All temptations, Satan’s advantages, and our complainings, are laid in self-righteousness, and self-excellency. God pursues these, by setting Satan upon you, as Laban did Jacob for his images. These must be torn from you, be as unwilling as you will. These hinder Christ from coming in; and till Christ comes in, guilt will not go out; and where guilt is, there is hardness of heart; and therefore much guilt argues very little if anything of Christ. Thomas Willcox
In this, for those with eyes opened even a little by the Spirit of God, we can see the self-centered heart of humanity. Why are people tempted to sin? At this point, however, we must be careful. There is a lot of sin that people simply don’t recognize as sin and there is a lot of sin that people justify themselves regarding it. What we must say, then, is that sin is what God says it is and He sets it out very clearly for people to see. But once again, why are people tempted to sin even if they don’t know that it is sin? It is because of our own sinful and wicked hearts. Now this is not pleasant to hear and people will say that it is not positive. Perhaps not, but until the disease is diagnosed the cure will not be applied. The Lord Jesus Christ came to save sinners and not anyone else and only those who see themselves as sinners (bad ones) will flee to Christ for a total salvation and not just a little help.
We are tempted, interestingly enough, because of self-righteousness and a self-excellency. While the commercials of the day tells us that we deserve the product that are being sold, that is exactly what Satan would tell us. We may be tempted to sin in many ways, but because of our high views of self we will justify them to ourselves. Perhaps we will think that we deserve certain things because of our views of self-righteousness, but it can also be that we will say that because we deserve to let go a little bit because we have accomplished a lot of good in other cases. Self-righteousness blinds us to the nature of sin and to our own love for sin.
We complain because we think we are not being treated as well as we deserve. What we fail to see is that God treats us with great mercy in sending us trials that are beyond our internal and external abilities and strength, though indeed it does not feel like mercy. Our complaining, then, is indeed based on self-righteousness because those who see themselves as sinners by nature and actions know that anything outside of hell is far better than they deserve. Those who see themselves in the light know what great darkness is in them and that they are not as excellent as they want others to think that they are. Oh how the fallen heart desires others to think and speak highly of him or her, but also how the fallen heart desires to think highly of self.
It appears clear and in reality self-evident that the heart that has self-righteousness and a high view of self will not want to give up those views and will fight to keep them. It is God who must tear these things from the heart as self will never cast out self. One who is truly self-righteous will fight to keep thinking of self as righteous and one that has a high view of self will never think that self is sinful and must be cast out, so self will never cast out self as it is blinded by pride and self-righteousness. But God knows what is good for the soul and He loosens Satan (and our own hearts at times) who comes to do evil, but God wills good to the sinner who is attacked. The plan of God is to show sinners their self-righteousness and their exalted view of self in order to deliver them from those prideful things. The mercy of God is such that He inflicts pain in order to do good to the soul. Mercy is not always gentle and outwardly kind, but God does what is good for the soul and that is kind.
God stands in battle alignment against the proud, but He gives grace to the humble. But the problem is that a person cannot rid self of pride and grace can only come because of grace. This means that God must battle the pride in our hearts in order to deliver us. If God does not deliver us from our pride, then Christ will never dwell in us as He will not dwell in such an unholy temple. Sinners must be delivered from their pride or they will not have Christ, but no sinner can win the battle against the pride of self. How this shows us that sinners must bow before God and all of His providences toward them as He works to pluck and tear that terrible disease of pride from our hearts. How they will hate what comes from their own hearts as He destroys their self-righteousness and tears their imagined excellencies from their own eyes. While it is the hardest thing in the world to have self-righteousness and pride from the heart, it must happen if the soul is to have Christ. The mercies of God are so great that He inflicts people with great suffering in order to deliver them from what will hurt them from all eternity. A complete and whole submission is necessary to God, yet we will only have that by grace alone.
God Loves... Himself 
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