Are All Christian's Good Works Like Filthy Rags?
If you’ve been a Christian for even a short time, it is likely that you’ve heard that the good deeds of a believer are as filthy rags. Preachers will open up their Bible to Isaiah 64:6 and wax eloquently on how God views the good works of believers.
In our ongoing series on Folk Theology, we’re going to look at another teaching that sounds orthodox, and probably has been used in more than one Sunday morning sermon, but is another example of something we’ve been handed down or taught that simply isn’t theologically correct. Today, we will deal with a folk theology that is both right and wrong depending on the angle in which it is studied. Importantly, that angle is critical to our understanding of the gospel.
Let’s take a look at Isaiah 64:4-6 in its context:
“From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God besides you, who acts for those who wait for him. You meet him who joyfully works righteousness, those who remember you in your ways. Behold, you were angry, and we sinned; in our sins we have been a long time, and shall we be saved? We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.”
Isaiah 64:4-6 ESV
Isaiah is writing about a rebellious people, Israel, who have turned from the living God in idolatry, and are undergoing the righteous judgment of God.
Surprisingly, Isaiah even includes himself in the verse as a member of that guilty party, since he is including himself in the nation of Israel as a community. This is the historical context of the verse. In fact, Isaiah opens up with a call from God to go to a rebellious people who will simply not listen.
I mentioned that there are two angles to the proper interpretation of this verse. Let’s approach the first one – the angle of self-righteousness. The Bible is clear that every single human being has sinned and falls short of God’s glory. This means that we have all missed the mark of absolute perfection in thought, word, and deed to God’s law. Anyone who believes that they can work their way to heaven or work their way to appease God’s wrath should listen carefully to Isaiah’s words. In the case of those who try and use their own righteousness to come before God, they will only hear that every single deed they think is righteous is nothing more than a polluted garment in the eyes of God. It is tainted with the foulest of sin and can bring you nothing but God’s judgment. Even the best of deeds from an unbeliever are soaked with the filth of sin.
For a graphic example, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir can sing some of the most beautiful hymns mentioning Jesus, but their words and song are an abomination to God since they are singing to a false god and a Jesus of their imagination.
Self-righteousness is problematic because the Bible is clear that self is permeated through and through with a corrupt, sinful, God-hating nature.
The good works of an unbeliever spark from a heart that has a love for self and a fear of condemnation, but not a love of the one true God. (Belgic Confession Article 24) So, the good works of anyone outside of Jesus Christ are truly as the filthiest of rags.
This brings us to the second angle in this verse. Those who put their faith in Jesus Christ are given a treasure trove of gifts from God. One of those treasures is the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ. This is one of the great wonders of the gospel. Once a person repents and believes, Jesus’ perfect righteousness, and his perfect keeping of the law of God, are credited to the believer. In essence, when God looks on a believer, He doesn’t see that believer’s sin, He sees the spotless righteousness of His Son. This imputed righteousness is the theological doctrine that helps us rightly interpret Isaiah 64:6.
The Belgic Confession, one of my favorite Reformed confessions written in 1561, touches on this very point in Article 24 of the confession:
“… works, proceeding from the good root of faith, are good and acceptable to God, since they are all sanctified by his grace.”
Belgic Confession Article 24
If you are a believer in the true Jesus Christ, then you need to understand that any works you do that are driven by the Holy Spirit are seen by God as good, not for any inherent goodness in you, but that the works are covered in the precious merits of His perfect Son.
In the same way that your sins are covered and forgiven through Christ, good works that seek to glorify God by believers are covered in the goodness of Christ’s imputed righteousness. As the Belgic Confession reminds us, “they are all sanctified by His grace.”
What does this mean for a believer? It means that we can run the race set before us knowing that our most feeble works at glorifying our King are never seen as filthy rags, but as soaked in the perfection of Christ. It’s an encouraging word to weary Christians who feel that they are useless, or feel beaten down from bad preaching, thinking that everything they do for Christ is seen as filthy rags by God. The gospel of Jesus Christ fixes this errant view and is a reminder of the importance of seeing and interpreting everything through the lens of Jesus and his glorious gospel.