I was watching an apologetics debate between a Christian scholar and a high-ranking rabbi from New York City. During the discourse, the rabbi said something that startled me. He said, “I’ve never sinned”. He believed that he was absolutely righteous: whereas in truth, he was absolutely self-righteous. This rabbi actually thought that he was worthy of Heaven on his own merit. He thought that he had kept the law perfectly in all its nuance. It makes me wonder if he had actually ever read the Torah; As opposed to studying what other people said about it (in the Talmud).
His overestimation of himself belittles God. He trivializes the Almighty’s righteousness by having the chutzpah to assert that his sorry arse has been self-elevated to the heights of God’s holiness. He doesn’t think too highly of God’s perfection.
“But the people of Israel, who pursued the law as the way of righteousness, have not attained their goal. Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone. As it is written: "See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall, and the one who believes in him will never be put to shame.” (Rom 9:31-33 NIV)
Without the recognition that we are sinners in need of God’s grace, we can never please God. And if we can never please God, then His salvation will never greet us when we take that final dirt nap. Instead of being welcomed into the pearly gates and seeing the streets of pure gold, the unremedied sinner will only find God’s wrath in the hereafter. God’s wrath must be satiated (for His wrath is Just), and it will be satiated either by our acceptance of His salvation through His Son Jesus Christ (before we die), or by the lake of burning sulphur (after we die).
