Filthy Rags

FILTHY RAGS

     In I Corinthians 11 Paul addresses the importance of the Lord’s Supper and how each of us should examine ourselves so as to eat in a worthy  manner.  “But let  man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup.  For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.”  I Corinthians 11:28-29

Some have interpreted this to mean that we in some way are to eat in a manner that makes us worthy of the sacrifice Christ made for us. Make no mistake about it, none of us are worthy of any blessing we have received from the hand of God, especially the blessing of the sacrifice Christ made to take our sins away.

Isaiah wrote “But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our  righteousnesses are like filthy rags;  We all fade as a leaf, and our  iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.”  Isaiah 64:6  We are no better today than Israel was in Isaiah’s day.  We are still like filthy rags.  We are unworthy of anything God or Christ have done.  Yet they did what none of us could do; clean up these filthy rags.

The words of the song, Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow, should be extremely meaningful to Christians.  We have been blessed by our loving Heavenly Father who loved us enough to let His Son to die in our place. We have been abundantly blessed by Jesus who was willing to take the punishment for our sins so we could be saved.

Occasionally we will hear someone say something like, “I’m not good enough to go to heaven.”  To that I would say, “No, you’re not.”  But God didn’t send Jesus to die because we are good enough to go to heaven, he sent Him because we as filthy rags needed to be cleansed, sanctified, redeemed, and forgiven. 

So when you eat the Lord’s Supper, remember how unworthy you are, and thank God that He sent Jesus to clean up these filthy rags.