Whatever merit they may see in their own works here in this world, they discover none in them when they stand before the bar of Christ. The light of that great day of assize will make a wonderful difference in the appearance of all their doings. It will strip off the tinsel, shrivel up the complexion, expose the rottenness, of many a deed that is now called good. Their wheat will prove nothing but chaff. Their gold will be found nothing but dross. Millions of so-called Christian actions will turn out to have been utterly defective and graceless. They passed current, and were valued among men. They will prove light and worthless in the balance of God. They will be found to have been like the whitened sepulchers of old, fair and beautiful without, but full of corruption within. Alas, for the man who can look forward to the Day of Judgment, and lean his soul in the smallest degree on anything of his own!
J.C. Ryle