Commentaries:
God inspires Isaiah to warn Israel that all their "righteousnesses are like filthy rags," since their sinful attitudes pollute their deeds. The impurity of their motives taint all their prayers, sacrifices, offerings, and praises, thus God deeply detests and abhors them. Like the Laodiceans, they cannot see their true condition (Revelation 3:17).
Staff
Overcoming (Part 3): Self-Righteousness
This verse certainly puts human righteousness in a bad light compared to what is truly good. God Himself is making this judgment, and He makes His comparison against His own righteousness. Measured like this, all of what we do that we consider our righteousness is filthy! Yet, human nature loves to compare itself with others less than God, and by such means, we come out smelling like a rose. Human nature tends to isolate one aspect of another's personality or character and conclude that in comparison, the self is pretty good.
However, the problem is that this is not a comparison our Judge, God, finds acceptable. Human nature likes to consider itself good. That is not too hard to do because, as judged by human standards, the overwhelming majority of humankind—those ordinary people who are not out murdering their neighbor, robbing the local food mart, or dealing drugs—is reasonably good. Human nature tends to judge itself against such, so the standards are not exceedingly high.
Notice what Jesus says to people of this sort: "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!" (Matthew 7:11). Notice that Jesus, God in the flesh, judges these people to be evil! Nothing in the context indicates that they were anything but run-of-the-mill citizens of the area. They were not Al Capone and his mafia mob!
This is in perfect alignment with Isaiah 64:6 and Matthew 19:17, where Jesus says, "No one is good but One, that is, God." He judges them to be evil, even though what they were doing was essentially a good work, giving good gifts to their children. We can see that some element must be missing from the acts of human nature apart from God that He finds unacceptable.
We are self-righteous, but we need to become God-righteous. This is why none of our works can earn justification. All of our acts before conversion are tainted by the fact that they are constantly under the influence of Satan and this world, even though some of them are even "good."
John W. Ritenbaugh
On Self-Righteousness
The truth of the matter is found in the context, which extends into the next book, Jeremiah. The writings of the prophet Jeremiah, who began his ministry many years after Isaiah finished his, follow Isaiah's because of chronology. From Isaiah's time to Jeremiah's, there was no break (with the exception of King Josiah) in the downward slide of the people of Judah. A significant portion of Jeremiah chronicles the endless and increasingly perverse sins of the nation.
The following book, Lamentations, the sequel to Jeremiah, is a series of dirges, some in acrostic form, written as if it were liturgy for a national funeral. The introduction to Lamentations in the Septuagint (a Greek translation of the Old Testament) depicts Jeremiah sitting and weeping over God's recent destruction of Jerusalem due to the sins of her citizens. Thus, he is known in some circles as the Weeping Prophet. The "righteousness"—if it can be called that—found in the nation of Judah was, in God's sight, as filthy rags. This is the context of Isaiah 64:6-7.
That being said, describing a true Christian's righteousness as filthy rags ignores an enormous amount of instruction throughout the Bible that requires God's people to be holy. Notice, for instance, how the apostle Paul describes Christ's view of His church:
Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. (Ephesians 5:25-27)
If we are not individually holy, we will not "see the Lord," Paul warns in Hebrews 12:14. Of course, our human nature taints our feeble efforts at righteousness, which are thus unacceptable to God. But when we are converted and justified, the righteousness of Jesus Christ becomes our righteousness by His blood covering our sins and Him dwelling in us through His Spirit (Isaiah 54:17; Romans 8:10; I Corinthians 1:30; II Corinthians 5:21; Ephesians 4:23-24; Philippians 1:11; 3:9; Hebrews 8:14; 10:10, 19-22).
So Isaiah 64:6-7 should not be taken out of context to apply to converted Christians. The prophet uses the phrase "our righteousnesses are like filthy rags" to describe the horrid depths of sin committed by the people of his day, when they should have known better.
Mike Fuhrer
Always Check the Context
Other Forerunner Commentary entries containing Isaiah 64:6:
Genesis 5:22-24
Isaiah 64:6-7
Isaiah 64:6-7
Isaiah 64:6
Matthew 5:6
Matthew 8:2
Matthew 13:45-46
Matthew 13:45-46
Matthew 22:11-14
Mark 1:40
Mark 5:2
Luke 5:12
Luke 5:36-39
Luke 8:29
Luke 15:25-31
Luke 18:9-14
Romans 12:1-2
Ephesians 2:8
Ephesians 2:15
Ephesians 4:24
Colossians 3:10
