We cannot be saved by OUR good works, because no matter how hard we try, our “good” is not good enough for the PERFECTLY HOLY AND COMPLETELY RIGHTEOUS GOD who alone grants salvation. Nor can we be saved by our moral perfection—no matter how moral or how perfect we think we are. As the Old Testament prophet Isaiah points out, our righteousness is “…like an unclean thing, And all our righteousness’s are like FILTHY RAGS; We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away.” (Isa. 64:6) The Hebrew phrase for filthy rags, ukabeged ehdim, literally means, “like as rags of menstruation.” Just in case you are wondering what our “good” looks like.
Sorry if that disgusts you, but it’s Scripture—so blame Isaiah. The point is, both our acts of righteousness, and the quality of righteousness that we hope they produce, are DISGUSTING TO GOD. So if you are disgusted by Isaiah’s language, think of how God, who inspired Isaiah to choose those coarse words, is repulsed by our efforts to get Him to save us. “As for you, you were DEAD in your TRANSGRESSIONS and SINS, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.” (Eph. 2:1-2)
We were DEAD in our transgressions and sins, in which we USED to live. “God made Him who had no sin to be SIN FOR US, so that IN HIM we might become the RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD.” (2 Corin. 5:21) Paul, who was responsible for hunting down and killing many Christians, explained it this way, “I consider everything a loss because of the PRICELESS gain of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I MAY GAIN CHRIST and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through FAITH IN CHRIST—the righteousness that comes FROM GOD on the basis of faith.” (Phil. 3:8-9)
-Bill Stockham