If you retain guilt and self-righteousness under it [root of your religion], those vipers will eat out all the vitals of it at length. Try and examine with greatest strictness every day, what ground your religion and hope of glory is built upon, whether it was laid by the hand of Christ. If not, it will never be able to endure the storm that must come against it; Satan will throw it all down, and great will be the fall thereof (Mat 7:27). Thomas Wilcox
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is all of grace from eternity past to eternity future. This grace flows from the self-sufficiency of God and is aimed at the glory of God. In this Gospel of Jesus Christ and in the Gospel of grace we see that glory of God in all He has done to glorify His name in the Gospel. Included in this Gospel is the imputed righteousness of Christ in which is the only righteousness acceptable to God. This comes to sinners by grace and grace alone and is based on nothing found in the sinner (who has nothing but sin) but is based on God Himself. It is in Christ alone that sinners are declared just and sinners are declared just based on the righteousness of Christ alone. It is in Christ that God declares sinners just and is Himself just in doing so.
The proud heart of man, however, is always turned to self-righteousness and is given to efforts to obtain and defend righteousness for self. This is not always in the open and obvious to any human, but the heart longs for something it can do to either obtain or earn righteousness for itself under any deception or guise. It is even possible for proud hearts to brag about the righteousness of Christ and in doing so secretly harbor the thought that it is obtaining righteousness in some way for doing so. A proud heart can pray, give alms, and fast and think that it is humble while in reality it is quite proud and seeking righteousness in its own way.
Matthew 6:1 “Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven.
One of the ways that is perhaps hidden from our eyes many times is when we want others to notice the good we do. Instead of doing it out of love for God and His glory, we do it from self-love and the desire for others to notice us and honor us. This is one way that we do things from a heart of self-righteousness, though we don’t think of it that way. A desire to be thought of as good or honored as good is a form of desiring to be seen as righteous. This is so common in professing churches and in religious circles, but the recognition of others is an accepted way (in our day) to get people to serve and do things. This is to say that we try to motivate people to do things from a sinful desire for honor which is self-righteousness, and this is to motivate them to do outwardly good things from a sinful motive. When human beings are motivated to do things in order to be noticed or honored, this is a motivation that is from self-righteousness. When human beings want to do things in order to notice themselves or be able to think highly of themselves, this is also self-righteousness. If those things are true, then we are presently living in a tidal way of self-righteousness. It is simply everywhere.
Self-righteousness and pride cannot be separated, though they can be distinguished. We are to live for the glory of God rather than the glory and honor of self, which should show us that if we seek for our own glory and honor we are idolaters and are seeking the glory of self rather than that of God. If we seek the glory of self and/or think of ourselves with satisfaction when we obtain a goal, this is nothing but self-righteousness and pride. Our hearts do not have to go around thinking of self as righteous in order to be guilty of self-righteousness, but simply seek to do things to get others to think highly of us, honor us, or simply to think highly of self. The heart, then, is vital in the area of self-righteousness and makes it possible for anything we do to be done in the way of self-righteousness.
If self-righteousness is impossible to escape without an examination of our hearts and a pursuit of a true righteousness by grace, then all people should search their hearts for this viper that destroys all vital and true religion. It does not matter how gifted a person is or what a person is in the professing Church, self-righteousness will absolutely destroy any hope of having Christ. This must be repented of and this must be pursued at all costs. A profession of faith and of a life of faith that is rooted in self-righteousness, even if it is hidden to our own eyes, is part of the broad road that leads to destruction. A deep-rooted love of self which is bound to each unregenerate heart will seek a righteousness of its own and from that same self-righteous pride will try to hide it and keep it hid from the eyes of self and of others. Self-righteousness is an abomination to God who seeks His own.
God Loves... Himself 
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