When You Trust In Your Merits

Religious people have a tendency to list their merits because they think by them they know they are loved and accepted by God. The grace given to us by God is through faith. Paul wrote the church in Ephesus:

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 (Ephesians 2:8-9).

Noticed Paul said, "it is not your own doing." Grace is based on the work of God through the death of Christ on the cross. Grace has been defined as "unmerited favor." For years, I did not know what that meant, but now I know, it means Grace is unearned nor can our own efforts make us earn grace.

So when people start listening their religious accomplishments, it means the grace of God is not enough for them. Religious people tend to trust their own merits more God for their salvation. The Apostle Paul knew that boasting in his religious accomplishments meant nothing compared to Christ:

though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith (Philippians 3:4-9)

Paul all those religious accomplishments are rubbish which in the King James Version is translated "dung." Paul's religious accomplishments are nothing but a sticky pile of crap.

When you trust in your merits, you are trusting in crap because you are wanting a righteousness of your own. Paul considered his merits trash so He may gain Christ and having a righteousness that is not his own but only the one that comes through faith. When we put our faith in Jesus, we gain His righteousness, which is a righteousness apart from the law (see Romans 3:21-26).