“Come now, let us settle the matter,”
says the LORD.
“Though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red as crimson,
they shall be like wool.Isaiah 1: 18
There is one terminal disease that everyone is born with. There are no exceptions. It's been a part of humanity since the day that Adam and Eve were removed from the Garden of Eden. It is a three letter word that people don't like to talk about much. It is SIN.
Just the word causes you to squirm doesn't it? The Bible says that "all have sinned and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). Think about it for a minute. Don't you find it easier to do wrong sometimes, than to do right? That's because sin is not so much an action, as it is our very nature. We don't do wrong so we can sin, we sin because at our very nature we are sinners. Ouch!
Why do we sin? What actually is sin? Sin is rebellion. We sin when we rebel against God , His Word, and His Lordship over our lives. In essence, sin is like us shaking our fist in the face of God and declaring that we want to do life our own way. Why do we do that? Because at the root of our rebellion is PRIDE. We want it our way and we don't want anyone telling us we are wrong. You may be feeling that even as you are reading this, right? Come on, be honest!
The Bible tells us some startling facts about what sin does for us. First, sin separates us from God. Just read Isaiah Isaiah 59:1-2. God will not fill a dirty vessel with His precious Holy Spirit. Nothing breaks the heart of God more than the separation He feels from us when we are acting out in sin.
But friend, this is where the bad news gets good. You see, the bad news is that we are all sinners and that our sins separate us from God, but the good news is that God has a solution for the sin problem. The solution is Jesus Christ!
One of the most popular verses in the Bible is John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life."Romans 10: 13 says, "For whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved." Saved from what? Saved from separation from God! When we turn to Jesus Christ by faith and ask Him to forgive our sin and to become Lord of our lives, God cleanses us from all sin! This is the good news of Jesus Christ. Romans 5:8-9 says, "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him." Praise the Lord!
I love the promise recorded in Isaiah 1:18. God promises to take us, cleanse us from our sin when we turn to Him. In fact, He paints a beautiful picture for us. God not only forgives us, but He takes our blackened, sin-stained soul and makes it white as freshly fallen snow! Wow! No wonder we can sing, "Hallelujah What a Savior!"
