Your sins are like scarlet

Isaiah 1:18 - Even those who have sunk “to hell with the blood of others on your head” can have God forgive their sins through Christ’s cleansing sacrifice.

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““Come now, let us settle the matter,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.”

‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭1‬:‭18‬ ‭NIV‬‬

After a few recent journeys into the writings of James, God is pointing us towards the prophet Isaiah. The verse today is from the first chapter of this 66-chapter book, and as always it is helpful to look into the context of Isaiah’s writings.

The prophet, whose name in Hebrew is יְשַׁעְיָהוּ (Yəšaʿyāhū, “Yahweh is salvation”), was born sometime in the 8th century BC and died in the 7th century BC. The chapter begins by noting that it refers to “The vision concerning Judah and Jerusalem that Isaiah son of Amoz saw during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.”(Isaiah‬ ‭1‬:‭1‬ ‭NIV‬‬).

God spoke to — and through — all of His prophets, but Isaiah is perhaps the most well-known thanks to the foretelling of the coming of Jesus Christ. The virgin birth of Jesus is prophesied in Isaiah 7:14; Isaiah 53 details His suffering and how He will bear the sins of many, and the lineage of David through which Jesus would be born is described in Isaiah 11.

In today’s verse, God is sending a message to the rebellious and sinful people of Judah, who persisted in idol worship and refused to uphold their part of the Old Testament covenant. He’s offering them the ability to receive a thorough cleansing from sin, if only they’ll be repentant and humble. The imagery God uses in this statement of transformation is vivid — blood red (“scarlet” and “crimson”) sin to pure white (“snow” and “wool”) salvation.

Charles Spurgeon elaborates:

“The Lord does not deny the truth of what the sinner has confessed, but he says to him, ‘Though your sins be as scarlet, I meet you on that ground. You need not try to diminish the extent of your sin, or seek to make it appear to be less than it really is. No; whatever you say it is, it is all that, and probably far more. Your deepest sense of your sinfulness does not come up to the truth concerning your real condition; certainly, you do not exaggerate in the least. Your sins are scarlet, and crimson; it seems as though you have put on the imperial robe of sin, and made yourself a monarch of the realm of evil.’ That is how a man’s guilt appears before the searching eye of God.”¹

Isaiah doesn’t provide an explanation of how God is going to provide the cleansing, only that the condition of sin will be transformed from that deep, bloody red to pure white. We who are in Christ know that Jesus took on our stain of sin, and God judged sin completely and once for all time in Jesus, so we are now free of that stain.

We know that good intentions, promises to others and to God, and even a life of good works won’t clean that stain of sin. Suffering, pain, time, and even death do not erase sin. Only the accomplished work of Jesus on the cross can make us “white as snow”. David Guzik says on Enduring Word:

We really can have a break with the past, and a new beginning in Jesus Christ. The power of sin, the shame of sin, the guilt of sin, the domination of sin, the terror of sin, and the pain of sin can all be taken away in Jesus.

With his usual mastery of prose, Spurgeon describes just how deeply some people can fall into the clutches of sin:

“A wicked old wretch who has taken his degrees in Satan’s college, has become a Master of Belial, a prince and chief of sinners — a Goliath amongst the Philistines — yet, to such a man, is this word sent today. Your hands are bloody with the souls of the young, you have kept a hellhouse; you have grit up public entertainments which have debauched and depraved the young; you have gold in your pocket to-day, which you have earned by the blood of souls; you have the fool’s pence, and the drunkard’s shillings, which have really come into your hands from the hearts of poor women, you have heard the cries of the starving children, and you have tempted their husbands to take the drink, and ruined their bodies and their souls. You have kept a place where the entertainment was so low, so grovelling, that you awoke the slumbering passions of evil in the minds of either young or old, and so you shall sink to hell with the blood of others on your head, as well as your own damnation, not with one millstone about your neck, but with many.”

Even those who have sunk “to hell with the blood of others on your head” can have God forgive their sins through Christ’s cleansing sacrifice.

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Heaven On Wheels Daily Prayer:

Father in Heaven, I thank You for the examples through your prophet Isaiah that show me the importance of purifying my heart and studying Your Word. I pray for Your help and guidance to turn away from evil, denounce all things that stain the honor of Your name, and live a godly life in Christ, my life and salvation. AMEN.

Scripture quotations taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica US, Inc.®. Used by permission.

Commentary quotations from Enduring Word are used with the written permission of the author and reproduced here in their original format. © 1996-present The Enduring Word Bible Commentary by David Guzik – enduringword.com

1. Spurgeon, Charles Haddon “The New Park Street Pulpit” Volumes 1-6 and “The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit” Volumes 7-63 (Pasadena, Texas: Pilgrim Publications, 1990)