Devotional

White as Snow – Isaiah 1:18

“Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow” – Isaiah 1:18

For the whole book of Isaiah, we can hear an ongoing call for repentance. Isaiah was one of the prophets of God who wrote about the idolatry, the sinful behaviors, the ungodly ways and the dirty doings of the Israelites. The prophet wrote about the destruction of the wicked and the judgment of the unrighteous but also, he wrote about the gracious side of God and that God is also merciful.

Even in the first chapter of Isaiah, we can see the salvation of God already. Though the Israelites were ungodly and idolaters, God has shown them mercy and grace. The Israelites were too guilty and really deserving of the wrath of God and that is why Isaiah wrote so many warnings and so many things that we shouldn’t do. 

Well, despite the sinfulness of the Israelites, God has shown immense forgiveness and has offered them a life that is not dominated by sin. He has shown them great mercy and that they only need to come back to Him, confess their sins and turn away from their sinful life and let God have the reigns of their life. However, as sinful as we are, the Israelites cannot still turn away from their nature. 

This is just like us, we are all like the Israelites. We might think that the book of Isaiah is only referring to the Israelites before, but we must understand that the Word of God is applicable and is always the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. We must understand that His Word is correct and that it is always applicable in any time for us. So, just like the Israelites, we are people who are chosen by God through our faith in the death and resurrection of Christ, but we still continue to live our lives sinful. 

Just like them, we are idolaters, we are sexually immoral and we only seek to gratify our flesh. However, God is an unchanging God and so, the same as the mercy and grace He has shown the Israelites before, He has also shown us the same way. This is why God is telling us through the prophet Isaiah that though our sins are like scarlet, it will be white as snow. But how can we do that? We are imputed with darkness and sin and the wages of sin is death. 

The only way to make us white as snow without any trace of sin’s scarlet prints, is through the cleansing of our souls by the Holy Spirit through our faith in the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Christ’s blood is red but it can give us a white as snow spirit. It can renew us, it can restore us into God’s perfect love and it can enable us to live our lives free from sin’s slavery. Jesus Christ’s death was not only to save us from our sins, but it is also for our purification. 

Therefore, as Christians, we were once like the Israelites. We are sinful, ungodly, idolaters and dark but now, through believing in Christ’s death and resurrection, we are already cleansed and our relationship to God is restored. We will no longer receive God’s wrath because Jesus has already taken it all for us. We are already white as snow in God’s eyes because we are already embraced with the perfect righteousness of Christ. It is not us who face the Father anymore, but it is Christ who stands in the middle of us. 

As people who are already saved, we must always remember to run always back to God because it is us who need Him the most. We must always remember that we really need a Savior. Let us always put in our minds that our salvation can only be found in Christ and without Him, we will face the wrath of God. However, praise God for His grace and mercy! Thanks and praises be unto Him always. Amen. 

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