A righteousness from God is revealed...

'I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: 'The righteous will live by faith.
ROMANS 1:16-17


Have a careful look at a number of world religions and pseudo-Christian cults, asking the question: In this belief system, what is the basis on which we are accepted by this system's 'god' or 'gods', and on which we are 'saved' (or whatever the ultimate goal is in that system)? I have not personally checked out every belief system, but all that I have checked invariably place my ultimate destiny in my own hands, not in God's. When Paul states that 'in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed' he is flying in the face of all the religions of men and he is flying in the face of the automatic inclination of the human heart. In our sinfulness, in our pride, we do not want to be dependant on God, even when we are taking salvation from him. We want to cling to our independence even here at our point of destitution. We want to stand in his presence offering to him our own pitiful handful of 'righteousness'. But Paul says 'No!' Gospel salvation reveals a righteousness from God: a righteousness which includes no merit of our own, a righteousness which is sheer gift. As such it could never come from our own thoughts and ideas, for our ideas always give our own actions saving significance. It could only be God's idea, and it had to be 'revealed'.

-Rosemary Bardsley