December 15, 1998
Something magical happens with the first snowfall. From my studio window, I see hundreds of rooftops. In fair weather, they are a kaleidoscope but after the first snowfall, their various sizes and shapes are unified in white, outlined with dark eaves-trough edges. Snow pulls them together in a huge patchwork quilt. It blankets everything.
Although each flake is crystal clear, millions of snowflakes together take on a pristine quality that makes the world look as the cliche says, “white as snow.”
Because of its color and its ability to cover, snow is used in an invitation from God found in the Old Testament book of Isaiah. “Come now; and let us reason together,” says the Lord, “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.”
Scarlet metaphorically suggests sin is the color of shame, vivid and awful in the sight of God. He wants people to reason it out, to get past vague expressions like, “Of course we have sin” to a personal recognition that acknowledges “I am a sinner.”
Part of the reasoning called for in this verse is to also recognize the reasonableness of God. He is not a tyrant eager to drop a judgment hammer but a God who loves us. Sin spoiled our ability to know and love Him in return. For our sake and for His own, He planned to do something about it. This verse becomes a promise as He says, “they shall be as white as snow.”
This metaphorical use of snow also suggests how God does it. As snow covers the ground, the roof tops and everything it falls upon, so the forgiveness of God can cover our sin. He can give our lives a newness that is something like the freshness of that first snowfall.
Making sin white as snow is not the same as covering it up. God does not mask or hide what we have done as someone who pretends it is not there. Before sin can be covered, it must first be acknowledged and confessed. The Bible says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”
After we uncover our sin to God, He covers it in the sense that His forgiveness cleanses or washes our guilt from His record. Instead of offenses, our slate is wiped clean. In God’s mind, we are as white as snow.
Sin is scarlet but so is its remedy. God says without the “shedding of blood, there is no remission for sin.” Forgiveness and red blood go together. While this is gruesome to us, God uses blood as a cleansing agent for sin, the blood of His Son Jesus Christ.
Why isn’t being sorry for our sin enough to satisfy God? Can’t He forgive us on that basis? No, because sin is far more serious to Him than we imagine. It has marred His image in us and we fall short of all He intended. Besides, sin demands punishment. A holy God cannot look the other way.
The wages of sin is death but paying our own wages would not do it. A substitute is acceptable. In the Old Testament, is was an unblemished lamb. Then Christ came, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The substitute had to be perfect and since we are not, we cannot pay our debt ourselves.
God sent Jesus to be our substitute. His death paid our wages for sin and because He was sinless, God accepted His sacrifice. Then He rose from the dead, triumphing over both sin and death. Those who trust in Him are given that same victory.
When we sin, we can look to the Son of God who bled and died for us because He is the only One who can say, “Father, I got it covered.”
Showing posts with label snow. Show all posts
Showing posts with label snow. Show all posts
Monday, July 31, 2017
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Becoming White as Snow ................... Parables 141
Snow is a marvelous cover-up. November’s drab dresses up in sparkling white. Muddy vacant lots, once eyesores, are beautifully blanketed. Naked black branches are draped in layers of shimmering crystal, outlined against a pearl grey sky.
While not so inspiring, our backyard grass needed one more cut, one more rake, but the snow hid it all; the jobs that didn’t get finished are covered; our lawn looks just as good as the neighbors who were more ambitious.
We have one tree that stubbornly refuses to yield all her leaves to winter. But this morning, the cold wind won a round. The snow was speckled with drab, round gold pieces - spots on an otherwise unblemished blanket. They looked like acne on a teen’s face, or mud splattered on a snow white Cadillac.
Later I thought of Christ who promises to wash hearts whiter than snow. (Isaiah 1:18). We need it, you know. The Bible says Jesus is our snow-white standard, but there is not one life who can match His unblemished purity. How short we fall. Yet the New Testament says we are made spotless by faith in Him. His blood is applied as a cleansing agent for those who believe, powerful to wash away our sin and remove it”as far as the east is from the west.” (Psalm 103:12).
After that is done, Scripture says He is able to keep us blameless before God and present us faultless on that day when He comes to receive all who believe in Him (1 Corinthians 1:8, Jude 24).
But, James 1:27 warns Christians to keep themselves unspotted from the world. In fact, I found references warning against a “spotted” and “blemished” condition in nearly every book of the Bible. We are not to spatter our new life in Christ with blotches of sin. Yet when it happens, we can be made white again.
The good news is, “If we walk in the light as He is in the light, the blood of Jesus Christ keeps on cleansing us from all sin, and if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (I John 1:7,9). Our part is to admit our sins, confessing them to Him, and come with a heart that is willing to forsake them. He will do the rest.
The snow covered everything. Along came the wind that shook the tree, blotching that pristine perfection with leaves. The snow will return, likely in the night, The next time I look those leaves will be hidden. The mystery of Jesus’ blood goes one step further. Yes, He covers sin, but somehow He cleanses and washes it away, changing and remaking our lives pure and clean.
Such a glorious truth. No need to try and erase that which defiles, even if we could. Instead, we have His saving power to forgive and restore us when we fail. We can take any transgression to Him and leave it there, trusting His eternal power to save us from it completely, just as He promised He would do.
While not so inspiring, our backyard grass needed one more cut, one more rake, but the snow hid it all; the jobs that didn’t get finished are covered; our lawn looks just as good as the neighbors who were more ambitious.
We have one tree that stubbornly refuses to yield all her leaves to winter. But this morning, the cold wind won a round. The snow was speckled with drab, round gold pieces - spots on an otherwise unblemished blanket. They looked like acne on a teen’s face, or mud splattered on a snow white Cadillac.
Later I thought of Christ who promises to wash hearts whiter than snow. (Isaiah 1:18). We need it, you know. The Bible says Jesus is our snow-white standard, but there is not one life who can match His unblemished purity. How short we fall. Yet the New Testament says we are made spotless by faith in Him. His blood is applied as a cleansing agent for those who believe, powerful to wash away our sin and remove it”as far as the east is from the west.” (Psalm 103:12).
After that is done, Scripture says He is able to keep us blameless before God and present us faultless on that day when He comes to receive all who believe in Him (1 Corinthians 1:8, Jude 24).
But, James 1:27 warns Christians to keep themselves unspotted from the world. In fact, I found references warning against a “spotted” and “blemished” condition in nearly every book of the Bible. We are not to spatter our new life in Christ with blotches of sin. Yet when it happens, we can be made white again.
The good news is, “If we walk in the light as He is in the light, the blood of Jesus Christ keeps on cleansing us from all sin, and if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (I John 1:7,9). Our part is to admit our sins, confessing them to Him, and come with a heart that is willing to forsake them. He will do the rest.
The snow covered everything. Along came the wind that shook the tree, blotching that pristine perfection with leaves. The snow will return, likely in the night, The next time I look those leaves will be hidden. The mystery of Jesus’ blood goes one step further. Yes, He covers sin, but somehow He cleanses and washes it away, changing and remaking our lives pure and clean.
Such a glorious truth. No need to try and erase that which defiles, even if we could. Instead, we have His saving power to forgive and restore us when we fail. We can take any transgression to Him and leave it there, trusting His eternal power to save us from it completely, just as He promised He would do.
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