rude. I read it and see that he was loving. The most unloving thing Jesus could have done was left that man in his delusion that his external piety was going to save him. He needed a wake-up call, and Jesus gave it to him. He does this kind of thing for us too. Through his word and the Holy Spirit, Jesus brings conviction of sin, he shakes us loose from our faith in our own righteousness.

              Are you self-righteous? No, I don’t mean are you’re trying to live a godly life. I mean are you trusting in your good works to save you? That is the essence of having a righteousness that comes from self. To be a Christian means, first of all, you realize you are not good enough to save yourself. You are a sinner. You have no righteousness to present before God that would cause him to declare you justified. But don’t stop there. A Christian not only realizes he or she can’t save themselves, they believe that Jesus can save them. They trust in Christ’s death and resurrection as being enough to give them forgiveness and a right standing before God. A Christian is not self-righteous, but Christ-righteous.              

              Which one are you? Because you are one or the other.