All our righteousness and good works even those done by Christians under the prompting of the Holy Spirit, can no more make us acceptable to God than all the scrubbings, perfumes, and manicures can make a pig kosher. Jesus, by His perfect life and death, is qualified to supply us with an experience in righteousness. After He finished His work on the earth as a sacrificial lamb, He entered heaven as a high priest, ministering the merits of His death in our behalf. So it may be with us. Righteousness Is a Gift Justification and sanctification, though inseparable, are not identical.
Justification entails the legal declaration of forgiveness.
It is a gift of a perfectly righteous, sinless, and holy character a character that we sinners by our nature could never possess. God, though, accepts only a perfect righteousness, not even a perfect reflection of it, and because none of us have that perfect righteousness, Jesus came to the earth, worked it out for us, and offers it freely. Imagine a school where you received only one of two grades, pass or fail. The only way to pass is to have a score of 100 percent. Ninety-nine percent will get you the same failing grade as only 9 percent.