That's so true.
And the most clear example of that of all would be the famous Romans chapter 3, where Paul combines bits from many passages to say the hyperbolic:
10As it is written:
“There is no one righteous, not even one;
11there is no one who understands;
there is no one who seeks God.
12All have turned away,
they have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good,
not even one.”
b
13“Their throats are open graves;
their tongues practice deceit.”
c
“The poison of vipers is on their lips.”
d
14“Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”
e
15“Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16ruin and misery mark their ways,
17and the way of peace they do not know.”
f
18“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
g
Romans 3 NIV
But we know, and it's not even obscure at all, that many in the Old Testament were counted 'righteous'
for their faith -- as explained wonderfully in Hebrews chapter 11.
And which Paul himself doesn't get to in the chapter, doesn't say anything to correct the seeming first impression that simply none have any righteousness ever....until the next chapter, when he starts to finally do more to begin to complete the real meaning in the thought from the previous chapter:
Romans 4:3 For what does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness."
But how many even get to chapter 4 after seeing what seems obvious error in chapter 3?
Yes, Matthew chapter 7 is the best, most perfect example of what Paul
doesn't get to very well in his letters -- a crucial needed thing one might have trouble learning from Paul's letters, unless one realizes that to "love others fulfills the law" (as Paul wrote), yes, but also when done fully/best is more complete/perfect loving which we don't do perfectly on our own
without God's help....
Paul is preaching over and over and over to people who sincerely thought that
only their own works and obeying laws
alone would earn them heaven.
Without God's work.
Paul wrote to those that thought they would achieve full righteousness, by themselves, on their own merits, without any grace/gift from God.
And that is the pressing mistake of those people in that time which Paul works endlessly in his letters to correct. The pressing need, what Paul is writing to help on.
Paul is writing to a particular people at a moment in time, to get them to see that
they cannot earn heaven on only their own merits alone, and must realize, like Job, whom God called
"blameless" the reality is one needs to:
As Job finally said:
Job 42:6 Therefore I retract my words, and I repent in dust and ashes."
Because what we
think is good isn't good enough, Christ said:
Mark 10:18 "Why do you call Me good?" Jesus replied. "No one is good except God alone.
And that's why we need Grace
and following Christ, both.