Audio Transcript

Holy works and filthy rags. It comes up time and time again, and it’s the topic of a question from Hanley in New Zealand. He’s onto the topic. And it’s a timely one as he reads Nehemiah 13 — and as many of us read Nehemiah 13 — to finish out the book in our Bible reading today. Here’s his email: “Hello, Pastor John! I’m a young believer from New Zealand and I thank God for his work through you. I am confused as to why the saints of the Old Testament regularly pray to God to regard them according to their own righteousness. Most notably for me right now are Nehemiah 13:14, 22, 30–31. Is this a practice for us today? Do we bring to God our righteous deeds and ask him not to forget them? I’ve never prayed that way. Never even considered it. I guess my default is to think of ‘all’ my ‘righteous deeds’ as ‘filthy rags’ (Isaiah 64:6). Do you remind God of your righteous deeds? Should we? And why do we need to?”

Okay, Hanley, let’s buckle up because I’m going to pack a lot into a very short space here — a kind of mini-theology of good works, how they relate to faith, how they relate to rewards, how they relate to prayer.

Filthy Rags or Holy Deeds?

Let’s start with Isaiah 64:6. You are not alone in thinking that this verse teaches that all Christian good works are filthy rags in the sight of God. That is a profoundly mistaken reading of that verse. The verse just before, Isaiah 64:5, says, “You meet him who joyfully works righteousness, those who remember you in your ways.” This is a commendation of righteousness in the people of God. God does not despise the righteous deeds of his children done by faith. What verse 6 is referring to in calling righteous deeds “filthy rags” is the hypocritical works that flow from nothing. They have an outward show of righteousness, but inside, dead men’s bones rooted in pride, just as Jesus referred to it (Matthew 23:27).

That misunderstanding of Isaiah 64:6 has caused many Christians to believe that it is impossible for a Christian to please God. If their best works are filthy rags, there’s nothing they can do to please him. This is a profoundly unbiblical notion through and through.

For example, consider how Paul commends the Philippians: “I have received . . . from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God” (Philippians 4:18). Their generosity to Paul was pleasing to God. It was not filthy. Or Hebrews 13:16: “Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.” Hebrews 11:6 holds the key: “Without faith it is impossible to please [God].” But Christians have faith. We have faith. And that faith in God’s blood-bought grace, with all its fruits — the fruits of faith and grace — pleases God because it depends on God, not the self, for doing good.

Think what a horrible thing it would be to say that the fruit of the Holy Spirit in the Christian life is filthy rags. I can hardly stand to even think about it. They are not filthy rags. They are God’s precious gift and work in us.

Rewards for Faithful Labor

Let’s take it a step further. If God, in fact, in his grace and power enables us to do things that are good, he is going to reward them, not ignore them. He’s going to say, “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:21). Works of faith are going to be rewarded, not thrown away as filthy rags.

And God intends for us to hope for and expect these rewards. Second Corinthians 5:10: “We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.” Or consider Matthew 10:42: “Whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward.” Or Ephesians 6:8: “Whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord.”

There’s no thought in these texts of anybody earning salvation or even earning rewards. The idea of earning is not present. In order to earn something, you supply some labor that someone needs so that they’re now in your debt to pay you wages. God has no needs, and he pays no wages among his people. He bought us by grace; he sustains us by grace; he enables us to do good works by grace. And we do the works trusting that grace. And in that way, we confirm (as Peter says) our “calling and election” (2 Peter 1:10).

Essence of Uprightness

Now we’re in a position to see what’s really going on in the Old Testament when, over and over again, God’s righteous servant pleads his own integrity, his own uprightness, to claim his help from God.

I think Psalm 25 is one of the best places to see what’s going on in the psalmist’s mind concerning his own integrity and his own righteousness, his own upright behavior. In Psalm 25:21, he says, “May integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I wait for you.” Now, clearly, he does not think that his integrity and uprightness are filthy rags, and he doesn’t think that they are performed in his own autonomous strength, because he says, “[because] I wait for you.” The essence and root of his integrity and his uprightness is that he’s looking away from himself to the mercy and the power of God.

“God does not despise the righteous deeds of his children done by faith.”

He’s not sinless though. Psalm 25:7: “Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions.” Psalm 25:11: “For your name’s sake, O Lord, pardon my guilt, for it is great.” Psalm 25:18: “Consider my affliction and my trouble, and forgive all my sins.” And after confessing his sins three times at least (I think there’s one more verse), Psalm 25:21 says, “May integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I wait for you.”

He’s just confessed his sin three times. He called his transgressions great. There is real sin left in the lives of the saints — in all of us. There is also real contrition and real confession and real forgiveness and real lives of integrity and uprightness. And David prays and asks that his integrity and his uprightness would preserve him.

Praying Like Nehemiah

So, when Nehemiah — finally got to your text — prays four times something very similar about his obedience to God’s commands, he’s doing something similar to what David is doing. He says, “Remember this also in my favor, O my God, and spare me according to the greatness of your steadfast love” (Nehemiah 13:22). He’s not doing anything essentially different from what David does in the Psalms or doing anything different from the way the New Testament treats our good deeds as Christians. He’s saying, “I’m not perfect, but I have trusted you, and I wait for your steadfast love, and I have acted in my integrity, and I have sought to be obedient to your commandments. May this be remembered before you at the day of salvation.”

Should we pray that way? Should we call to mind regularly our integrity, our uprightness before God? And here’s a guideline that I would say, because I don’t do that very often either, just like you. I think a safe guideline for when we should pray this way is that this kind of praying comes to the fore in times when we are embattled and accused of things that we did not do. So, we pray, “O Lord, you know my heart. You know I am being accused unjustly. I pray that you will remember my integrity and my truthfulness, and vindicate me before my enemies. And if not in this life, O God, vindicate me and reward me according to your mercy in the last day when you remember how I walked in my integrity.”

So, I think that’s the way we should pray from time to time when we are embattled the way the psalmists were and the way Nehemiah was.