Greetings Dave
Saying one is righteous is not exalting oneself, saying one is perfect is.
I feel both arguments are valid, your view an our view, they are both valid, because they are both scriptural.
As brother Curtis added above...
Eze 36:26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.
Eze 36:27 And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.
Or as stated earlier...
1 John 1:7 (NKJV)
But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.
When we were saved, we depended of all sins, our slate was wiped clean, we came out of darkness to walk in the glorious light, Christ in us, us in Christ, the old self has gone we chose, New Life in Christ.
We chose to follow Him, learn from Him, to try be like Him, we are no longer 'sinners' we practice righteousness. Practice is the key word, but we do not practice sin, we practice righteousness, because we are new creations, made new in Christ Jesus, we are born anew so we are no longer of the old order, sinners in sin, in the world, with the devil as our father.
We have two choices in life, we choose life, we choose Jesus, whose to follow Him. Jesus was not a sinner, there was no sin in Him, He was the Righteous one, therefore we are to practice righteousness.
We are sin free because we are saved and redeemed by the blood of Christ. The light of Christ reveals sin, the world is darker than scarlet, in sin. We are saved brother, we are to be righteous, practice righteousness, how can we be righteous if we think we are sinners. Sinners sin and sin again, believers who are saved may sin but repent because the sin is known and we know we must repent and be sin free.
For me brother, I am saved, I practice righteousness, I do not belong to sin, the world and the devil, I am Christ's, He is in me, i am a saint but not perfect, none are perfect, none can be in this life, i am practicing righteousness because my Lord wants me to be like Him, I cannot be like Him if I think I am a sinner.