James Nisbet Commentary - Isaiah 1:18 - 1:18

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James Nisbet Commentary - Isaiah 1:18 - 1:18


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

A WONDERFUL CLEANSING

‘Sins … as scarlet … white as snow.’

Isa_1:18

A florist told me that the flowers for which he had the largest sales were white flowers, as these were very fashionable. Have we not had a winter which harmonises with the prevailing fashion? For weeks the snowflakes have been going and returning.

I. If you want to realise the whiteness of the snow, try and paint it.—Take a few flakes, and make of them a snow-study and then open your paint-box. You will find you have no paint white enough to perfectly represent the purity of the snow.

II. Why is snow white?—Snow is composed of a number of tiny points of ice, which are transparent, but when these are united together to form snow, though each particle may be transparent, the mass is opaque (not transparent) and reflects the light instead of allowing it to pass through. For instance, a pane of glass is transparent like a slab of ice; but pound the glass and you will have a white powder which is not transparent. If you take one of the tiny particles of glass you will find it is transparent, while the little mass together is, like the snow, not transparent.

III. Snow is an emblem of pardon.—Scarlet is one of the colours of deepest dye and is called a fast colour. I asked a friend if he had ever dyed a piece of scarlet cloth white; as you can imagine, he looked astonished at such a question; presently he admitted that the scarlet dye might be extracted from the cloth, but that in the process the cloth would be destroyed.

Now, sin is in our hearts, and is corrupting our entire lives. Sin has become a part of us just as a fast colour has become part of a piece of cloth. My text says that our nature, which has been dyed with sin, can become perfectly pure. God can remove sin without injuring us. God can change the crimson of sin into the purest white. There is nothing more wonderful in the world than the transforming grace of God.

If we would lose sin, with which we are dyed, and be clothed with purity, we must by faith accept the great sacrifice of Christ’s blood, and live by the Lord Jesus Christ.