The funniest thing about people is that it's in our nature to earn things. That isn't necessarily a bad thing as long as we can afford it. But Christ's love and forgiveness are given as free gifts, and we will never be able to pay Him back...yet so many try to earn the righteousness of God.
Through God's laws, we are given a glimpse of the weight of God's standards for holiness. The law wasn't meant to show us what we should do, but rather what we can never do to earn God's favour. Every single one of us will fall short of God's absolute standard for purity and holiness. Romans 3:23 puts it simply for us: "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (ESV).
But we need to be righteous. We need to be right with God because unless we are, we will be far from God; separation from God will always mean the void of blessings and the presence of pain and destruction. God is the light that shines upon us so that we may experience all things that are good. We can never be righteous on our own. We just can't.
But the best news of all is that righteousness was made available to us in a new and revolutionary way. God didn't lower the standard; it has been and will always be absolute purity. What God did was exchange our unrighteousness for the righteousness of Christ so that we may walk in His blessing and redemption.
Jesus takes our dirty records and swaps them with His clean slate so that we may walk in God's goodness. So many people are trying to earn their way into salvation. It's like God has carved a new and shorter road to Him but people are still taking the long and winding dirt road.
Ephesians 2:8–9 tells us, "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast" (ESV). The tendency of man's pride is to drive us to independence because we always have to feel that we can make it on our own. But the truth is that—where it matters most, righteousness and salvation—we can never make it on our own. We need a Divine intervention and Jesus has given us just that.
Righteousness can never be earned. It can only be given unto us, and Christ has paid the price in full so that we may receive His righteousness and walk in it fully, knowing that it is only in believing in Him do we earn the right to approach and walk with God.
