A DECEPTIVE RIGHTEOUSNESS: Inoculating Ourselves from Truth
Philippians 3:8b-9 … that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ–the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.
King Saul was a mentally unstable and emotionally insecure king, and perhaps a perfect case study for the deception and destructive nature of self-righteousness. Though he started his kingship in humility (1 Sam 9:21; 1 15:18), was touched and changed by the Spirit (1 Sam 10:9), and had great promise (1 Sam 10:1, 6-7), he quickly descended into the ugliness of self-righteousness. He blatantly disobeyed the Lord by not waiting for Samuel to perform a sacrifice before a battle. He mistakenly thought he was righteous and spiritual enough to bypass the command, justifying it because the deed itself was a good deed, and he himself was prophetic (1 Sam 13:12-13). “Is Saul also among the prophets?” (1 Sam 10:10-11) Self-righteousness hides behind religious activity - good, religious activity; right, spiritually sound, religious activity. This is why it is so deceptive. Saul was doing good things for God. He was increasing in righteousness and spiritual authority, except he wasn't. Rather, he was spiraling downward in unbelief, which eventually engulfed him in demonic oppression and psychological paranoia (1 Sam 16:14; 18:9-12). He was getting more demonized all while thinking he was getting more spiritual, perhaps the scariest deception of self-righteousness. His kingship and his life had a miserable ending.
We religious folk who have tasted of the Holy Spirit, been changed by His presence, stepped into His purposes with healthy fear and humility, can just as easily be hoodwinked into tying our self-esteem to our righteousness. We can begin to think too highly of ourselves, ascending to a self-imposed status of prophet (or prophetess), apostle, pastor, or teacher, and increasing in spiritual authority, forgetting that none of this comes from us, and that we are still extraordinarily dependent on Christ. Without a reality check, we spiral out of control into unwise and misleading activities, which can end in faithlessness and scandal, all while thinking we're spiritually ascending. Who can know the heart? (Jer 17:9) Charm is deceitful, says the author of Proverbs 31:30, and we are certainly capable of charming ourselves, one gloating accomplishment for which self-righteousness boasts.
The practical goal of self-righteousness is to feel good about ourselves, and the one enemy of that is the nagging sense of shame that tends to drag us down emotionally; the Sermon on the Mount doesn't help, as Jesus takes all outward commands and sets their target on the motives of the heart. It's not enough that we avoid committing sexual sin or murder; we mustn't foster these things in our hearts and minds. Jesus basically says that if we harbor anger with our brother, we are essentially murderers, and if we look at another person to stir lustful feelings, we are adulterers of heart (Matt 5:21-30). Who can pass this test? This is automatic shame and condemnation for all. Yet, there is one remedy, and only one.
True righteousness has a mechanism in place to deal with such dismal news. We who are in Christ are both unshamable (Rom 10:11) and uncondemnable (Rom 8:1) “because through Christ the law of the Spirit of life” sets us free from all of what the Bible calls sin and death (Rom 8:2). We are justified and made righteous by faith (Rom 1:17; 3:21-31; Phil 3:8-10). Bad thoughts condemn us, but right faith redeems us, and this is the nature of true righteousness. We own our condition in humility, and He exalts us in mercy (Jms 4:10). How do we know if we are living in the right kind of righteousness? Practically, it is seen in genuine humility and real obedience.
