What are you talking about? The quote is from John ...
No person is without sin. Nomatter how many righteous acts on thinks one does, 'they are as filthy rags'.
The strongholds of the delusion are very powerful indeed.
A single statement of truth may be contradicted by 100 lies. If 5 lies are cast down then there remain 95 more lies contradicting the single statement of truth. Thus the person in delusion will reject the truth because they are in bondage to many lies.
It is the same with the strong delusion which has overcome the minds of most who profess Jesus Christ. These people have listened and bought into the lies of a multitude of false teachers. The delusion is like an onion which has layer upon layer of deception.
Paul when he came to Christ counted all that came before as dung. This is why those who would come to Christ must come as little children willing to yield to the simplicity that is in Christ. Those who remain stubborn in their misconceptions will remain deceived until the very end unfortunately.
I hope you Colours are not one of them.
You state this...
No person is without sin. Nomatter how many righteous acts on thinks one does, 'they are as filthy rags'.
You are appealing to Isaiah Chapter 64 in order to support that "anything that we could possibly do is as filthy rags before God." Is this true?
Here is the passage in question...
Isa 64:1 Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence,
Isa 64:2 As when the melting fire burneth, the fire causeth the waters to boil, to make thy name known to thine adversaries, that the nations may tremble at thy presence!
Isa 64:3 When thou didst terrible things which we looked not for, thou camest down, the mountains flowed down at thy presence.
Isa 64:4 For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him.
Isa 64:5 Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness, those that remember thee in thy ways: behold, thou art wroth; for we have sinned: in those is continuance, and we shall be saved.
Isa 64:6 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.
Isa 64:7 And there is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee: for thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast consumed us, because of our iniquities.
Isa 64:8 But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.
Isa 64:9 Be not wroth very sore, O LORD, neither remember iniquity for ever: behold, see, we beseech thee, we are all thy people.
Isa 64:10 Thy holy cities are a wilderness, Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation.
Isa 64:11 Our holy and our beautiful house, where our fathers praised thee, is burned up with fire: and all our pleasant things are laid waste.
Isa 64:12 Wilt thou refrain thyself for these things, O LORD? wilt thou hold thy peace, and afflict us very sore?
This is a prayer of Isaiah to God and he is speaking of Israel in a corporate sense (Isa 64:9-11). Isaiah states that God comes to and saves those whom rejoice and work righteousness and remember God in their ways (Isa 64:5).
Isaiah speaks of how corporate Israel (us) have been consumed because of their iniquities (Isa 64:7), that none of these call upon God, that none of these stir themselves to take a hold of God. It is these people whose "righteousness is as filth rags" because they have sought a righteousness APART from God.
Do you really think that the behaviour of the people mentioned in Isa 64:5, who rejoice and remember God in their ways and work righteous, is viewed as filthy rags?
Have you ever actually looked up and read Isa 64:6 and read it in context?
How about Abel who bore witness to God that he was righteous by a sacrifice which God accepted...
Heb 11:4 By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain,
by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh.
Gen 4:4 And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And
the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering:
Do you really believe that God viewed the work of Abel in offering a sacrifice to God as a filthy rag? I mean that is what you are clearly implying.
Think about it.
How about the parents of John the Baptist.
Luk 1:5 There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judaea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abia: and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elisabeth.
Luk 1:6 And
they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.
Are you going to use Isa 64:6 to claim that when Zacharias and Elisabeth were WALKING in the commandments and ordinances of the Lord BLAMELESS that God viewed that as filthy rags?
How about Solomon. Is the following righteousness as filthy rags before God?
Pro 11:4 Riches profit not in the day of wrath: but
righteousness delivereth from death.
Pro 11:5 The righteousness of the perfect shall direct his way: but the wicked shall fall by his own wickedness.
Pro 11:6
The righteousness of the upright shall deliver them: but transgressors shall be taken in their own naughtiness.
Righteousness is simply doing what is right. Don't be deceived!
1Jn 3:7 Little children, let no man deceive you:
he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous.
How do we DO RIGHTEOUSNESS?
Simple.
We yield to God.
Tit 2:11 For
the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,
Tit 2:12
Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;
We don't establish our own standard of right conduct. No, we yield to the standard expounded by God.
The righteousness of the law (God's standard) is established in the heart by faith.
Rom 3:31 Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.
When we yield to the Spirit of God by faith we fulfill the righteousness of the law.
Rom 8:4 That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
Thus we are obeying God FROM THE HEART.
Rom 6:17 But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but
ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.
Where does obeying God from the heart get us?
It leads to this...
Rom 6:18 Being then made free from sin,
ye became the servants of righteousness.
Which leads to this...
