JasonWs-
The righteousness that we need in order to enter God's presence (get to heaven) is a righteousness that none of us can obtain through our own efforts. It is a righteousness equal to God's own, and that is unattainable, if left to our own devices. But the righteousness that we could never earn God himself has earned for us, and now freely gives to us as our reward for putting our faith in the works of his Son Jesus Christ on our behalf. It is his work and his sacrifice that we are to trust in, rather than putting our faith in our own pathetic attempts at making ourselves worthy:
Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.
But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished - he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. (Romans 3:19-26,NIV)
The righteousness which is truly salvific is a righteousness which is God's alone. Through his infinite mercy he laid out the blueprint for giving this righteousness to us, and through his Son Jesus Christ he carried out all that was necessary in order to bestow it on us.
This is what we Christians accept. The righteousness which we now have is not our righteousness; it's God's own righteousness. We have merely become the recipients of that righteousness, not as an earned salary, but as an undeserved gift. So there is no room for boasting.
And therein lies God's wisdom. He made our salvation totally dependent on his actions rather than our own so as to 'slam the door' on the sin of Pride. Our salvation is totally dependent on our accepting it as a free gift, unearned and undeserved. And even what we do as Christians in the furtherance of the kingdom of God is to be seen as useful only if it draws its vitality from Christ himself, rather than from any 'sanctity' we might have:
"I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me." (The Gospel of St. John 15:1-4,NIV)
If our work is to be truly fruitful, its point of origin must be Jesus Christ himself as the vine, rather than ourselves as the branches. This means that whatever we successfully accomplish on behalf of the furtherance of the kingdom of God is to be seen as credited to Christ, not to us. So not only is our salvation totally dependent on God rather than on us, our works are also to be seen as totally dependent on God rather than on us. It is our faith in God that not only saves us, but also directs us onward through our lives due to its bonding us as branches to Jesus Christ as the vine.