John Calvin's Quote on Understanding One's Sinful Condition

The problem of man today is their self-righteousness, the are satisfied with themselves like the Pharisees who thought too highly of themselves.  The Pharisees thought they were good enough for God and felt that Jesus should have gone near them instead of the tax collectors and prostitutes.  In those days, the tax collectors and the prostitutes were outcasts of society and many of them saw their sinfulness.  But the Pharisees saw none of their sinfulness which was a problem for them considering what Scriptures really say in Romans 3:10-19 that we are all guilty before God.

In works salvation, it's nothing more than a mindset that if my good works exceed my bad works, I am going to be okay.  However, God's holy righteous standards says in James 2:10 that if we break even only one rule of the Law, we are considered cut short of the glory of God.  The problem is that we are holding on to a ten knotted rope that regardless which knot was cut, we are bound to fall down.  The entire cry of the Protestant Reformation was, "Faith alone, grace alone, Scripture alone, in Christ alone, glory to God alone." which are all found in Scripture.  Even without Protestant Christianity, that same battle cry was done by non-Protestant Christians during the Dark Ages.

The problem is also that many unsaved people don't even think something is wrong with them.  Even when the obvious is clear that they can't save themselves like a religious Roman Catholic who has several vices like womanizing, booze, gambling and possibly narcotics.  When confronted with the idea that they are sinners in need of Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, a lot of unsaved people say that they are doing okay even when their actions are not okay.  That's why they need to be confronted with the Law of God to show they are indeed sinful people and that they cannot save themselves.