A Self-Righteous Prig?

When preachers rebuke sinners for sin, especially publicly, they will often respond by accusing the preacher of being a self-righteous prig.

This accusation of self-righteousness misconstrues its true nature. When Jesus preached against self-righteousness, He carefully defined what He opposed: a person who trusts in his own righteousness before God.

Jesus' example is the Pharisee at prayer, who thinks his good works ensure his standing before God. Christ consistently taught that men's good deeds could never make them righteous before a perfect and holy God. Rather, it is the righteousness of Christ imputed to the sinner by God's grace that makes a man righteous before God.

Thus, the self-righteousness warned against in Scripture is works-based religion, which God will always reject.

The false accusation of self-righteousness is a rhetorical ploy to change the subject whenever sin is brought up. Rather than confront his sin, the sinner would rather change the subject to his false accusation against the preacher.

This is an example of an all-too common tactic in modern life: impugning the motives of your accuser so you don't have to address his claims.

The false accusation of self-righteousness is an unwarranted and unprovable claim to see the heart of the preacher, to assert that he only points out sin because he is proud of his own sinlessness.

But only God can judge the heart.

Indeed, the accuser of self-righteousness is actually guilty of the same thing. He preens in the fact that, whatever his faults, at least he's not self-righteous like the preacher!

Only the Lord Jesus was truly righteous in Himself, but He was judged guilty for our sins!