No matter how many good works a person does, they cannot be righteous by their works because only God and Christ are Righteous!
Romans 4
“4 Now to the one who works, wages are not credited as a gift but as an obligation.
5 However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness.
6 David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the one to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:
7 “Blessed are those whose transgressions are forgiven,
whose sins are covered.
8 Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord will never count against them.
God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. 25 He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.”
If a person tries to attain salvation through their efforts, then they will get the wages from God.
What are those wages? Romans 6 says that the wages of sin is death.
Romans 3 says that all people have sinned and fallen short of God’s perfect righteousness. A sinner is any person who falls short of God’s perfect righteousness.
So then every human being who trusts in his own works is a sinner who will get his deserved wages of judgment because he is not perfect as GOD!
You see, the work needed to save us is impossible by human strength, wisdom or righteousness. No person can enter God’s presence in heaven by their own merit.
What is the Gospel?
God sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ who never sinned but lived a perfect and righteous life.
Jesus Christ died for our sins (imperfections) and then God raised Him from the dead to JUSTIFY US (make us righteous).
We can be made righteous without doing any works but only by TRUSTING in God who raised Jesus from the dead.
Therefore the person who does not work for his salvation but TRUSTS in God’s ability to make the ungodly as righteous – is the one who receives the Righteousness of God.
We cannot do any works to be righteous.
The work to make us righteous was ONLY DONE BY JESUS.
God RAISED Him from the dead to make the believer RIGHTEOUS!
Only the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ can make a person righteous!
Everyone who believes in Jesus Christ without trusting in their works,
receives the forgiveness of sins and the Righteousness of GOD Himself as a FREE GIFT.
But those who do not believe in Christ will receive their wage of death.
To believe in Jesus is to repent from sin and love one another.
The true believer will not be perfect but will also not live in willful sin/wickedness.
God will NEVER impute sin to the BELIEVER but has imputed His own Righteousness to us through Jesus Christ!
This is His promise through Christ’s death and Resurrection for every believer!
Mathew Simon 