When God declares us righteous, He sees us that way regardless of what we do. The enemy always opposes what God says, and therefore uses guilt to try to get us to doubt God’s Word; however, believing more in our own good works than in God’s goodness makes us self-righteous. Righteousness is a gift from God. Our righteousness in His eyes is not based on all the good things we do, but on our complete dependence and faith in His infinite love and grace as expressed through Jesus Christ. This is not what most churches teach; religion tells us we must work hard to obey the law of self-effort and dependency on ourselves to do right. Taking pride in our performance and boasting about it is unrighteousness. Only through total reliance on God are we delivered from this trap.
