My Goodness?

My Goodness?

They are pure in their own eyes, but they are filthy and unwashed.

Proverbs 30:12

We are all infected and impure with sin. When we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags. Like autumn leaves, we wither and fall, and our sins sweep us away like the wind.

Isaiah 64:6

They don’t understand God’s way of making people right with himself. Refusing to accept God’s way, they cling to their own way of getting right with God by trying to keep the law.

Romans 10:3

You’ve probably apologized to God for plenty of things you’ve done wrong. But have you ever thought of asking forgiveness for good things you’ve done? Sometimes we need to say we’re sorry for doing certain good things because our motives for doing them have been wrong. If we’ve done them to try to impress God or other people, then that is self-righteousness. Self-righteousness is the goodness we’ve worked up on our own instead of the righteousness of Christ that is given to us as a gift.

Self-righteousness is the list inside our heads of what we’ve done or who we are that makes us acceptable to God and certainly, we think, better than the average person around us—our church attendance, our donations to charity, our self-sacrificial service. Self-righteousness keeps us thinking about other people who need to hear a sermon or shape up their lives, rather than seeing our own need for repentance. The opposite of self-righteousness is total dependence on the righteousness of Jesus—righteousness that is given to us to make us acceptable to God. When we agree with God’s opinion of our efforts to be good—that they’re all useless, all tainted with bad motives—we come to God and live before other people empty handed, with nothing good of our own to offer. And God gives us his own goodness.

DISCUSSION STARTERS

What are some of the good things people do that they believe will make them acceptable to God?

What’s the difference between allowing God’s righteousness to shine through your life and relying on your own righteousness?

Why would Isaiah say that our righteousness is like filthy rags?