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. Sin is devastating. It wrecks human lives. Just one sin (in deed or thought) separates us from God and produces spiritual death.
Nowadays we have written off sin. It is seldom even mentioned. We believe we are good people. Boy are we deceived.
Paul had a different perspective. He cried out: "Oh wretched man that I am." He proclaimed himself to be "the chief of sinners." (Notice that he didn't say "the chief of former sinners.")
Jesus said: "There is none good, but the Father." So, then, how can we be good people? Perhaps we should admit what we really are and throw ourself on God's mercy.
Isaiah speaks hope for our hopeless sinfulness -- God's forgiveness and transformation through the blood of Jesus. We can never be good in God's eyes. How can we compare with absolute perfection? In God's glorious light, I am a wretch.
Two songs say it all: "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me," and "Just as I am without one plea, but that Thy blood was shed for me, Oh Lamb of God, I come." |
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