Self-righteousness and the distortion of the gospel

Written on 17 November 2025

Self-righteousness and the distortion of the gospel

Self-righteousness is a recurring theme in scripture, where people try to establish their own righteousness instead of submitting to the righteousness of God. In modern times, some forms of preaching focus heavily on exposing self-righteousness in churches, yet end up building a new kind of self-righteous system around personal performance, radical separation and religious intensity. This article examines that pattern in light of the KJV gospel of grace.

Self-righteousness as a religious power

A common and accurate observation is that many professing Christians will defend their church, tradition or doctrine even when confronted with clear scripture. Pride and fear of being wrong lead to arguments, avoidance, and hostility. This reflects the biblical picture of those who trust in themselves that they are righteous and despise others.

However, some preachers build an entire system around this observation and treat nearly all churchgoers as enemies of the cross, assuming that:

• Most who begin with God end up on the broad road.
• Church structures are almost entirely self-righteous.
• Only a small, highly separated group are true disciples.

This can easily turn into another form of self-righteousness: being right because one has left church systems, sees through religious hypocrisy, and walks a supposedly narrower way than everyone else.

Confusing salvation with discipleship

One of the most serious doctrinal problems in such preaching is the blending of salvation and discipleship.

Typical claims in this style of teaching include:

• Initial forgiveness is not enough; you must be changed into the likeness of Christ to enter the kingdom.
• All of the old life must be executed before the new life can come, or you will not be saved.
• You must endure, surrender and press on, or you will not obtain life.

According to the KJV, this confuses two different truths:

• Salvation is a free gift, received by faith alone in Jesus Christ, apart from works.
• Discipleship is costly, involving cross-bearing, obedience, separation from the world and suffering for Christ.

When these are blended, the cost of discipleship is quietly imported as a condition of salvation. Eternal life then appears to depend on how fully a believer dies to self, surrenders, separates, or endures, instead of depending solely on the finished work of Jesus Christ.

Execution of the old man and positional truth

Some preaching insists that every believer must experience a kind of personal execution of the old man in order to be finally accepted by God. The language can be very strong: that God wants the old life dead, not modified, and that a believer is only fit for heaven after this death has been fully worked out.

The KJV certainly teaches that:

• The old man is crucified with him so that we should not serve sin.
• Believers are called to reckon themselves dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ.

Yet this is firstly a positional truth in Christ, received at salvation, not a prerequisite process that must be completed to become saved. Growth in holiness and practical conformity to Christ are the fruit of salvation, not the root of it. When the execution of the old man is turned into a condition to enter heaven, the ground of assurance shifts from Christ alone to the believer’s internal state and level of transformation.

Sheep, goats and the broad road

Another repeated theme in this kind of message is a strong use of the broad road and the separation of sheep and goats:

• Many are portrayed as having genuinely started with the Lord but now walking as enemies of the cross.
• The majority of professing believers are described as broad-road people who will be rejected.
• The language of Matthew 7:21–23 (Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name?) is applied directly to such believers.

From a KJV standpoint:

• Sheep and goats are separated by the Son of man when he shall come in his glory and sit upon the throne of his glory, at a future judgment scene.
• Matthew 7:21–23 describes people who trusted in their many wonderful works rather than in Christ himself.

When these passages are applied wholesale to born-again believers as though most of them will ultimately be cast away, the result is deep insecurity and a denial in practice of the Lord’s own promise:

• And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.

Sickness, chastisement and speculation

Some messages go on to interpret severe illness, rapid decline or early death among professing Christians as obvious evidence of divine chastisement on self-righteous enemies of the cross. Named examples may be used: a person loses all money, falls ill, enters a coma, or dies of cancer, and this is presented as a likely judgment from God.

Scripture does teach that God chastens His children. However, the KJV also shows righteous believers suffering sickness and weakness without any hint that this is punishment:

• Paul speaks of his own infirmities.
• Timothy is told to use a little wine for his stomach’s sake and often infirmities.
• Epaphroditus was sick nigh unto death, but God had mercy on him.

To publicly link specific illnesses or tragedies to God’s curse is highly speculative and risks imitating the error of Job’s friends, whom the Lord rebuked.

Separation versus sectarian isolation

One strong emphasis in this type of preaching is separation:

• Do not continue speaking of the things of God with those who argue.
• Avoid spiritual conversation with resistant family members.
• Withdraw from church systems that you judge to be self-righteous.
• Treat many environments as goat territory where spiritual discussion is casting pearls before swine.

The KJV does indeed call for separation from false doctrine and unholy living. Yet it also urges:

• Patience and meekness in instructing those that oppose themselves.
• A desire for all men to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.

There is a biblical balance: separation from false teaching and corrupt practice, without sliding into a small, self-confirming circle which views almost everyone else as reprobate and beyond hope.

The KJV gospel of grace and imputed righteousness

The heart of the matter is the gospel itself. The KJV presents:

• Man as a sinner, unable to justify himself by works of law or religious effort.
• Christ as the one who once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.
• Salvation as a free gift received by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ.
• Righteousness as something God imputes to the believer apart from works.

Any teaching that makes final acceptance with God depend on:

• How fully the old life has been executed,
• How consistently one has endured,
• How deep one’s separation from others has become,

moves the ground of assurance from Christ alone to Christ plus personal performance. This is precisely the pattern of self-righteousness that scripture condemns, even when it is wrapped in language about the cross, narrow way, or spiritual depth.

Practical discernment

For those who listen to intense, anti-church preaching that strongly exposes religious hypocrisy, several points of discernment are helpful:

• Test whether the gospel presented is truly grace. Is eternal life offered as a free gift through faith in Christ alone, or is it tied to levels of surrender, transformation and endurance?
• Watch for spiritual elitism. Does the message produce humility and gratitude, or a sense of belonging to a small, superior remnant?
• Be cautious with speculative judgments. Sickness, poverty or calamity in others are not reliable indicators of God’s curse.
• Distinguish salvation from discipleship. Following Christ closely is right and good, but it is not the price paid to obtain eternal life.
• Cling to the promises of scripture. The KJV promises that the believer hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation but is passed from death unto life.

A message that denounces self-righteousness can itself become a refined form of self-righteousness if it shifts trust away from the finished work of Jesus Christ and onto supposed spiritual intensity, separation, or narrowness. True freedom from self-righteousness is found not in a more radical program of religious death, but in resting by faith in the righteousness of Christ imputed to the ungodly who believe.

References

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