Made Clean
“Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.” Isaiah 1:18
“Come, someone you love needs help” was the message I received from a concerned family member. Days later I arrived to discover their account did not fully convey the filthy living conditions the person we both loved was living in. Within hours, I realized this person didn’t recognize just how bad things were. How do you help someone correct their present reality when they don’t realize what’s wrong? I prayed, “Lord, help me to be gentle and kind, loving them where they’re at with no judgment or causing shame, while helping them not stay here in these unsanitary conditions.”
While cleaning took time and hard labor, the greatest challenge was addressing the person’s mentality; helping them see soberly what they could not. In the same way, when it comes to sin and holiness, we all need sober reality (Romans 12:3). In Isaiah 1:18 the Lord says, “Come now, let us reason together”. From the time of our birth, we have lived in the filth of sin (Romans 5:12). We have lived in and around sin so long that many have become accustomed to it, believing nothing is wrong. Had God not demonstrated His own love towards us, we would not know our problem of sin nor His way of rescuing us from it (Romans 5:8). Things changed when the person saw the difference between how they were living to how they could live with the filth removed. This mental transformation produced a desire to never go back.
The same holds true for you and me, until we see the filth of our sin and need of saving, we will continue to live in our hopeless condition (Isaiah 6:3-7). Like the person needed to receive the help I was offering, Jesus did the work on our behalf to save us from our problem of sin (2 Corinthians 5:20b-21). When we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to not only forgive us but remove all unrighteousness (1 John 1:8-9). He then transforms us to live differently through His Spirit (Galatians 5).
Our sins though crimson, can be white as snow through faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ (Romans 3:23-25).
