Question 62

But why cannot our good works be the whole or part of our righteousness before God?

Because that the righteousness which can be approved before the tribunal of God, must be absolutely perfect, and in all respects conformable to the divine law (Gal. 3;10); and also, that our best works in this life are all imperfect and defiled with sin (Isa. 64;6).

Scripture references for paragraph 1

Berean Standard Bible. Public domain text and source credits.

Galatians 3:10
10All who rely on works of the law are under a curse. For it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.”

Deuteronomy 6:5
5And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

James 2:10
10Whoever keeps the whole law but stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.

Isaiah 64:6
6Each of us has become like something unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all wither like a leaf, and our iniquities carry us away like the wind.

Philippians 3:12
12Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.

Philippians 3:13
13Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,

James 3:2
2We all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to control his whole body.

Source and edition

Heidelberg Catechism. RCA English, E. R. Good & Bro., Tiffin, 1879. RCA English, E. R. Good & Bro., Tiffin, 1879

Public Domain (historic text); CC BY-SA 4.0 (Wikisource transcription). Source transcription.

Transcription licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0.

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