Dirty Rags

    [6] We have all become like one who is unclean,
        and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.
    We all fade like a leaf,
        and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
 (Isaiah 64:6 ESV)

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.
(Isaiah 64:6 KJV)

All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.
(Isaiah 64:6 NIV)

These verses do not paint a pretty picture.  They make us out to be trifle, easily disposed of, the epitome of disgusting, all because of our incredible depths of sin.

The Greek word used to describe filthy rags, or polluted garment is actually referring to specifically a "menstrual cloth", or as we might say in our day - a dirty tampon.

For years I struggled with picturing this verse or understanding what it was actually saying.  I pictured myself, or someone, a generic human, presenting the best they had to offer God, which was a used pad, and I honestly couldn't comprehend it.  How could that be the BEST someone could offer?  Surely there was something better?  The person, or I would present the bloody cloth to God, while looking down, red-faced, and absolutely ashamed that this was the best they could offer, but God, for whatever, inexplicable reason would accept it, and this, for whatever inexplicable reason, accept me.



One day, a few month's ago, I was pondering this verse, and the realization hit, that bloody pads, or tampons, are not a neutral, or simply a 'bad' offering per se.  It's revolting.  It's disgusting, and it's downright offensive.  If someone were to give me used pad as a gift because it's the best they can offer, my stomach would probably turn over and I would want to vomit, and I'm a girl and I'm used to those kinds of things! 

It wasn't until I started to really understand the depth of my depravity that that verse really clicked in my head.  My righteousness is like a dirty menstrual pad, and I am totally dead in my sins.  Incapable of even presenting an offering to God.  I am like the leaf described in the verse above, crumpled up, dead, fragile, and easily taken away in the wind.  I'm not a leaf hanging on for dear life to a tree by the last threads in my stem, I've already fallen off, dried out and been blown away.

That's what makes the gospel so beautiful!  The fact that Jesus lived the perfect life that I had no chance of ever being able to do, and now, I am clothed in His righteousness - which is perfect, and not like a dirty rag, so when I stand before God, he doesn't see me:  a filthy, bloody, sinning wretch who is perfectly deserving of Hell, He sees Christ in my stead.  My sin doesn't matter.  My imperfections don't matter.  My shortcomings don't matter.  Where I've fallen short of God's glory doesn't matter.  Christ covered it all for me, and stands for me before God.

That's a hard thought to comprehend.  Over the past few month's I've become more and more aware of my own sin.  Around a year ago, I honestly thought I wasn't that bad of a person, that compared to other people I was probably of the moral upper end.  That didn't change the fact that I was still in the same boat as everyone one - the boat sailing toward Hell, and the only hope of an alternate course being Jesus Christ, but I thought of myself, kind of like an apple, with a bad spot on it.  Most of the apple was good, and theoretically the bad spot can be cut out and the rest saved, but the one bad spot merited the entire fruit tossed to the garbage.

I now know that I'm not an overall good apple with one or two bad spots, but a rotted, dead and decaying being consumed with filth and grim, save for Jesus Christ!  I feel like I'm going in circles here, but it really does blow my mind!  The magnitude of what Christ did is staggering.  What can I do in response to this incredible gift but to try to live the life I've now been freed to live?  I know I'll never be able to do it perfectly, I'll still fall short, but God's grace is sufficient, and still covers it.  Christ's blood still covers it.  Yes, I'll still repent and try do better, but the beauty of it is, even though I won't be able to do better, I'm still covered by the blood of Christ!  What better hope is there than that?