What is the meaning of Isaiah 64:6? Each of us has become like something unclean “Each of us has become like something unclean”. • Uncleanness under the Law (Leviticus 13:45-46) shut a person out from the camp and sanctuary; Isaiah borrows that image to say every person is spiritually shut out. • Even the prophet himself admitted, “Woe to me… I am a man of unclean lips” (Isaiah 6:5). The condition is universal, not selective. • Paul echoes this truth: “There is no one righteous, not even one” (Romans 3:10-12). The point is unmistakable—sin has defiled every heart, leaving none fit to stand before a holy God on personal merit. All our righteous acts are like filthy rags “and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags”. • What people often parade as goodness is still tainted by self-interest, pride, or unbelief; therefore, before the spotlight of divine holiness it is “filthy.” • In Philippians 3:8-9 Paul calls his finest religious credentials “rubbish” and seeks a righteousness that comes through faith in Christ. • Titus 3:5 reminds us, “He saved us, not by works of righteousness that we had done, but according to His mercy.” • The parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector (Luke 18:11-14) shows how self-congratulating righteousness is rejected while humble faith is accepted. Isaiah exposes the bankruptcy of human virtue so that God’s grace alone shines. We all wither like a leaf “we all wither like a leaf”. • Life’s brevity and vulnerability are pictured in a leaf that dries out and crumbles (Psalm 103:15-16; Isaiah 40:6-8). • Sin accelerates that decay, cutting us off from the life-giving root who is God Himself. • No amount of human progress can stop the inevitable wilting; only new life from the Spirit can. Our iniquities carry us away like the wind “and our iniquities carry us away like the wind”. • Sin is not static; it sweeps us along, much like chaff blown off the threshing floor (Psalm 1:4). • Hosea 13:3 pictures the guilty “like chaff swirling from the threshing floor,” an image of helpless drift. • Romans 6:23 clarifies the destination of that drift: death—unless grace intervenes. • Israel literally experienced exile because of accumulated iniquity; every sinner faces a more profound exile from God unless redeemed. summary Isaiah 64:6 layers four vivid pictures to declare one central truth: every human being is defiled, powerless to produce true righteousness, fading under the curse of mortality, and driven along by personal sin toward judgment. The verse strips away self-confidence so that we will cling to the only sufficient answer—God’s saving righteousness given freely through the promised Messiah. |
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