Westview Church

[1] Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. [2] For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. [3] For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness. [4] For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. (Romans 10:1-4 ESV)

Paul's talking about Judaism in specific here and contrasting it with the gospel. However, though he is specifically talking about Judaism, the principle he puts forth applies to moralists of all different branding and religions. It applies to both Catholic moralists, and even evangelical Christian moralists. It's easy to read passages like this and say "yeah, you tell those Jews Paul," but when we look in the mirror of God's word and actually apply it to ourselves and our own team it is very humbling.

I believe that it's possible for a moralistic, legalistic Christian to be saved, but their zeal is definitely not according to knowledge! How utterly foolish we are to substitute our own frail polluted "righteousness" for the perfect righteousness we have in Christ in an attempt to prop our own selves up and feel OK about ourselves. The gospel comes against our "righteousness," and any feeling OK about ourselves that we do, with the force of a sledgehammer and leaves us helpless on our knees in desperate need of a Savior as the only possible hope we have left. This is the glorious beatdown that has to occur so that we can finally submit ourselves to God's righteousness provided to us in Christ! There we find true OKness that is based on Christ as an unshakable foundation that is the most solid thing imaginable, undergirding even the physical forces that hold our universe together (Col 1:17, Heb 1:3)! 

For us to truly cling to that powerful and perfect righteousness it will mean one thing: the death of us. To die to our own righteousness is to, in a very real sense, follow Jesus to Golgotha and crucify any righteousness that we could have ever hoped to bring to the table in our own selves; and to cling fully and completely to the One who substituted His righteousness at the cross for our unrighteousness. Thank God that Christ ended the law for righteousness for those who are humbled enough to despair of any hope in their own selves and simply cling in faith to the only real source of hope. That is the gospel where God gets all the glory and we get exactly none of it. This gospel's enemy Moralism flees at its sound.