Summary
As human beings, we have no righteousness of our own. God only sees us as righteous if we have faith, because then He sees us covered in the blood of Christ. That is, only by faith does Christ’s righteousness becomes our own—and there is no other way for humans to be justified before God. So we are only saved by faith alone in Christ alone.
Content
Are we righteous? On our own? Absolutely not. We are only righteous because we have been washed clean in the blood of Christ. God sees us as righteous only because He sees us covered in the righteousness of Jesus.
Our righteousness is “by faith from first to last” (Romans 1:17). It is not of ourselves, but of Christ. And the only way we take hold of it is through simple faith—nothing more, and nothing less.
We need to get this bit right, because we truly can do nothing on our own. We cannot work our way into heaven in the slightest, because salvation is only by grace through faith, not by works (Ephesians 2:8-10).
Romans 3:23 and James 3:2 makes it clear that all sin. Compare also 1 John 1:8-10. This is why by nature we are objects of God’s wrath. If Christ had not died for us, our condemnation would be just. Let that sink for a minute. If God had not seen fit to sacrifice His only Son upon the cross to pay the price of our redemption, our eternal damnation would not be God being some sort of angry tyrant, but Him merely upholding justice. This is our starting point as humans.
So we’d best get through our heads that any righteousness we have does not come from us, but from God. We can choose to submit to the Holy Spirit to a greater or lesser degree (that is, more or less, what free will is all about for us)—but nonetheless, if God is the one providing the means and doing the work, how can we possibly claim it as our own?
And this is why even when we act righteously, it is not because we are righteous, but because He is righteous. Praise God that, by faith, He gives us the chance to take Christ’s righteousness as our own!