how befilthying a thing it is

"Unto Him who loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood!" Revelation 1:5

“We are all loathsome to God, before we are washed pure in the blood of Christ!

By nature, we are all in a filthy and cursed condition. We are a lump of clay and sin mingled together. Sin not only blinds us—but defiles us. It is called filthiness (James 1:21). And to show how befilthying a thing it is, it is compared . . .
to a plague of the heart (1 Kings 8:38),
to corruption (Deuteronomy 32:5),
to vomit (2 Peter 2:22),
to a menstrual cloth (Isaiah 30:22).

If all the evils in the world were put together and their quintessence strained out—they could not make a thing so black and polluted as sin is! A sinner is a devil in a man's shape! When Moses' rod was turned into a serpent—he fled from it. If God would open men's eyes and show them their deformities and damnable spots —they would fly from themselves, as from serpents!

When grace comes—it washes off this hellish filth! It turns ravens into swans. It makes those who are as black as hell—to become as white as snow!

"Christ gave Himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for Himself a people that are His very own." Christ shed His blood—to wash off our filth. The cross was both an altar and a laver. Jesus died not only to save us from wrath (1 Thes. 1:10)—but to save us from sin! (Matthew 1:21). Out of his side came water which signifies our cleansing—as well as blood which signifies our justifying (1 John 5:6).” - Thomas Watson “The Beatitudes” from Grace Gems.

“O love that ever burnest and art never quenched! O Charity, my God, enkindle me! Thou commandest continence. Grant what thou commandest and command what thou wilt.” - Augustine “Confessions” (X, 40)( source http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/ByDate/1994/862_Long_for_the_Pure_Milk_of_the_Word/ )

“If you hear this, ‘Do more, be better, try harder,’ you’re not hearing the gospel. That is not the gospel. The gospel says that Christ died for your sins according to the Scriptures, and that that death is at one and the same time the representation of God’s justice and God’s mercy coming together on the cross. And the fact that now I have been set free from my sin and God has shown this great mercy should then propel me into a life of obedience. But when I fall short, its not because, as 2 Peter 1 is saying, its not because I need to do more, be better, and try harder, its because I’m not believing the gospel. There’s some element of the gospel that I’m not trusting in.” - R.W. (Bob) Glenn, Pastor of Redeemer Bible Church, Minnetonka MN, WOTMR 8/21/07 Hr. 2

“Good deeds aren’t saving in nature, but they are from a saved nature.”

"Our basic problem as Catholics was that personal worth and dignity was ingrained into us. We believed that could respond to the help God gives us to be right in His sight. This presupposition that many of us have carried for years is aptly defined in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (1994) #2021, “Grace is the help God gives us to respond to our vocation of becoming his adopted sons....” With that mindset, we were unknowingly holding to a teaching that the Bible continually condemns. Such a definition of grace is man's careful fabrication, for the Bible consistently declares that the believer's right standing with God is “without works” (Romans 4:6), “without the deeds of the Law” (Romans 3:28), “not of works” (Ephesians 2:9), “It is the gift of God,” (Ephesians 2:8). To attempt to make the believer's response part of his salvation and to look upon grace as “a help” is to flatly deny Biblical truth, “...if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace...” (Romans 11:6)." - Richard Peter Bennett (Former Roman Catholic Priest)

"From Tradition To Truth - A Priest’s Story" by Richard Peter Bennett, p. 8-9