For anyone who doesn’t know, Isaiah 64:6 is a favorite verse for many.  

Isaiah 64:6 reads: “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.”

Not only is this verse usually quoted horribly out of context when it is quoted, it is also not even usually quoted in totality (with the second half of the verse frequently omitted).  

Yet “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags” is very well known.  

This partial verse is typically used to try to say that all men, even the righteous, live in sin constantly and will never cease doing so in this life.  

This twisting of Scripture is a great lie from the pit of hell which justifies all manner of sin and uncleanness as allegedly being compatible with genuine Christianity.  However, nothing could be further from the truth.  

This will be proved from Scripture in this message.  Those who take heed will wonder, within a very short time, whether those who twist Isaiah 64:6 have ever actually even read through the Book of Isaiah.

Those who actually read through the Book of Isaiah will know from the very opening verses of the book that the entire message of the book is a rebuke to Israel for having corrupted itself.  God testifies right at the beginning of the book that Israel was at one time a righteous nation which He regarded as pure and faithful.  This was not so by Isaiah’s time.  God states from the beginning of the book, right through to the end, that He will go to extreme measures to purify Jerusalem and the remnant of Israel in order to bring them back to being a nation where righteousness and purity prevail.  

You will also notice in Isaiah chapter one that Israel was yet a ceremonially religious people in spite of the fact that they were morally wicked.  They valued ceremonial adherence over actual righteous, godly living.  

They lived wickedly and did not walk in God’s ways, yet they were still trying to offer sacrifices, incense, and keep religious feasts and religious holidays.  In that context, all their righteousnesses were indeed as filthy rags.  The wicked were the ones justifying sin and overall ungodly living, thinking their ceremonial adherence compensated for this somehow.  God states His verdict about this wicked foolishness right off the bat in the Book of Isaiah.

Isaiah 1:10-28: “Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah (God is obviously speaking to Israel figuratively).  To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me?  saith the Lord: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats.  When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts?  Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.  Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them.  And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.  Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.  Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.  If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.  How is the faithful city become an harlot!  it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers.  Thy silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with water: Thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loveth gifts (bribes), and followeth after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them.  Therefore saith the Lord, the Lord of hosts, the mighty One of Israel, Ah, I will ease me of mine adversaries, and avenge me of mine enemies: And I will turn my hand upon thee, and purely purge away thy dross, and take away all thy tin: And I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counselors as at the beginning: afterward thou shalt be called, The city of righteousness, the faithful city.  Zion shall be redeemed with judgment, and her converts with righteousness.  And the destruction of the transgressors and of the sinners shall be together, and they that forsake the Lord shall be consumed.”

To be ceremonially zealous while committed to moral uncleanness is a mockery of God.  

Proverbs 21:3: “To do justice and judgment is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.”

The rich man in Luke chapter 16 who went to hell found this out the hard way.

Proverbs 15:8-9: “The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord: but the prayer of the upright is his delight.  The way of the wicked is an abomination unto the Lord: but he loveth him that followeth after righteousness.”

Jesus Christ’s enemies in the Gospels were of the spiritual ilk who justify all manner of sin and uncleanness- while practicing an outwardly scrupulous religion.  Such is often a convenient mixture of Biblically prescribed ceremony, along with superstition and shallow morality, which allows its adherents to continue in carnality and remain alienated from God in their hearts.  

Jesus’ severe rebukes to His opposition were given precisely because they were committed to sin in their hearts yet blessed God with their lips.  Such rebukes would be unnecessary, and have no authority nor power, if all men had no choice but to remain unclean and could not possibly do anything ever that was pleasing to God.

Matthew 15:7-9: “Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias (Isaiah) prophesy of you, saying, This people draweth nigh (near) unto me with their mouth, and honoreth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.  But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.”

Isaiah 64:6 is likewise a verse directed at religious hypocrites.  It is not directed at righteous men.  The righteous are not as an unclean thing in God’s eyes; and their righteousnesses are not as filthy rags.  

Isaiah 64:6 is in itself a lamentation of the wicked state of Israel.  It is spoken in regard to how there were virtually no righteous people in Israel at the time.  That did not have to be the case.  It is a similar situation to when Elijah lamented before God that he was left alone of the faithful.  God told Elijah that there were 7,000 in Israel who had not worshiped Baal.  

Look at another of God’s rebukes to Israel in Isaiah’s time.  This rebuke is in the continuation of the same train of thought which flows from Isaiah 64:6.

