All Sinners Perish in our own Righteousness

Ecclesiastes 7:15-29

15 I have seen everything in my days of vanity:
There is a just man who perishes in his righteousness,
And there is a wicked man who prolongs life in his wickedness.

16 Do not be overly righteous,
Nor be overly wise:
Why should you destroy yourself?
17 Do not be overly wicked,
Nor be foolish:
Why should you die before your time?

18 It is good that you grasp this,
And also not remove your hand from the other;
For he who fears God will escape them all.

19 Wisdom strengthens the wise
More than ten rulers of the city.
20 For there is not a just man on earth who does good
And does not sin.

21 Also do not take to heart everything people say,
Lest you hear your servant cursing you.
22 For many times, also, your own heart has known
That even you have cursed others.

23 All this I have proved by wisdom.
I said, "I will be wise";
But it was far from me.

24 As for that which is far off and exceedingly deep,
Who can find it out?

25 I applied my heart to know,
To search and seek out wisdom and the reason of things,
To know the wickedness of folly,
Even of foolishness and madness.

26 And I find more bitter than death
The woman whose heart is snares and nets,
Whose hands are fetters.
He who pleases God shall escape from her,
But the sinner shall be trapped by her.

27 "Here is what I have found," says the Preacher,
"Adding one thing to the other to find out the reason,
28 Which my soul still seeks but I cannot find:
One man among a thousand I have found,
But a woman among all these I have not found.

29 Truly, this only I have found:
That God made man upright,
But they have sought out many schemes."

We are all sinners and perish in our own righteousness; only in Christ’s righteousness is there complete forgiveness from sin which cannot be taken away as we cannot be removed from his hand of mercy and grace.  There is no one on earth who does good and does not sin (Romans 3:23).  The only sinless perfection is in Jesus the Christ.  That is the hope we have in the resurrection on Easter, that we will rise from death to life not only now spiritually, but in the end bodily as well (John 11:25)!   The wicked who mock Christ and God’s word May live longer in this life than those pursuing good, but in the end their eternal life will be suffering while the righteous in Christ will find unending peace and joy their eternal life.  Our own semblance of righteousness and wisdom only destroys our eternity, just as a life of evil and foolish sin may end one’s life here abruptly and forevermore unless we are reborn in Christ by faith into His work (John 6:29) and righteousness (Romans 3:22, 1 Corinthians 1:30).  If we listen to people say how much of a sinner we are and take it to heart, or even say the same of others, we miss the mark of righteousness found in Christ alone to justify us.  Instead we should agree with our accusers that we are sinners, but sinners saved by grace and found in Christ are forgiven and have been accepted in the Beloved (Ephesians 1:6) based on His merciful choice, not our own sinful ones which always fall short of the glorious and impossible perfection required to earn our own righteousness.  We can like the preacher here desire to prove ourselves in our own wisdom, but will find it out of reach every time.  We can only find these things out in God’s word by trusting Him and His wisdom and righteousness.  Our searches outside of Him only reveal man’s folly and how there seems to be no reason to things in life which explains the lack of justice or of evil and good.  If we truly fear God, we will seek the answers from Him and stop doing evil as we look to Him in fear and anticipation (John 3:20-21) and avoid being trapped in sin.  We cannot find answers to life in the study of man, but only in God’s word who is Christ (John 1:1, 14).  God made mankind to be upright and righteous in the original Adam, but sin sullied us all through his inheritance, and we see only man’s schemes to justify himself now.  The answer is a new man from the second Adam who offers a righteous inheritance in His righteousness to replace the one we are all born with (1 Corinthians 15:45, Romans 5:17-19).  This passage in 1 Corinthians 15 is about the resurrection and our victory found in Christ alone by faith alone which we celebrate on Easter in remembrance of His resurrection proving that hope we hold to.  All sinners perish in their own righteousness, but thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ as proven in His resurrection which we now remember in celebration to stand in His righteousness!