Only the Lord is righteous.
There is none good except one, and that is God.
What righteousness can we produce that can stand the test of time?
For all of our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.
Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
Only by being born again can we do the works of God, which are righteousness. The flesh profits nothing, and our own righteousness, or what we think is our righteousness, bears no comparison.
Jesus said Matthew 5:20 "For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall
exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven." This means it cannot be any work of the religious flesh either in which the pharisees were pass masters: they knew the law and the word of God (as it was then) front to back and back again, and thought they could catch Jesus out with their "superior" knowledge.
So something else is needful. It is good to know the Word of God obviously. But if it remains in our minds only, not translated into actions, then we are hypocrites like the pharisees, for whom Jesus reserved His most dreadful "woes".
Thank the Lord all who come to Him trusting that His death on the cross was the total punishment for our personal sin; and if we ask Him to forgive us and cleanse us and to change our lives and our hearts with His Spirit's very presence, being willing to turn from all we know to be wrong, He will do it.
He does not leave us comfortless. Being born again through this He gives us the Holy Spirit, who is in us and with us, enabling us to carry out that which God requires of us, Php 2:13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of
his good pleasure.
This is His righteousness, amen.