46 Bible Verses about Self Righteousness, And The Gospel

Yes, I know what you’ve said is true,
but how can a person be justified before God?

The men of Beth-shemesh asked, “Who is able to stand in the presence of this holy Lord God? Who should the ark go to from here?”

“Can a person be more righteous than God,
or a man more pure than his Maker?”

What is man, that he should be pure,
or one born of woman, that he should be righteous?

Then Elihu son of Barachel the Buzite from the family of Ram became angry. He was angry at Job because he had justified himself rather than God.

Would you really challenge My justice?
Would you declare Me guilty to justify yourself?

Yahweh, if You considered sins,
Lord, who could stand?

For no one will be justified in His sight by the works of the law, because the knowledge of sin comes through the law.

But Israel, pursuing the law for righteousness, has not achieved the righteousness of the law.

know that no one is justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ. And we have believed in Christ Jesus so that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no human being will be justified.

Now it is clear that no one is justified before God by the law, because the righteous will live by faith.

For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift— not from works, so that no one can boast.

He saved us—
not by works of righteousness that we had done,
but according to His mercy,
through the washing of regeneration
and renewal by the Holy Spirit.

For everything that belongs to the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride in one’s lifestyle—is not from the Father, but is from the world.

When they sin against You—
for there is no one who does not sin—
and You are angry with them
and hand them over to the enemy,
and their captors deport them
to a distant or nearby country,

All of us have become like something unclean,
and all our righteous acts are like a polluted garment;
all of us wither like a leaf,
and our iniquities carry us away like the wind.

Lord God of Israel, You are righteous, for we survive as a remnant today. Here we are before You with our guilt, though no one can stand in Your presence because of this.

All have turned away;
all alike have become corrupt.
There is no one who does good,
not even one.

Lord, righteousness belongs to You, but this day public shame belongs to us: the men of Judah, the residents of Jerusalem, and all Israel—those who are near and those who are far, in all the countries where You have dispersed them because of the disloyalty they have shown toward You.

as it is written:

There is no one righteous, not even one.

Put no more trust in man,
who has only the breath in his nostrils.
What is he really worth?

“When I choose a time,
I will judge fairly.
When the earth and all its inhabitants shake,
I am the One who steadies its pillars.Selah
I say to the boastful, ‘Do not boast,’
and to the wicked, ‘Do not lift up your horn.

This is what the Lord says:

The man who trusts in mankind,
who makes human flesh his strength
and turns his heart from the Lord is cursed.

For I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Because they disregarded the righteousness from God and attempted to establish their own righteousness, they have not submitted themselves to God’s righteousness.

The Lord has made His victory known;
He has revealed His righteousness
in the sight of the nations.

I am bringing My justice near;
it is not far away,
and My salvation will not delay.
I will put salvation in Zion,
My splendor in Israel.

My righteousness is near,
My salvation appears,
and My arms will bring justice to the nations.
The coastlands will put their hope in Me,
and they will look to My strength.

This is what the Lord says:

The wise man must not boast in his wisdom;
the strong man must not boast in his strength;
the wealthy man must not boast in his wealth.
But the one who boasts should boast in this,
that he understands and knows Me—
that I am Yahweh, showing faithful love,
justice, and righteousness on the earth,
for I delight in these things.
This is the Lord’s declaration.

For in it God’s righteousness is revealed from faith to faith, just as it is written: The righteous will live by faith.

and everyone who believes in Him is justified from everything that you could not be justified from through the law of Moses.

But it is from Him that you are in Christ Jesus, who became God-given wisdom for us—our righteousness, sanctification, and redemption,

He made the One who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

Therefore, since we have been declared righteous by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

For through the Spirit, by faith, we eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness.

For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift—

“But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even raise his eyes to heaven but kept striking his chest and saying, ‘God, turn Your wrath from me—a sinner!’ I tell you, this one went down to his house justified rather than the other; because everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By one of works? No, on the contrary, by a law of faith.

If Abraham was justified by works, he has something to brag about—but not before God.

in order that, as it is written: The one who boasts must boast in the Lord.

For who makes you so superior? What do you have that you didn’t receive? If, in fact, you did receive it, why do you boast as if you hadn’t received it?

If boasting is necessary, I will boast about my weaknesses.

But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Therefore, I will most gladly boast all the more about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may reside in me.

For even the circumcised don’t keep the law themselves; however, they want you to be circumcised in order to boast about your flesh. But as for me, I will never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. The world has been crucified to me through the cross, and I to the world.

not from works, so that no one can boast.

But everything that was a gain to me, I have considered to be a loss because of Christ. More than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Because of Him I have suffered the loss of all things and consider them filth, so that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own from the law, but one that is through faith in Christ—the righteousness from God based on faith.