David was a righteous man. Abraham was a righteous man. Noah was a righteous man. Daniel was a righteous man.

The Scripture has this to say about the mother and father of John the Baptist:

And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. (Luke 1:6)

The Christian formula for salvation is based in part on the concept that no human being is righteous and all attempts at righteousness are hopeless endeavors. This concept is founded on such passages as the following:

They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one. (Psalms 14:3)

But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. (Isaiah 64:6)

This is the problem with constructing a doctrine from verses taken here and there. If we would read Isaiah 64:5, the preceding verse, we would find that the Spirit of God, as He does in so many passages, is contrasting the righteous and the wicked:

Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness, those that remember thee in thy ways: behold, thou art wroth; for we have sinned: in those is continuance, and we shall be saved.

If we take verses five and six together we find the prophet is speaking here of the wretched state of Israel at this particular time. The text is not stating there never has been a righteous person but rather that God meets those who joyfully practice righteousness. The idea is that God has turned away from us because we have sinned, not that there are no righteous people in the world.

As for Psalms 14:3, the intent here is not that we should believe there is no such thing as a righteous individual. Numerous passages from the Book of Psalms contrast the righteous and the wicked:

For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish. (Psalms 1:6)

Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the Lord delivereth him out of them all. (Psalms 34:19)

But did not Paul state that all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God? Indeed he did emphasize this fact.

What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin; (Romans 3:9)

Every person born on the earth is brought forth in a sinful state because of the disobedience of Adam and Eve. No individual can successfully fight against his sin nature and overcome it. God has forgiven our sins through the blood atonement made by Jesus on the cross of Calvary. Then God has imparted His Divine Nature to us so we may be born again and by the Divine Nature overcome sin.

The Law of Moses cannot forgive us to this extent or give us authority and power to become a new, righteous creation.

But it also is true that numerous people on the earth have lived a righteous life in terms of their ability and the prevailing circumstances. God honors these attempts to do what is right. This fact does not invalidate Paul's argument against the Judaizers.

But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him. (Acts 10:35)

To be continued.