Read: Isaiah 64
We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. (v. 6)
Friends, please give up as fast as you can on the thought that you are good. Isaiah includes himself in this condition: “We have all . . .” (v. 6). No one is excluded from this description (see Ps. 14:1-3; Rom. 3:10).
Why should you accept what the Bible says? Why should you believe that our conviction about ourselves being good is deceptive and dangerous? Because either you are right or the Bible is right. We see the evidence of sin all around us, but often we still think that we ourselves are good and righteous. But Isaiah tells us that each one of us is unclean, and our deeds (which we call “righteous”) are like filthy rags.
While God is able to save sinners, he doesn’t do it as an act that costs him nothing. God is just and holy. “Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down,” Isaiah says, “that the mountains might quake at your presence” (Isa. 64:1). This is what God did; he tore the heavens open and came down to earth in human form (John 1:14). This is the good news of salvation, that Jesus came to save us. This good news is also a stark warning about the great danger of self-righteousness. Think about it: if this world were full of righteous people, would Jesus have come to die on the cross for us?
As you pray, thank God that he has made us righteous through Jesus Christ, our Lord (Rom. 5:1).
Gentian Dogani is a pastor of two small churches in two different small towns in the southern part of Albania. He is married to Nikoleta, and they live in the town of Memaliaj. Since his conversion, Gentian’s desire has been to reach people and preach the good news of the gospel, “for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek” (Rom. 1:16).
