A very good clarification of one the most misused passages of Scripture. No righteous act is worth anything as far as salvation goes, but after we belong to Christ, His Spirit works in us, enabling us to do things pleasing to the Father. We may still be unprofitable servants, as Christ’s sacrifice is to high a debt to repay, but that does not mean we cannot be useful servants
Isaiah 64:6 (“all our righteous acts are like filthy rags”) is often quoted by folks as proof that any effort on our part to do good still comes across as pretty putrid in God’s sight. As Kevin DeYoung explains in The Hole in Our Holiness, however, that’s just bad exegesis–and it paints a terribly unflattering (and woefully inaccurate) picture of our God, to us and to the world:
The “righteous deeds” Isaiah has in mind are most likely the perfunctory rituals offered by Israel without sincere faith and without wholehearted obedience. In Isaiah 65:1–7 the Lord rejects Israel’s sinful sacrifices. They are an insult to the Lord, smoke in his nostrils, just like the ritual “obedience” of Isaiah 58 that did not impress the Lord because his people were oppressing the poor. Their “righteous deeds” were “filthy rags” (64:6, KJV) because they weren’t righteous at all. They looked good but…
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