Commentary - Isaiah 64:6-7

Bird's-eye view

In this profound lament, the prophet Isaiah, speaking on behalf of the covenant people of Israel, offers one of the most potent and humbling confessions of sin in all of Scripture. This is not a description of the pagan nations, but of God's own people. The passage is a stark diagnosis of the human condition under the curse of sin, a condition of universal uncleanness and spiritual inability. The central metaphor is that of a polluted garment, declaring that even the peak of human moral effort, our "righteous deeds," are utterly defiled and unacceptable before a holy God. This is not just individual failure; it is a corporate reality. The entire nation is spiritually withered, carried away by their sins, and in a state of such deep lethargy that no one can even muster the will to seek God. The passage climaxes with the reason for this state: God has sovereignly hidden His face, handing them over to the consequences of their own iniquity. It is a devastating picture of man's total depravity and his desperate need for a grace that must come entirely from outside himself.

This confession is not, however, a cry of final despair. It is set within a larger prayer that begins with a plea for God to rend the heavens and come down (Isa 64:1). This confession of utter helplessness is the necessary prelude to a genuine plea for mercy. It is only when we see the absolute filthiness of our own righteousness that we are prepared to be clothed in the true righteousness that God provides in His Son. This passage demolishes all forms of self-righteousness and prepares the ground for the good news of the gospel of imputed righteousness.

Outline

Context In Isaiah

This passage comes near the end of the third major section of Isaiah. Chapters 56-66 deal with the glorious future of God's people after the exile, but also with the persistent problem of their sin. Chapter 63 and the beginning of 64 form a long, communal lament, recalling God's mighty deeds in the past (the Exodus) and contrasting them with the people's current desolate state. They are crying out to God, asking why He has allowed them to wander from His ways. Our text, verses 6 and 7, is the heart of their confession within this lament. It is the moment of radical self-awareness where the people stop making excuses and acknowledge the depth of their own corruption. This honest assessment of their sin is the turning point that leads to the appeal to God as their Father and Potter (Isa 64:8) and sets the stage for God's glorious answer in chapters 65 and 66, where He promises a new heavens and a new earth.

Key Issues

Our Righteousness, God's Righteousness

This passage is frequently, and rightly, brought into discussions about the doctrine of justification by faith alone. It is one of the clearest Old Testament expressions of what the Reformers called total depravity. This does not mean that unregenerate man is as wicked as he could possibly be in his behavior. Rather, it means that sin has corrupted every part of his being, including his will and his intellect, such that he is totally unable to please God or contribute anything to his own salvation. Even his best efforts, his most sincere religious strivings, his "righteous deeds," are tainted by sin at the root. They do not flow from a heart that loves God supremely, and therefore they are unacceptable.

The Hebrew for "filthy garment" refers to a menstrual cloth, a garment of ceremonial uncleanness. The imagery is intentionally shocking. Isaiah is saying that our best moral performances, the things we would be most tempted to boast about, are to God like a used feminine hygiene product. This is designed to strip us of every last shred of self-righteousness. If our righteousness is this vile, then our only hope must be a righteousness that comes from outside of us. This passage creates the problem that only the gospel can solve. Our filthy rags must be taken away, and we must be clothed in what Zechariah would later see in a vision: clean and festal robes, the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ.

Verse by Verse Commentary

6a For all of us have become like one who is unclean,

The confession begins with a corporate and universal statement. "All of us." There are no exceptions, no righteous remnant exempt from this diagnosis. The prophet includes himself. They have become like a leper, ceremonially and morally unclean. In the Old Covenant, uncleanness was a state of separation from the presence of God in the sanctuary. To be unclean was to be unfit to draw near. Isaiah is saying that this is the fundamental spiritual condition of the entire nation. They are spiritually leprous, and their sin has quarantined them from the presence of the Holy One of Israel.

6b And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment;

This is the hammer blow. It is one thing to confess that our sins are sinful. It is another thing entirely to confess that our righteousness is sinful. Isaiah anticipates the proud human heart that, when confronted with its sin, immediately wants to pull out a resume of good works. "Yes, I have my faults, but look at all the good I've done." Isaiah says that this very resume is the most defiled thing of all. "All our righteous deeds", not some, but all. The very best things we do, our acts of charity, our prayers, our worship, our attempts at moral reform, when offered from a heart not yet regenerated by God, are like a polluted rag. Why? Because the motivation is polluted. They are not done for the pure glory of God from a heart of faith. They are done for self-glorification, or out of fear, or to appease a guilty conscience. They are dead works because they spring from a dead heart.

