Isaiah 64:6
Isaiah 64:66Each of us has become like something unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all wither like a leaf, and our iniquities carry us away like the wind.
"All of us have become like someone unclean, and all our righteous acts are like a soiled garment" (NWT 2013). Watchtower literature acknowledges this verse in general repentance teaching but does not draw the soteriological conclusion the New Testament builds on it. The JW system treats accumulated organisational service — meeting attendance, field-service hours, loyal support of the Faithful and Discreet Slave — as the very "righteous acts" through which standing with Jehovah is built and maintained.
is the Old Testament charter for justification by faith alone. Even our best religious efforts are filthy in God's sight; they cannot be the basis of acceptance. Paul builds on this at (no one is righteous), (God declares the ungodly righteous through faith), and ("not having my own righteousness from law, but that righteousness which is through faith in Christ — the righteousness from God based on faith"). closes the loop: "He saved us, not because of any works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy." The doorstep form: "If your own righteous acts are filthy garments to God, what makes you think your meeting attendance and field-service hours are clean enough to ground acceptance?" The answer Isaiah forces the believer toward is the imputed righteousness of Christ, received by faith.