There is none righteous, no, not one.
- Romans 3:10, the Bible (nkjv)
This is God's straightforward assessment of man's spiritual condition: "none righteous". Not one, on his own merits, can claim to be right before God. Not one of us has lived in full accord with all that our Creator requires of us.
Then, on my own merits, I am not right with God, and you are not either. And it is little consolation to know that we are not alone in this state, but all in it together. However, there is more to our reading:
I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
- Luke 5:32, the Bible (nkjv)
It is the Lord Jesus speaking here, and His prior words are these:
Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.
Well, now, that is fairly obvious, isn't it? If you knew you were healthy, and had no concern for losing your health, you likely wouldn't be spending time in a doctor's office. But when you are concerned about your health, you look for a doctor who can help you, and that is the point the Lord Jesus is making here. We have just read that each of us has a spiritual problem: a lack of righteousness. By our thoughts and actions, and even by our inaction we've offended a righteous God - sometimes ignorantly, but sometimes by overt rebellion.
And what do we call a man who lacks righteousness, who has violated the commands of a righteous God? Yes, a sinner. We might prefer to think of ourselves as good people who sometimes mess up, but the reality we find in the Bible is that we sin because we are in fact, by nature, sinners.
Now, perhaps you live a very moral life. Perhaps you don't feel that you have rebellion in your heart toward God. That's a good thing! But none of us can escape God's assessment that there is "none righteous". In fact, the more we come to know who God is, the more we recognize that we don't measure up to His standard.
However, this is exactly the situation that the Lord Jesus came to address. If He had come to call the righteous to follow Him, we would all have been ineligble, but that is not the case. Rather we read that He did come "to call sinners to repentance". Jesus Christ came for such as you and I.
He came to call us to repentance. That is, to call us to a change of mind regarding God, and a change of mind regarding sin. When I see that God is not against me, but for me, and that sin is not for me, but against me, then I must change my mind regarding both. And that change of mind leads to a change of behavior: I must turn from my sin, to God, putting my trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation from sin.
It is not repentance that saves me from my sin, but God who saves me. When I repent, and turn to Him, becoming willing to accept His salvation, God is then able to save me from the judgment I deserve and make me right with Him.
Perhaps you've done this already, and been made righteous through the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Those who have can sing,
O joy of the justified, joy of the free,
I’m washed in that crimson tide opened for me;
In Christ, my Redeemer, rejoicing I stand,
And point to the print of the nails in His hand.
Refrain:
O sing of His mighty love,
Sing of His mighty love!
Sing of His mighty love,
Mighty to save!
- Francis Bottome
You can read or listen to these two passages, in context: Romans chapter 3 and Luke chapter 5