Rom 6:19 I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to
righteousness unto holiness.
Which leads to this...
Rom 6:22 But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto
holiness, and the end everlasting life.
It is very simple. It is what the Bible plainly teaches. Please don't reject it.
Without holiness no-one will see the Lord.
Heb_12:14
Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:
Think carefully about what you are saying Colour. It is very regurgitate the sound bytes of the strong delusion which the false teachers constantly allude to. The errors are very simple to expose if one simply clear their mind and allows God to teach them as a child.
Be like a Berean and study the scriptures to see if all the things you believe are actually true. If what you believe apparently contradicts then find out why. Is it possible that you have bought into a lie? When one is deceived they do not know it, such is the nature of deception.
Jesus saves humanity from death because he is the sacrifice upon the alter.
Belief in his ways saves us from 'consequence of sin'. So it is BENIFICIAL not to sin.
'For you have called to be free, but do not use this freedom to indulge the flesh, instead to serve one another humbly in love'.
Clearly salvation to you, by your own admission, is simply an abstract provision that has NOTHING to do with your conduct. Salvation to you is a legal transaction whereby the condemnation wrought by rebellion is removed yet the actual BONDAGE to sin can remain.
Jesus came to save people FROM their sins.
Mat 1:21 And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for
he shall save his people from their sins.
He did not come to save people IN their sins. There is a very BIG DIFFERENCE between the two.
Why did Jesus give Himself for you?
Here is why...
Tit 2:14 Who gave himself for us, that he might
redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.
HAVE YOU been redeemed from ALL INIQUITY?
HAVE YOU been PURIFIED?
or are you one of the MANY who still WORK INIQUITY?
Mat 7:21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
Mat 7:22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
Mat 7:23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me,
ye that work iniquity.
By your own admission you defend the case of remaining a worker of iniquity while being saved from condemnation for you say...
And we can try.
But none are perfect.
Nobody is perfect eh? I agree that no-one is perfect in the sense that we err in understanding and are prone to make mistakes.
Yet Jesus spoke of being perfect.
Mat_5:48 Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.
Was he commanding something that was impossible? Was Jesus saying to be something that you cannot be? That is clearly what you are asserting.
Have you ever looked up the meaning of perfect?
G5046
PERFECT - teleios
From G5056; complete (in various applications of labor, growth, mental and moral character, etc.); neuter (as noun, with G3588) completeness: - of full age, man, perfect.
It has to do with moral character. That is the perfection Christ calls us to.
Look at this passage...
Php 3:11 If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.
Php 3:12 Not as though I had already attained, either were already
perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.
Php 3:13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
Php 3:14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Php 3:15 Let us therefore, as many as be
perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.
G5048
Perfect - teleioō
tel-i-o'-o
From G5046; to complete, that is, (literally) accomplish, or (figuratively) consummate (in character): - consecrate, finish, fulfil, (make) perfect.
G5046
Perfect - teleios
tel'-i-os
From G5056; complete (in various applications of labor, growth, mental and moral character, etc.); neuter (as noun, with G3588) completeness: - of full age, man, perfect.
God calls us to MORAL PERFECTION. You are preaching against the call when you say "nobody is perfect" when Paul said, "Let us therefore,
as many as be perfect, be thus minded:"
Is Paul in error or are you in error?
You then appeal to the Romans 7 wretch as a supporting passage to your assertion that "no-one is perfect."
'for I still partake in the things of which I know I should not'.
The Romans Wretch is...
Rom 7:14 For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am
carnal, sold under sin.
Those who have died with Christ have been...
Rom 6:6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.
Rom 6:7 For he that is dead
is freed from sin.
In your mind the "freed from sin" is only being "set free from condemnation"
Which is why you say...
But Jesus is of forgiveness.
Thus in your mind "grace" is a cover for ongoing rebellion. What did Paul teach?
Rom 5:20 Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But
where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: [He taught that grace abounded when sin abounded.}
Rom 5:21 That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.
[Grace reigns THROUGH righteousness (compare with Rom 8:2-4 for righteousness comes by abiding in the Spirit of life in Jesus Christ ie. walking after the Spirit)]
Rom 6:1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
[Here Paul asks a very important question, he alludes to the fact that because the grace of God has abounded then does that mean that we should continue in sin?
Rom 6:2
God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? [Paul answers with an emphatic NO because he understands what dying with Christ actually means. He then goes on to elaborate clearly what it means to die with Christ and be raised up with him.
Rom 6:3 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
Rom 6:4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
Rom 6:5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:
Rom 6:6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.
[It is through the body of sin being destroyed via the old man being crucified that we longer serve sin.]
Rom 6:7 For
he that is dead is freed from sin.