Whiter than Snow

 Whiter than Snow

There is a beautiful verse in Isaiah 1 that uses snow’s whiteness as a word picture. I don’t know how in the world that phrase came to mind here at the halfway point of February, but let’s not talk about the weather. Let’s talk about the Gospel.

The verse goes like this: Is. 1:18 “Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the LORD, “Though your sins are as scarlet, They will be as white as snow;”

The last two lines are actually found in poetic form in the Bible text. “White as snow” is a pretty good illustration, not of whiteness, but of purity.

The problem was that as Isaiah was writing, Israel was anything but pure. Here is his poetic description: Is. 1:4 Alas, sinful nation, People weighed down with iniquity, Offspring of evildoers, Sons who act corruptly!” Come now, Isaiah, tell us what you really think. But remember, this is not Isaiah’s observation. It is God’s, which Isaiah was then led to write.

Not only were they dirty, but they were sick. “The whole head is sick, And the whole heart is faint. From the sole of the foot even to the head, There is nothing sound in it.”

And then, there is nothing that Israel could do about it. They were not able to work or buy their way back into God’s favor. They could do all the religious rituals they could dream up, but it would be to no avail.

That’s the bad news. The bad news is needed before we are ready to hear and appreciate the good news. Without the bad new, the good news does not strike us as being all that good. The bad news states that Israel was anything but pure; disqualified from any kind of covenant relationship with the holy God.

The good news talks about these stained people becoming “white as snow,” pristine and pure and thus acceptable to God. It is a picture of purity, but it requires us to ask the question, “how?” If they can not do it themselves, then how is it to be accomplished? We will find the answer in the text that I gave above, but only in part. Here is the whole thing: Is. 1:18 “Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the LORD, “Though your sins are as scarlet, They will be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They will be like wool.” Not only do we have the word picture, “white as snow,” but also this simile: “like wool.” I suppose we normally think of wool as white, though I’m not sure that is its import here. Wool does not fall from heaven as does snow. It comes from a sheep, from the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

So both pictures are important. Jesus, the Son of God, came down from heaven (like snow) for the express purpose of bringing cleansing to His people, that is, those who would accept His gift. And the way that He did it is by Himself becoming the sacrificial lamb (wool) who would "bear in His own body our sins on the tree, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds we are healed” (1 Peter 2:24). That’s the good news. White as snow, and reconciled into a relationship with the God of the universe, which is why you exist.