6c And all of us wither like a leaf,

The imagery shifts from defilement to decay. A leaf separated from the branch, its source of life, inevitably withers, dries up, and dies. This is a picture of a people cut off from God, the true source of life. Without a vital connection to Him, spiritual vitality is impossible. There can be no fruit, only a slow, inexorable process of drying up and becoming brittle. This is the state of a covenant people who have broken the covenant. They are a branch broken off, withering under the sun of God's displeasure.

6d And our iniquities, like the wind, carry us away.

A dry, withered leaf has no ability to resist the wind. It is helpless. This is the condition of the people. Their sins are not small, manageable problems; they are a gale force wind that has picked them up and is carrying them away into exile and judgment. They have lost all spiritual agency, all ability to resist. They are completely at the mercy of their own transgressions. This is a picture of bondage. They are not free men who occasionally choose to sin; they are slaves to sin, and their master is driving them over a cliff.

7a There is no one who calls on Your name, Who awakens himself to take hold of You,

Here Isaiah describes the spiritual lethargy that is both a cause and a consequence of their condition. The situation is desperate, and yet no one is praying. No one is crying out to God for deliverance. The Hebrew for "awakens himself" or "stirs himself up" gives the picture of someone trying to shake himself out of a deep sleep or a drunken stupor. But no one is doing it. The will is bound. They are so spiritually deadened that they lack even the desire to seek the only one who can help them. This is a terrifying state. It is not just that they cannot save themselves; they cannot even bring themselves to want to be saved. This is the depth of depravity, not just inability, but apathy.

7b For You have hidden Your face from us

Now we come to the ultimate cause. Why are they in this condition? Because God has acted in judgment. For God to hide His face is the great covenant curse. His presence is life and blessing; His absence is death and curse. They have sinned Him away. Their persistent rebellion has led God to withdraw the restraining and enabling grace of His presence. This is not an arbitrary act on God's part. It is the just consequence of their covenant unfaithfulness. When God hides His face, spiritual darkness is the inevitable result.

7c And have melted us into the hand of our iniquities.

The final phrase is powerful. The image is of metal being melted in a furnace until it is liquid and powerless. God has handed them over. The phrase "into the hand of" means to be given over to the power and control of something. God has judicially given them over to the full controlling power of their own sin. This is what Paul describes in Romans 1. When men persist in rebellion, God's wrath is revealed in His "giving them over" to their lusts. He removes His hand of restraint and allows sin to run its full, destructive course. It is a fearful thing to be abandoned by God to the tyranny of one's own sin.

Application

This passage should first and foremost drive every one of us to his knees in humility. If this was the state of God's covenant people, how much more is it the state of every person outside of Christ? We must abandon all hope in our own goodness. Our good deeds cannot save us; our good deeds are part of the problem that needs saving. We must learn to see our righteousness as God sees it, as a filthy rag, so that we will stop trying to wave it before Him as though it were a banner.

Second, this passage should make us marvel at the grace of God in Jesus Christ. We were unclean, but He touched us and made us clean. Our righteous deeds were filthy rags, so He took them away and clothed us in His own perfect righteousness, a robe of pure white. We were withering leaves, but He grafted us into Himself, the true vine, so that we might have life. We were carried away by the wind of our sin, but He is the rock that stands firm in the storm. We would not stir ourselves to take hold of Him, so He took hold of us. God had hidden His face from us, but in the face of Jesus Christ, God has shone upon us with the light of His glory. He had melted us into the hand of our iniquities, but on the cross, His own Son was handed over for our iniquities.

This is the great exchange of the gospel. This passage shows us the depth of the pit from which we were rescued. We must never forget it. To the unbeliever, the message is clear: stop trusting in yourself. Your best is not good enough. Flee to Christ. To the believer, the message is also clear: your standing before God depends entirely on the righteousness of Christ, not on your performance. Therefore, live in grateful obedience, knowing that even your good works now, done in faith, are only acceptable to God because they are washed in the blood of the Lamb and presented to the Father by our great High Priest.