Ezekiel 3:20

3:20 “When a righteous person turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and I set an obstacle ¹  before him, he will die. If you have not warned him, he will die for his sin. The righteous deeds he performed will not be considered, but I will hold you accountable for his death.

Ezekiel 18:24

18:24 “But if a righteous man turns away from his righteousness and practices wrongdoing according to all the abominable practices the wicked carry out, will he live? All his righteous acts will not be remembered; because of the unfaithful acts he has done and the sin he has committed, he will die. ² 

Luke 18:9-14

The Parable of the Pharisee and Tax Collector

18:9 Jesus ³  also told this parable to some who were confident that they were righteous and looked down ⁴  on everyone else. 18:10 “Two men went up ⁵  to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee ⁶  and the other a tax collector. ⁷  18:11 The Pharisee stood and prayed about himself like this: ⁸  ‘God, I thank ⁹  you that I am not like other people: ¹⁰  extortionists, ¹¹  unrighteous people, ¹²  adulterers – or even like this tax collector. ¹³  18:12 I fast twice ¹⁴  a week; I give a tenth ¹⁵  of everything I get.’ 18:13 The tax collector, however, stood ¹⁶  far off and would not even look up ¹⁷  to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, be merciful ¹⁸  to me, sinner that I am!’ ¹⁹  18:14 I tell you that this man went down to his home justified ²⁰  rather than the Pharisee. ²¹  For everyone who exalts ²²  himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Romans 10:3

10:3 For ignoring the righteousness that comes from God, and seeking instead to establish their own righteousness, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.

Philippians 3:9

3:9 and be found in him, not because I have my own righteousness derived from the law, but because I have the righteousness that comes by way of Christ’s faithfulness ²³  – a righteousness from God that is in fact ²⁴  based on Christ’s ²⁵  faithfulness. ²⁶ 

Hebrews 10:38

10:38 But my righteous one will live by faith, and if he shrinks back, I ²⁷  take no pleasure in him. ²⁸ 

Hebrews 10:2

10:2 For otherwise would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers would have been purified once for all and so have ²⁹  no further consciousness of sin?

Hebrews 2:1

Warning Against Drifting Away

2:1 Therefore we must pay closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.

Hebrews 2:1

Warning Against Drifting Away

2:1 Therefore we must pay closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.

Hebrews 2:1

Warning Against Drifting Away

2:1 Therefore we must pay closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.

[3:20]  ¹ tn Or “stumbling block.” The Hebrew term refers to an obstacle in the road in Lev 19:14.

[18:24]  ² tn Heb “because of them he will die.”

[18:9]  ³ tn Grk “He”; the referent has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[18:9]  ⁴ tn Grk “and despised.” This is a second parable with an explanatory introduction.

[18:10]  ⁵ sn The temple is on a hill in Jerusalem, so one would go up to enter its precincts.

[18:10]  ⁶ sn See the note on Pharisees in 5:17.

[18:10]  ⁷ sn See the note on tax collectors in 3:12.

[18:11]  ⁸ tn Or “stood by himself and prayed like this.” The prepositional phrase πρὸς ἑαυτόν (pros eauton, “to/about himself”) could go with either the aorist participle σταθείς (staqeis, “stood”) or with the imperfect verb προσηύχετο (proshuceto, “he prayed”). If taken with the participle, then the meaning would seem at first glance to be: “stood ‘by himself’,” or “stood ‘alone’.” Now it is true that πρός can mean “by” or “with” when used with intransitive verbs such as ἵστημι ({isthmi, “I stand”; cf. BDAG 874 s.v. πρός 2.a), but πρὸς ἑαυτόν together never means “by himself” or “alone” in biblical Greek. On the other hand, if πρὸς ἑαυτόν is taken with the verb, then two different nuances emerge, both of which highlight in different ways the principal point Jesus seems to be making about the arrogance of this religious leader: (1) “prayed to himself,” but not necessarily silently, or (2) “prayed about himself,” with the connotation that he prayed out loud, for all to hear. Since his prayer is really a review of his moral résumé, directed both at advertising his own righteousness and exposing the perversion of the tax collector, whom he actually mentions in his prayer, the latter option seems preferable. If this is the case, then the Pharisee’s mention of God is really nothing more than a formality.

[18:11]  ⁹ sn The Pharisee’s prayer started out as a thanksgiving psalm to God, but the praise ended up not being about God.