Isaiah 65:11-14: “But ye are they that forsake the Lord, that forget my holy mountain, that prepare a table for that troop (I believe that it’s a reference to sacrifice to Pagan gods), and that furnish the drink offering unto that number.  Therefore will I number you to the sword, and ye shall all bow down to the slaughter: because when I called, ye did not answer; when I spoke, ye did not hear; but did evil before mine eyes, and did choose that wherein I delighted not.  Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, my servants shall eat, but ye shall be hungry: behold, my servants shall drink, but ye shall be thirsty: behold, my servants shall rejoice, but ye shall be ashamed: Behold, my servants shall sing for joy of heart, but ye shall cry for sorrow of heart, and shall howl for vexation of spirit.”

God’s faithful servants are not the ones being described in Isaiah 64:6 then.  No, the wicked are contrasted to those.  And the rebuke of the wicked would mean nothing if the wicked were not expected to repent and no longer be morally unclean, wicked people.  

Look at this statement also which shortly preceded Isaiah 64:6, being part of the same train of thought which shortly afterwards flowed into Isaiah 64:6.

Isaiah 63:7-10: “I will mention the lovingkindnesses of the Lord, and the praises of the Lord, according to all that the Lord hath bestowed on us, and the great goodness toward the house of Israel, which he hath bestowed on them according to his mercies, and according to the multitude of his lovingkindnesses.  For he said, Surely they are my people, children that will not lie: so he was their Savior.  In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old.  But they rebelled, and vexed his holy Spirit: therefore he was turned to be their enemy, and he fought against them.”

And that brings up the most horrid irony when it comes to how people twist Isaiah 64:6: Those who quote it to describe themselves are bearing witness against themselves that they are rebellious to God and that He is their enemy.  

And though they say that they could never possibly be anything other than unclean things which can never do anything acceptable to God, God’s Word says otherwise.  

Proverbs 12:22: “Lying lips are abomination to the Lord: but they that deal truly are his delight.”

Proverbs 11:6: “The righteousness of the upright shall deliver them: but transgressors shall be taken in their own naughtiness.”

Proverbs 11:18-19: “The wicked worketh a deceitful work: but to him that soweth righteousness shall be a sure reward.  As righteousness tendeth to life: so he that pursueth evil pursueth it to his own death.”

In Ezekiel chapter thirteen the Lord rebuked certain false prophets and summed up the lies they were telling in Ezekiel 13:22: “Because with lies ye have made the heart of the righteous sad, whom I have not made sad; and strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he should not return from his wicked way, by promising him life.”

It is clear that the righteous in God’s eyes are those who have turned from their evil way; while the wicked are those who have not.  These lying prophets were obviously telling the wicked that they were righteous as they continued in wickedness; and telling the righteous that they were no better off before God than the wicked.

Now false teachers and false evangelists and other deceivers will strengthen the hands of the wicked and discourage the righteous using this twisted, lying interpretation of Isaiah 64:6; and accompany that with sayings like “we’re all sinners” and “we all sin.”  

Yet they really mean by such sayings that one can continue in the practice of sin and be a partaker of the grace of God in Jesus Christ; and that those who wholeheartedly believe in Christ to save them from their sins (according to His actual mission- Matthew 1:21) are no different than those who practice sin.  They thus strengthen hands of the wicked to continue in sin and discourage the righteous for having an obedient attitude to Christ’s Lordship, having cast their transgressions away and surrendered to God’s authority as the Word of God commands sinners to do in order to obtain God’s grace (and thus no longer remain sinners).  

The Bible actually defines a sinner as one with a rebellious, disobedient attitude towards God’s authority (John 9:31, Psalm 1, Psalm 26:8-11, Psalm 66:18, etc).

Saying that “we are all sinners and we all sin” nullifies the Word of God’s judgments about the distinction in God’s eyes between the righteous and the wicked.

It makes Abel sound like he is no different from Cain.

It makes Noah and those with him on the Ark seem no different than the rest of the world which God destroyed by the flood.

It makes the inhabitants of Sodom seem no worse than most other people- when God deemed their sins to warrant swift, terrifying destruction by fire.

It makes Moses seem no different than those who worshiped the Golden Calf and those who wickedly opposed his God-ordained authority (like Dathan, Korah, and Abiram).

It makes Phinehas (Numbers chapter 25) seem no different than the wicked whom God commended him for righteously judging and smiting for their fornication.

It makes King David’s genuine repentance out to be no different than King Saul’s shallow, insufficient repentance which couldn’t keep him from being God’s enemy.

