Filthy Rags

by Mike Ratlifff

6 For all of us have become like one who is unclean,
And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment;
And all of us wither like a leaf,
And our iniquities, like the wind, carry us away. Isaiah 64:6 (LSB)

We have looked deeply at the Biblical definition of our Salvation over the last several posts. In this post we will continue to do that. One of the attacks on the Gospel in our time comes from several sources, but with the same focus. That focus is to change what our salvation actually is and what it accomplishes and why it is necessary. In many of my posts over the years that this ministry has been online I have bought up the number one false form of salvation that our enemy ensnares so many people into. It is some form of works-righteousness. When I first began this ministry I did a series of posts on Ephesians 2:8-10.

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. Ephesians 2:8-10 (LSB) 

Even after exegeting that passage clearly showing that our salvation is a work of God by His grace through faith as His gift, I still got dozens of complaints from professing Christians who tried to say they came to Christ by their own Free Will, it was their idea, their decision, they prayed that prayer, and joined that church and it was what they did, not what God did. In other words, they put v10 before vv8-9. Yes we are to do good works, but that is not what saves us. Those good works are the result of God saving us and changing us.

Now look at the passage I placed at the top of this post, Isaiah 64:6. Carefully read it. This describes what all of us are like outside of God’s saving grace. How bad is it? The Hebrew word that is translated as “garment”  is beged. It is the most common OT word for clothing and by itself refers simply to any kind of garment. However, Isaiah qualified his comparison of us by calling all of our works as idda beged or filthy rags. What exactly does idda mean? Flthy is idda, which appears only in this passage of the O.T and refers to a woman’s menstrual period, and therefore, the cloth that accompanies it when coupled with beged. Let that sink in. No truth is clearer in Scripture than that salvation is apart from any merit or works of men. Scripture repeatedly declares man’s uncleanness and depravity (Job15:14-16;25:4;40″4; Ps. 51:5; Rom.1:1-21-32;7:18,24;Eph.2:1-3) and that works cannot save (Job 9:20; Rom. 3:20, 28; 4:5; 9:11,16,30;11:6; Gal. 2:16;3:16-21; Eph. 2:8, 9).

As we have pointed out many times here, every false religion. cult, and human philosophy, teaches that enough works will result  in salvation, “renewal,” “enlightenment,” or whatever concept they choose as their goal, Some who call themselves Evangelicals are diluting salvation by insisting that works have a part in salvation, but James makes it clear that works are the result of salvation (James 2:14-26), but it is grace alone through faith alone that is the cause.

Soli Deo Gloria!