All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.
(Isaiah 64:6 NIV)
Watching television, my hands are often busy crocheting baby blankets. Over the years some have gone to individuals, others to groups and churches. The ones I remember best however went to an orphanage in Guatemala. Missionary friends, had let me know that newborns, in the poorest sections of the country, were sent home from the hospital wrapped in newspapers to keep them warm. Having delivered newspapers for many years, I remember how black my clothes would get from touching the newsprint. They truly did look like filthy rags. Surely the babies of Guatemala deserved something better. Eventually, by means of our missionary friends, handmade blankets made their way to those hospitals and many newborns were no longer wrapped in the equivalent of filthy rags.
The Scriptures also talk about filthy rags. Isaiah pens that all our righteous acts are like filthy rags. How though can the right things, the good and lovely things which people do be classified as filthy? In fact, they are not. When we seek to wrap ourselves up in the blanket of them however, with the hope and belief that they will make us acceptable to God, they become as pitiful and useless as filthy rags. Our good deeds mean nothing to God when it comes to preparing us to stand before Him. They all fall short and no amount of them will ever be able to cover our sins, they can never make us righteous before Him. So, then what are we to do, if our good deeds are not enough to gain us entrance into heaven and fellowship with God forever?
The apostle Paul shows us the way: righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. (See Romans 3).
Blanketing ourselves in God’s grace, through belief in Christ and the work he did, when he shed his blood on the cross for mankind is the only way we can stand before a holy God, in righteousness. Not our righteousness through good deeds but the righteousness of Christ and only Christ.
Therefore, may each of us examine ourselves to see what blanket we are wrapped in today. The saving blanket of Christ’s grace, or our own good deeds, that are in fact, no more able to save us from our sin than are filthy rags.
Prayer: Father God, thank you that it is by grace that we are saved, through faith—and this not from ourselves, it is your gift to us—not by works, so that no can boast. In Christ’s name. Amen.
“Although I am less than the least of all the Lord’s people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the boundless riches of Christ, and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things.” (Ephesians 3:8,9 NIV)
Lynne Phipps
Tawatinaw, Alberta, Canada