[18:11]  ¹⁰ tn Here the plural Greek term ἀνθρώπων (anqrwpwn) is used as a generic and can refer to both men and women (NASB, NRSV, “people”; NLT, “everyone else”; NAB, “the rest of humanity”).

[18:11]  ¹¹ tn Or “swindlers” (BDAG 134 s.v. ἅρπαξ 2); see also Isa 10:2; Josephus, J. W. 6.3.4 [6.203].

[18:11]  ¹² sn A general category for “sinners” (1 Cor 6:9; Lev 19:3).

[18:11]  ¹³ sn Note what the Pharisee assumes about the righteousness of this tax collector by grouping him with extortionists, unrighteous people, and adulterers.

[18:12]  ¹⁴ sn The law only required fasting on the Day of Atonement. Such voluntary fasting as this practiced twice a week by the Pharisee normally took place on Monday and Thursday.

[18:12]  ¹⁵ tn Or “I tithe.”

[18:13]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “standing”; the Greek participle has been translated as a finite verb.

[18:13]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “even lift up his eyes” (an idiom).

[18:13]  ¹⁸ tn The prayer is a humble call for forgiveness. The term for mercy (ἱλάσκομαι, Jilaskomai) is associated with the concept of a request for atonement (BDAG 473-74 s.v. 1; Ps 51:1, 3; 25:11; 34:6, 18).

[18:13]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “the sinner.” The tax collector views himself not just as any sinner but as the worst of all sinners. See ExSyn 222-23.

[18:14]  ²⁰ sn The prayer that was heard and honored was the one given with humility; in a surprising reversal it was the tax collector who went down to his home justified.

[18:14]  ²¹ tn Grk “the other”; the referent (the Pharisee, v. 10) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[18:14]  ²² sn Everyone who exalts himself. See Luke 14:11. Jesus often called for humility and condemned those who sought honor.

[3:9]  ²³ tn Or “faith in Christ.” A decision is difficult here. Though traditionally translated “faith in Jesus Christ,” an increasing number of NT scholars are arguing that πίστις Χριστοῦ (pisti" Cristou) and similar phrases in Paul (here and in Rom 3:22, 26; Gal 2:16, 20; 3:22; Eph 3:12) involve a subjective genitive and mean “Christ’s faith” or “Christ’s faithfulness” (cf., e.g., G. Howard, “The ‘Faith of Christ’,” ExpTim 85 [1974]: 212-15; R. B. Hays, The Faith of Jesus Christ [SBLDS]; Morna D. Hooker, “Πίστις Χριστοῦ,” NTS 35 [1989]: 321-42). Noteworthy among the arguments for the subjective genitive view is that when πίστις takes a personal genitive it is almost never an objective genitive (cf. Matt 9:2, 22, 29; Mark 2:5; 5:34; 10:52; Luke 5:20; 7:50; 8:25, 48; 17:19; 18:42; 22:32; Rom 1:8; 12; 3:3; 4:5, 12, 16; 1 Cor 2:5; 15:14, 17; 2 Cor 10:15; Phil 2:17; Col 1:4; 2:5; 1 Thess 1:8; 3:2, 5, 10; 2 Thess 1:3; Titus 1:1; Phlm 6; 1 Pet 1:9, 21; 2 Pet 1:5). On the other hand, the objective genitive view has its adherents: A. Hultgren, “The Pistis Christou Formulations in Paul,” NovT 22 (1980): 248-63; J. D. G. Dunn, “Once More, ΠΙΣΤΙΣ ΧΡΙΣΤΟΥ,” SBL Seminar Papers, 1991, 730-44. Most commentaries on Romans and Galatians usually side with the objective view.

[3:9]  ²⁴ tn The words “in fact” are supplied because of English style, picking up the force of the Greek article with πίστει (pistei). See also the following note on the word “Christ’s.”

[3:9]  ²⁵ tn Grk “based on the faithfulness.” The article before πίστει (pistei) is taken as anaphoric, looking back to διὰ πίστεως Χριστοῦ (dia pistew" Cristou); hence, “Christ’s” is implied.

[3:9]  ²⁶ tn Or “based on faith.”

[10:38]  ²⁷ tn Grk “my soul.”

[10:38]  ²⁸ sn A quotation from Hab 2:4.

[10:2]  ²⁹ tn Grk “the worshipers, having been purified once for all, would have.”