The waves of the Yangtze River push each other, and the previous waves die on the shore.
In its early days, Catholicism promoted "justification by works," with "righteousness" referring to the righteous in the Bible, who are God's darlings and those near to God.
But this 'works' didn't refer to good deeds; it meant spending money on indulgences from the Holy See. The more you bought, the closer you were to God.
So everyone saw that this was just fooling people, and Martin Luther introduced "justification by faith," which later developed into the Lutheran denomination.
As long as you believe in God, you are righteous, without needing to buy indulgences from the Holy See.
This approach was indeed advanced at the time, but couldn't withstand everyone wanting to use scriptural authority for personal gain and reduce the moral guilt from their evil deeds.
