“Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” – Isaiah 1:18
YOUR SINS MAY BE as scarlet. Your life may be filthy, your soul squalid, your heart red like crimson. You may toil beneath the sadistic yoke of sin, beneath the ponderous burden of transgression, in want of hope for this life or for the next. Society scorns you. Multitudes mock you. Hypocrites condemn you. Yet however vile, however wretched, however iniquitous you may know yourself to be, God still loves you, and always has loved you, and always will love you. And to you, he extends an invaluable invitation: “Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” Will you now heed his loving call?
“Oh, I could never be saved,” you protest. “I am too ungodly to come to Christ.” This is no obstacle to the Lamb of God, for Romans 5:6 tells me that “in due time Christ died for the ungodly.” It is good you recognize you are a sinner, given no man can be saved unless he first acknowledges this. It is not self-righteous delusion which hinders you from receiving the Savior; it is your fear that you are too wicked for him to save. Pray leave off this fear. Jesus said “him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37). Come to him, just as you are, and he will not cast you out.
“But,” you hesitate, “I do not think I am worthy to be saved.” True, you are not, and neither is anyone else, because salvation is not a reward for the righteous; it is a gift for the guilty. If you had grown up in the church, and devoted the best years of your life to serving God, and were daily ready to every good work, you would be no more worthy of God’s grace, than you are now. Does this seem strange to you? It certainly seems strange to me, why a righteous God would send his only begotten Son to die for the sins of the unrighteous. But this is grace, dear reader, and if you will have Christ, you must also have grace. Do not reject the free gift of eternal life because you assume one’s worthiness must be taken into consideration.
“But,” you waver, “I am afraid God should consume me in his wrath, if a creature as vile as myself dared to desire his salvation.” These fears are misplaced. The God of the Bible is not fickle or vain or sadistic like the gods of false religions ancient and modern. He is not willing that any should perish. He is not willing that you should perish. He desires, above all things, that you would be saved. I assure you, that if you come to Christ as nothing more than a guilty sinner who needs a Savior, he will not destroy you in displeasure, but will save you with alacrity. “Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them” (Hebrews 7:25).
How may you be cleansed of your scarlet sins, of your crimson stains? To begin with, you must know, as you already do, that because you are a sinner (Romans 3:10), you are under the condemnation of God’s holy law and will pay for your sins in hell if you perish without Christ (John 8:24, Revelation 20:15). All of the good works you can do will not make you righteous before God, because all of your righteousnesses are as filthy rags in his sight (Isaiah 64:6). Rather than looking to yourself or a church or a religious creed for salvation, you must look to Jesus Christ, the sinless Son of God, and believe he gave his life on Calvary’s cross to pay for your sins with his blood, was buried, and bodily resurrected three days later unto your justification. And if you trust Christ as your Savior, he will pardon you from the everlasting destruction you deserve, and wash away all your sins – past, present, future. Nay, more than wash them away – Hebrews 8:12 says he will forget them entirely! “For as far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:12).
No matter how wicked a life you have hitherto led, and no matter how hopeless you suppose your situation to be, if you will receive Jesus Christ as your Savior, he will save you (Acts 16:31). Let this be the tonic to your weary soul! Let this be the elixir which quenches your spiritual thirst! Let this be the truth which sets you free! Come to Jesus at once, and though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.