No Matter the Color

“Come now, let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow; though they be like crimson, they shall be as wool” (Isaiah 1:18). God’s chosen, beloved people had turned their backs on Him. He told them to stop bringing their gifts and ritual sacrifices; their sin-filled lives defiled the sacrifices' meaningless blood dripping from their hands, and they were disgusting to Him. They performed the required rites, but their hearts were far from the God they vowed to love, obey, and worship.

Why did the Lord call sin’s color scarlet and crimson? The color crimson is red; scarlet is dark, blood-red, but sin is sin, and any unconfessed sin, doing wrong or not doing a good deed God told you to do, is rebelliously walking. Until we are in right standing with Holy God, our “sacrifices” of prayers, offerings, worship, and praise to Him are sin-stained—worthless and offensive. But when we confess our sins, He is faithful and just, forgiving our sins, and cleanses us of all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). The blood of Jesus washes the darkest stains—scarlet or crimson—white as snow, like wool.