Jimmy Dunn (of "the new perspective") on justification and self-righteousness

The insight granted to Luther has remained at the heart of Protestant Christian thought. 'Justification by faith' is a sharp sword which punctures all inflated thoughts of self-importance. It is a sharp knife which cuts away all reliance on human effort, on human cleverness. It is a sharp spade which undermines any attempt to build our own protective barriers or control our own destiny. It cuts through all human pretence, all human self-assurance, all human boasting. God accepts not the important, or the activist, or the clever, or the powerful as such. It is the sinner he accepts. That is an insight which has been applied over and over again in Christian critique of false religiosity and political systems. It is an insight which must never be lost from the gospel....

There is more to it, of course.

J. D. G. Dunn, A. M. Suggate, The Justice of God: A Fresh Look at the Old Doctrine of Justification by Faith , 8-9, from Scot McKnight, Community Called Atonement, 96.