For all of us have become like one who is unclean,
And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment (KJV: “filthy rags”);
And all of us wither like a leaf,
And our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
There is no one who calls on Your name,
Who arouses himself to take hold of You;
For You have hidden Your face from us
And have delivered us into the power of our iniquities (Is. 64:6-7, NASB).
I always feel sorry for professing Christians who identify with Isaiah’s words above, confessing that all their “righteousness is like filthy rags.” Their confession reveals that, either they have not yet been born again, or they have grossly backslid.
In the passage above, Isaiah is speaking on behalf of backslidden Israel that had, for generations, stubbornly resisted God’s call to repentance and was consequently suffering the long-promised judgment. The people “honored God with their lips, but their hearts were far from Him” (see Isa. 29:13). So even their “righteous deeds” were unrighteous in God’s sight, like “filthy rags.”
That is certainly not the picture of a genuine Christian, that is, one who has repented of his/her rebellion, believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, been born again, been freed from and cleansed of sin, and is now indwelled by God’s Holy Spirit and who can say, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” (Gal. 2:20)! That is a Christian!
If you can identify with Isaiah’s words, then something is wrong. When Christ comes to live inside of people, that is the end of “filthy rags righteousness.” The indwelling Christ becomes our righteousness (see 1 Cor. 1:30). Genuine believers have “been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God” (Phil. 1:11, emphasis added). When Jesus comes to live inside believers by the Holy Spirit, He brings the fruit of “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness” and “self-control” (Gal. 5:20). It is marvelous. Yes, of course we must continually “put to death the deeds of the body by the Spirit,” but we do, by the indwelling Spirit!
One of the most deceptive heresies to ever be concocted is the idea that Christians only experience an “imputed righteousness” that somehow makes them legally righteous in God’s eyes by virtue of Jesus’ death but doesn’t actually make them righteous in any practical sense by virtue of Jesus’ resurrection. So, Christians can allegedly feel fine practicing sin, knowing that God is going to magically change them into holy, obedient people when they die and go to heaven! Paul had some thoughts about that:
How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin (Rom. 6:2-7).
That is normal Christianity! True believers have “died to sin” and are “no longer slaves to sin.” Christ has risen in them, and He lives in them! He has become their righteousness!
If you can’t identify with Paul’s words, I have some good news for you. You will identify with them, IF you will repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. If you’ve never received Jesus as Lord, but only “accepted Him as personal Savior” or “received the free gift of eternal life” (or a hundred other half-truths that preachers tell us we must do to be saved), that is the problem. You’ve carved an idol and named Him Jesus.
BIBLE Jesus, however, is LORD JESUS! And if you actually believe in Him, then He becomes your Lord. And when you make Him your Lord, actually believing in Him, you will actually be born again rather than just be born again in your imagination. And you will be transformed! And that will be the end of “filthy rags righteousness.”
What are you waiting for?
