“Attention All Righteous People”

Isaiah 64:6 “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.”

I have heard this scripture quoted about 1000 times in my life. But yesterday I decided to look into what Isaiah is truly talking about. The chapter starts out talking about how awesome and glorious God is. It talks about how God acts on behalf of those who remember His ways and those who gladly do right. It then reveals the reality of the human condition. We tried to do it our way, but we failed. We continued to sin against God’s ways and He became angry. It then talks about our righteousnesses being like filthy rags.

In verse 5 Isaiah asked the question “How then can we be saved?” Religulous people think salvation is earned by behaving a certain way, Gospel minded people believe Jesus (Which is God in the flesh) conquered sin and death and he gives the gift of salvation to all who believe in Him. It’s absolutely amazing to me how righteous people think that good behavior gets them to the Father when Jesus clearly states in John 14:6 “No one comes to the Father except through me”. Think about the nicest person you know. I’m talking about somebody that seemingly is the most righteous, most loving, most caring person you know. Not even that person can stand before our perfect God and make it in without Jesus blood. You can never please God through good behavior, even the father in Luke 15 rejoiced over the Prodigal son that misbehaved not the older son that behaved. I don’t know about you but I think that the cross was enough. Anyone that is trying to say that your good behavior is a requirement for heaven has just said the cross didn’t do the job.

The great reformer Martin Luther rightly said that, as sinners, we are prone to pursue a relationship with God in one of two ways. The first is Religion/Spirituality and the second is the Gospel. Pastor Mark Discroll from Mars Hill church was quoted saying Religion says that the world is filled with good people and bad people. The Gospel says that the world is filled with bad people who are either repentant or unrepentant. Paul puts it this way in Romans 3:10 “There is no one righteous, not even one”. This is why WE NEED CHRIST. When Isaiah talks about our righteousness being like filthy rags he is simply saying our good behavior is like a bloody tampon (Yikes). If you don’t believe me here’s a link to the Strong’s Concordance lookup. See for yourself. Take the absolute best person on Earth and he will fail. Nobody is perfect. Compare anyone’s righteousness with God’s perfection and it looks and smells like… well… a used tampon.

So let us stop the madness of thinking we are obeying his commands to get into Heaven. Your righteousness will not help you one bit on Judgment Day. The reason you should obey Gods commands is because you love Him. Jesus said in John 14:15 "If you love me, you will obey what I command”. Please believe in Jesus Christ and love him with every bit of your heart, because your righteousnesses will fail you in the end.

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