‍Isaiah 64:6 says our righteous deeds are filthy rags, so our good works can't merit anything from God

  Gary Hoge  ·  October 17, 2026

‍Is it possible for a fallen, sinful human being to gain merit with God? The answer depends on what we mean by the word “merit.”

‍But before discussing merit, let’s look at what Isaiah actually says. Isaiah 64:6 does not say that every righteous act performed by anyone under any circumstances is a filthy rag. In fact, immediately before this, Isaiah says of God:

‍You meet him who rejoices in doing righteousness, who remembers you in your ways (Isaiah 64:5).

‍God can hardly look favorably upon those who practice righteousness if every righteous act is repulsive to him.

‍The “righteous deeds” of verse 6 appear in the context of Israel’s sinful and unclean condition: “You were angry, for we sinned” (v. 5); “we have all become like one who is unclean” (v. 6); and “there is no one who calls upon your name” (v. 7). Isaiah is not describing the good works of people transformed and moved by God’s grace. He is confessing the inadequacy of the people’s righteousness in the midst of their sin.

‍And Catholics certainly agree that fallen human beings cannot, by their own natural powers, perform works that put God in their debt. But that isn’t what the Catholic doctrine of merit teaches.

‍What “merit” does not mean

‍When many Protestants hear Catholics speak of “meriting” something from God, they understandably think of earning something by giving something of equal value in return. When I work for my employer, for example, I merit my salary in this sense. I have provided something of value, and as a matter of justice my employer owes me the compensation we agreed upon.

‍If Catholics believed that we could merit salvation in that sense—by performing works whose intrinsic value obligates God to repay us—the objection would be entirely justified.

‍But the Catholic Church explicitly denies this. We cannot place God in our debt by giving him something he does not already possess or something whose value originates independently of him. As Paul asks, “Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?” (Romans 11:35).

‍The Catechism of the Catholic Church therefore teaches:

‍With regard to God, there is no strict right to any merit on the part of man. Between God and us there is an immeasurable inequality, for we have received everything from him, our Creator.^¹

‍So whatever Catholics mean when they speak of “merit,” they do not mean that we perform works whose intrinsic value obligates God to repay us.

‍Grace comes first

‍In fact, Catholic teaching begins at exactly the opposite end. We cannot merit the grace by which we are first justified. God takes the initiative.

‍The Catechism says:

‍The merit of man before God in the Christian life arises from the fact that God has freely chosen to associate man with the work of his grace (CCC 2008).

‍God first gives us his grace. That grace enables us to do what pleases him. We freely cooperate with that grace, and God rewards the good works that his grace has enabled us to perform.

‍This is why Catholic teaching on merit is not a doctrine of earning God’s favor by our own efforts. Grace comes first. Merit is itself possible only because of grace.

‍Catholic theology traditionally uses the term congruent merit for a good action that God chooses to reward even though he had not previously obligated himself by a promise to do so. Scripture contains numerous examples of this. When Solomon asked for wisdom rather than riches or long life, for example, God was pleased with his request and gave him not only wisdom but riches and honor as well (1 Kings 3:10–13). Solomon hadn’t earned those things from God. God freely chose to reward an action that pleased him.

‍But the kind of merit most relevant to the Catholic doctrine of salvation is traditionally called condign merit. Here, God has actually promised a reward.

‍God has promised to reward our good works

‍Suppose I promised to give you a million dollars if you wore a red shirt to work tomorrow. Wearing a red shirt obviously isn’t intrinsically worth a million dollars. But if you fulfilled the condition I had freely established, you could rightly expect me to keep my promise. The money would be due to you, not because wearing a red shirt was worth a million dollars, but because I had freely promised the reward.

‍The analogy is imperfect because our relationship with God is not merely contractual. God supplies even the grace by which we perform the good works he rewards. But it illustrates an important distinction: a reward can be “due” because of a promise without having been earned by giving the promisor something of equivalent value.

‍And the Bible repeatedly says that God has promised to reward the good works of his children:

‍But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you (Matthew 6:3–4).

‍Jesus doesn’t say that our good works are filthy rags that cannot possibly please God. He says that our Father sees them and rewards them.

‍Likewise:

‍For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done (Matthew 16:27).

‍And:

‍But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous (Luke 14:13–14).

‍Whatever terminology we choose to use, the underlying principle is unmistakably biblical: God promises to reward the good works of his children.

‍Eternal life: gift and reward

‍Scripture goes even further. It describes eternal life both as God’s free gift and as something he gives in response to perseverance in doing good.

‍Paul famously writes:

‍The gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6:23).

‍Catholics fully affirm that. Eternal life originates entirely in God’s grace and cannot be purchased from him by our works.

‍But the same Paul also writes:

‍God will give to each person according to what he has done. To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life (Romans 2:6–7).

‍There is no contradiction. Eternal life can be both a gift and a reward because even the good works God rewards are possible only through his grace.

‍This is the carefully qualified sense in which Catholic theology can speak of meriting eternal life. We do not first perform works independently of God and then present him with a bill. God gives us grace, adopts us as his children, enables us to do what pleases him, and promises to reward our perseverance in that grace.

‍Interestingly, the Lutheran Book of Concord, while rejecting the Catholic terminology of condign merit, acknowledges an important part of this principle:

‍We grant that eternal life is a reward because it is something that is owed—not because of our merits but because of the promise.^²

‍Catholics and Lutherans disagree about whether the language of merit should be applied here, but notice the important point of agreement: eternal life can be God’s gracious gift and at the same time a promised reward. And that reward can even be described as “owed”—not because our works possess some intrinsic value that places God in our debt, but because God has freely made a promise and is faithful to it.

‍That is the essential point behind the Catholic doctrine of merit.

‍Isaiah 64:6 therefore doesn’t contradict Catholic teaching. Catholics agree that sinful human beings cannot manufacture a righteousness of their own that puts God in their debt. But Scripture also teaches that people transformed by God’s grace can perform works that genuinely please him, and that God has freely promised to reward those works.

‍Everything begins with grace. God gives the grace, God enables the good work, and God promises the reward.

‍As St. Augustine beautifully put it:

‍The Lord made himself a debtor not by receiving something but by promising something. One does not say to him, “Pay for what you received,” but “Pay what you promised.”^³

‍__________

^‍1 Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd ed. (Washington, DC: United States Catholic Conference, 2000), no. 2007.

^‍2 The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, ed. and trans. Theodore G. Tappert (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1959), 162.

^‍3 Augustine, Expositions of the Psalms 83.16, in The Works of Saint Augustine: A Translation for the 21st Century, pt. 3, vol. 17, trans. Maria Boulding (Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 2002).