It makes the holy prophets like Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel to seem no different than their hateful enemies who sought to slay them for their righteous testimony.

It makes the righteous testimony of the prophets itself out to be a misleading lie.  

Jeremiah 18:11: “Now therefore go to, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the Lord; Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return ye now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good.”  

It justifies the wicked Jews who were destroyed by the Babylonians- as if there was no way they could have genuinely repented and did right before God in order to prevent that judgment.

It makes those who wouldn’t heed God’s testimony given through His holy prophets seem more honest than those holy prophets themselves.  

2 Kings 17:13-14: “Yet the Lord testified against Israel, and against Judah, by all the prophets, and by all the seers, saying, Turn ye from your evil ways, and keep my commandments and my statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my servants the prophets.  Notwithstanding they would not hear, but hardened their necks, like to the neck of their fathers, that did not believe in the Lord their God.”

It justifies Herod for slaying John the Baptist for calling Israel to flee from the wrath to come and to bring forth fruit in keeping with repentance like John the Baptist indeed called for.

Saying that “we are all sinners and we all sin” makes Zaccheus’ repentance and restitution seem inconsequential and no victory at all.  It nullifies Jesus’ verdict about the necessity of repentance, the possibility of genuine repentance and deeds in keeping with repentance, and the saving outcome of such (see Luke 19:1-10).  

Saying that “we’re all sinners and we all sin” tells sinners that they are okay as they are; and that they do not need to really repent and seek the Great Physician to save them from their sins.  

Saying that “we’re all sinners and we all sin” justifies those involved in the crucifixion of Jesus- as if they could not have done any better than they did- and as if they didn’t need to repent afterwards of their wicked attitude and love of darkness which led to that.

It also justifies the lies of every hypocrite who claims to know Jesus Christ yet walks in darkness and refuses to die to sin and self in order to follow Him and keep His Word in truth (see 1 John 2:1-6).

When people say things like “we’re all sinners and “we all sin” in the manner that they usually do, a manner which encourages people to remain sinners and not rather to flee from their sins to obtain refuge in Jesus Christ’s righteous, saving reign- you can now be assured of the dark origin of such sayings.

It is no surprise that those who want an excuse for their sin would be drawn to Isaiah 64:6 in the way that it is typically applied out of context.  On the other hand, some who look to justify their sin also have enough Bible understanding and intellectual honesty to know that applying Isaiah 64:6 is only strengthening the case that they are God’s enemy and that they need to repent.  They thus look for a stronger justification of their sin (even though continuing in attachment to sin can never be truly justified and God is never mocked).  

It is both interesting and pathetic that an evangelical Zionist professing Christian now might very well be quicker to label righteous deeds by those wholeheartedly seeking Jesus Christ and striving to please God as “filthy rags” than they are to label the heinous deeds of Jews who admittedly reject Jesus Christ as filthy rags (and their blatant wicked deeds are actually even worse than filthy rags).  The very context of Isaiah 64:6, though it surely applies to professing Christians and all who profess to be righteous while living in sin, is directly dealing with the Jewish people doing wickedly as they drew near to God with their lips and were ritually zealous in Judaism.  

What do I base this claim on?  The evangelical Zionists support modern Israel and don’t show outrage at the mass murder which is resulting from the bombing of innocent civilians in Gaza.  Yet they’ll oppose, and maybe even be openly outraged over any talk of needing to turn from sin and walk in the light of God’s Word in order to exercise an authentic, living faith in Jesus Christ which actually brings justification before God and leads to salvation.  

They’d do well to cease sounding like fools quoting Isaiah 64:6 to oppose those prescribing that we do the things the Bible actually commands without partiality and to turn their wrath instead against the mass murdering nation and people that most American evangelicals are so foolishly and wickedly in love with.

Not even the thief on the cross coming to repentance and finding salvation in Christ can be used to justify the common twisting of Isaiah 64:6.  The thief on the cross’ acknowledgement of the justice of his condemnation was an acknowledgement that he should have, and could have, turned to God much sooner and never have even been a potential tool for Satan to use to perpetrate crime and cause unrighteous chaos.  

In repenting and turning to Jesus like He did, this man worked a work of genuine faith that Jesus did find acceptable and did not consider a filthy rag.  

And every person who will ever enter God’s kingdom and be spared from the condemnation of the eternal lake of fire will have departed from all moral uncleanness and walked in a righteous faith before God which worked that which is well pleasing in His sight.

Hebrews 13:20-21: “Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever.  Amen.”

2 Corinthians 7:1: “Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.”

Aaron’s email is: [email protected]

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