supernaturally made pure...

Isaiah 1:18—"Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool."

I recently read this verse explained like this….. The sinful condition of men is terrible in the extreme... God himself interposes to produce a change. The proposal of peace is always from his side. He urges that a conference be held at once, "Come, and let us reason together."

To grasp that Our Savior wants to meet with us is truly mind blowing. The Creator of the universe, in the midst of everything, wants to meet with us. God says “come now” not as a command (imperative) but simply a plea or request. He wants us to meet with Him, not later, but now...

You’d have to think that Isaiah was thinking about the greatest festival in the Jewish Tradition when he wrote this. This is a reflection of The Day of Atonement. When he uses the illustration of the forgiving of sin as red turning to white and as crimson red turning to wool. This is a insight into this great festival.

Tradition records that the High Priest laid his hands on the goat to symbolize humanities sin. The priest would have in addition, placed a red cord on the head of the goat as a symbol of the guilt and sin of the people and the blood shed by the sacrificial goat in place of man. One goat was sacrificed as the other was sent out in symbolic meaning of humanity’s sin being forgiven and “sent away. The priest would then take the cord and place it in the temple where people could see it and over the next year the red cord would supernaturally turn white.

In the Hebrew language the word “scarlet” literally means double dyed- a reflection of how sin is apart of who we are at our core.

Matthew 27:28 records Jesus wore a scarlet robe on the cross as he was our sacrifice.

God graciously upon repentance, forgives us of our sin- He makes us pure- he makes us as white as snow.

To go from red as crimson to wool literally meant to be restored to its original undyed whiteness.

When Christ defeated death He gave us a direct connection to Him and the gift of being restored to humanity’s original position with God.

We get to know Him… 

We get to be with Him…. 

We get to love Him…

Because He makes us pure...