Filthy righteousness

But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away. – Isaiah 64v6

You know what? Sometimes we can think we are pretty good. This is especially those of us who are Christians and have been for a good long time. We go to church, we don’t battle with the ‘big’ sins, we are nice to people, we love other believers, we read our Bibles, we tithe, we go to church work days, we try to witness, and on and on and on.

With all that being said God is pretty lucky to have us around, dontcha think?

We get pretty satisfied with our own righteousness. After all, I am not as bad as so and so, right?

The truth is not a pretty picture. As soon as we start thinking that our righteousness does anything we are in big trouble. Isaiah tells us about our righteousness. He reminds that all of our own righteousnesses are nothing more than filthy rags. I know that there are all kinds of ideas as to what ‘filthy’ is, but there is no doubt that filthy means, well, filthy, dirty, stinking, rotten, etc.

We are kind of like that child making those first attempts to wash up and comes to say ‘All clean mommy!’ while still covered with play-grime.

Nothing we do, no matter how great has any impact on our righteousness.

Praise God then that we are no dependent on our righteousness. It is only by the righteousness of Christ, imputed to us, not infused in us, that gives us a claim of righteousness. Faith in His righteousness alone is our hope.

Let us never get the idea that we, in ourselves, are wearing filthy rags when we try to walk in our own righteousness.