We are Reform Adventists. We keep the Sabbath, we pay our tithes, we are vegetarians, and we also do missionary work. We would not kill anyone, or steal anything, nor would we speak a lie. But there is one danger to us as Reformers and that is self-righteousness. Sister White writes, “There is nothing so offensive to God or so dangerous to the human soul as pride and self-sufficiency. Of all sins it is the most hopeless, the most incurable.” –Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 154
Jesus said, “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.” Luke 18:11–12
A self-righteous person feels that he is better and holier than others, and he is proud of it. Self-righteousness is what brought destruction to the city of Jerusalem. It is Satan’s deception into which many fall. If Satan cannot tempt them to do other sins, he makes them feel that they are better than others, and this spiritual pride separates them from God.
“There are hindrances to be removed. Wrong feelings have been cherished, and there have been pride, self-sufficiency, impatience, and murmurings. All these separate us from God.” –Selected Messages, bk. 1, p. 350
A self-righteous person may not realize that he is separated from God. He continues his self-righteous religion, being blinded to his condition.
Also, self-righteous people condemn others, even to the point that they start persecuting those who believe different doctrines. Paul was seeking and bringing all who believed that Jesus was the Messiah to prison and to death, thinking that he was serving God by doing so.
The Catholic Church killed over 50 million Christians who did not believe in the Catholic teachings. This shows how far self-righteousness can lead someone to hating others. It begins with small things, and the self-righteous person often does not realize what he/she is doing, because they are blinded. Peter learned to know himself after he had denied Jesus. When the eyes of Peter met the eyes of Jesus and Peter saw no anger in Jesus’ eyes, even though he had denied that he knew Him. Peter’s heart was touched and afterwards he wept bitterly. Now he was truly converted. His self-righteousness was gone. The eyes of Paul were opened when he met Jesus on the way to Damascus. Jesus did not show anger towards him, even though he was on the way to bring Christian prisoners to Jerusalem. Paul learned to know himself, and that is why he called himself the chief of sinners. His self-righteousness was also gone at that moment. He became a great missionary for the rest of his life.
Self-righteousness puts a person in a lukewarm condition. They will be blinded and will not see, or recognize, their true condition. Therefore, they may not be desperately seeking God’s help. If self-righteous people would realize their fallen condition, they would hunger and thirst after righteousness. All who do so will be filled.
If we remain for a long time in a self-righteous condition, eventually it will become sin against the Holy Spirit, and our salvation will be gone forever. The best way to know ourselves and see our real condition is to see, and think, of Christ’s suffering and dying on the cross, and then compare His life to our own.
Isaiah writes, “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.” Isaiah 64:6
Anything we do ourselves in our human power is not the righteousness of Christ. His righteousness goes beyond the Ten Commandments. It includes the second mile. The Ten Commandments do not say that the innocent is to take the punishment of the guilty, but Jesus did it. We are also to sacrifice for others and to even love our enemies.
“All heaven is astonished at the terrible indifference of the human agents. Men who are themselves tempted to fall into sin, and need pardon, are yet full of self-sufficiency, and are unfeeling toward a brother who is ensnared by the enemy, and whose need and peril should call out Christlike sympathy and effort to plant his feet on the solid Rock.
“There is a most fearful, fatal deception upon human minds. Because men are in positions of trust, connected with the work of God, they are exalted in their own estimation, and do not discern that other souls, fully as precious in the sight of God as their own, are neglected, and handled roughly, and bruised, and wounded, and left to die.” –Testimonies to Ministers, p. 356
The Laodicean angel, which is the leaders of the church, fell into self-righteous blindness. “Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.” Revelation 3:17
Yet there is hope for a person who has fallen into such a condition. The next verse, Revelation 3:18 says, “I counsel thee to buy of Me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.”
The following verse tells us what God will do to help us to escape the danger of self-righteousness. “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.” Revelation 3:19
We need to be thankful for the rebuke and chastening of the Lord; He does it because He loves us. If we complain and murmur, then God has to leave us alone. God said to Ancient Israel, “Your carcases shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against Me.” Numbers 14:29
Mary Magdalene did not understand how Jesus could forgive all her sins; then she beheld the cross and understood that Jesus took her place upon it, that she can go free. She realized the price Jesus had to pay for her forgiveness. This won her heart and she became one of His most loyal followers.
This is the theme that we can never fully understand. If we keep the scenes of Calvary before our eyes daily, then this world will lose its attractiveness to us. All what the world offers seem to us as vain and empty.
The marvellous truth is that all what we learn of Christ and His character is being offered to us in one gift—the righteousness of Christ; the goodly pearl, for which the merchant man was willing to sell all that he had in order to purchase. The price seems high but what we get is a million times more valuable.
May the Lord help that this robe of righteousness that Christ offers will not be a robe unworn, nor the fountain of life be untouched but that we all, like the Apostle Paul, will be willing to pay the price to receive the fullness of God for ourselves.
We must avoid like leprosy this danger of self-righteousness, which can end up as sin against the Holy Spirit. In the finishing work in this world, God will not use any self-sufficient, self-righteous persons. Sister White writes that, “The Lord uses humble men to proclaim His messages.” –Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, p. 253. Jesus will teach us true humility; He said that He is meek and lowly. Amen.
Timo Martin