100 Bible Verses about Works As Filthy Rags

Isaiah 64:6 ESV / 17 helpful votes

We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.

Ephesians 2:8-9 ESV / 9 helpful votes

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Romans 3:23 ESV / 7 helpful votes

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Romans 6:23 ESV / 6 helpful votes

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 3:28 ESV / 6 helpful votes

For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.

Romans 3:10 ESV / 6 helpful votes

As it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one;

Jeremiah 17:9 ESV / 6 helpful votes

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?

Titus 3:5 ESV / 5 helpful votes

He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,

Ephesians 2:10 ESV / 5 helpful votes

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Galatians 2:16 ESV / 5 helpful votes

Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.

Romans 5:1 ESV / 5 helpful votes

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

John 3:16 ESV / 5 helpful votes

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

1 Peter 3:21 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,

1 Peter 1:16 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”

James 2:1-26 ESV / 4 helpful votes

My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, “You sit here in a good place,” while you say to the poor man, “You stand over there,” or, “Sit down at my feet,” have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him? ...

Philippians 3:9 ESV / 4 helpful votes

And be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—

Ephesians 2:8-10 ESV / 4 helpful votes

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Ephesians 2:8 ESV / 4 helpful votes

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,

Galatians 3:10 ESV / 4 helpful votes

For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.”

2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV / 4 helpful votes

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Romans 7:9 ESV / 4 helpful votes

I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died.

Romans 5:18 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men.

Romans 5:10 ESV / 4 helpful votes

For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.

Romans 5:9 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.

Romans 3:27-28 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.

Romans 2:13 ESV / 4 helpful votes

For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.

Romans 2:1-29 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed. ...

Matthew 7:21 ESV / 4 helpful votes

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

Ezekiel 36:1-38 ESV / 4 helpful votes

“And you, son of man, prophesy to the mountains of Israel, and say, O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God: Because the enemy said of you, ‘Aha!’ and, ‘The ancient heights have become our possession,’ therefore prophesy, and say, Thus says the Lord God: Precisely because they made you desolate and crushed you from all sides, so that you became the possession of the rest of the nations, and you became the talk and evil gossip of the people, therefore, O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God: Thus says the Lord God to the mountains and the hills, the ravines and the valleys, the desolate wastes and the deserted cities, which have become a prey and derision to the rest of the nations all around, therefore thus says the Lord God: Surely I have spoken in my hot jealousy against the rest of the nations and against all Edom, who gave my land to themselves as a possession with wholehearted joy and utter contempt, that they might make its pasturelands a prey. ...

1 John 1:7 ESV / 3 helpful votes

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

1 Peter 1:15-16 ESV / 3 helpful votes

But as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”

1 Peter 1:3 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

James 2:26 ESV / 3 helpful votes

For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.

James 2:24 ESV / 3 helpful votes

You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.

James 2:20 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?

James 2:18 ESV / 3 helpful votes

But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.

James 2:17 ESV / 3 helpful votes

So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

James 2:10 ESV / 3 helpful votes

For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.

Hebrews 12:14 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.

Hebrews 10:17 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Then he adds, “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.”

Hebrews 10:14 ESV / 3 helpful votes

For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

Hebrews 10:12 ESV / 3 helpful votes

But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God,

Hebrews 10:10 ESV / 3 helpful votes

And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

Hebrews 9:27 ESV / 3 helpful votes

And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,

Hebrews 9:14 ESV / 3 helpful votes

How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

Hebrews 7:27 ESV / 3 helpful votes

He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself.

Hebrews 3:14 ESV / 3 helpful votes

For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.

Hebrews 3:6 ESV / 3 helpful votes

But Christ is faithful over God's house as a son. And we are his house, if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.

Titus 3:8 ESV / 3 helpful votes

The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. These things are excellent and profitable for people.

2 Timothy 4:3 ESV / 3 helpful votes

For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions,

2 Timothy 3:16-17 ESV / 3 helpful votes

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

1 Timothy 2:5 ESV / 3 helpful votes

For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,

Philippians 3:8-9 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—

Ephesians 2:1-22 ESV / 3 helpful votes

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— ...

Galatians 5:17 ESV / 3 helpful votes

For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.

Galatians 5:6 ESV / 3 helpful votes

For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.

Galatians 4:4 ESV / 3 helpful votes

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law,

Galatians 4:4-5 ESV / 3 helpful votes

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

Galatians 3:13 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—

2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

1 Corinthians 1:30 ESV / 3 helpful votes

And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption,

Romans 6:2 ESV / 3 helpful votes

By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?

Romans 5:19 ESV / 3 helpful votes

For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous.

Romans 5:12-21 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. ...

Romans 5:1-21 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. ...

Romans 4:4 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due.

Romans 4:3 ESV / 3 helpful votes

For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.”

Romans 3:22 ESV / 3 helpful votes

The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction:

Romans 3:20 ESV / 3 helpful votes

For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

Romans 3:9 ESV / 3 helpful votes

What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin,

Romans 3:1-31 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? Much in every way. To begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God. What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? By no means! Let God be true though every one were a liar, as it is written, “That you may be justified in your words, and prevail when you are judged.” But if our unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unrighteous to inflict wrath on us? (I speak in a human way.) ...

Romans 1:18 ESV / 3 helpful votes

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

Acts 26:18 ESV / 3 helpful votes

To open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’

Acts 2:38 ESV / 3 helpful votes

And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

John 3:3 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

Luke 18:9-14 ESV / 3 helpful votes

He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ ...

Luke 17:10 ESV / 3 helpful votes

So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’”

Mark 16:16 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.

Mark 10:18 ESV / 3 helpful votes

And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.

Matthew 7:21-23 ESV / 3 helpful votes

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

Matthew 5:17 ESV / 3 helpful votes

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.

Ezekiel 36:26 ESV / 3 helpful votes

And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

Jeremiah 23:6 ESV / 3 helpful votes

In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’

Deuteronomy 27:26 ESV / 3 helpful votes

“‘Cursed be anyone who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

Leviticus 11:44 ESV / 3 helpful votes

For I am the Lord your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy. You shall not defile yourselves with any swarming thing that crawls on the ground.

Revelation 22:19 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.

Revelation 21:8 ESV / 2 helpful votes

But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

Revelation 17:5 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And on her forehead was written a name of mystery: “Babylon the great, mother of prostitutes and of earth's abominations.”

Revelation 15:4 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship you, for your righteous acts have been revealed.”

Revelation 6:15 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains,

James 1:22-25 ESV / 2 helpful votes

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

Hebrews 6:1-20 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And this we will do if God permits. For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, ...

Hebrews 2:10 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering.

2 Timothy 2:13 ESV / 2 helpful votes

If we are faithless, he remains faithful— for he cannot deny himself.

Philippians 3:6 ESV / 2 helpful votes

As to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.

Philippians 3:1-21 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you. Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh. For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh— though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; ...

Ephesians 5:27 ESV / 2 helpful votes

So that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.

Ephesians 2:9-10 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Ephesians 2:9 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Galatians 5:2-4 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.

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