Come now, and 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 be as wool. Isa 1:18 (NKJV)
Part 2 – God, Snow and the Power of Shame
Go to PART 1
Perhaps one of our deepest concerns is not that God can absolve sin, but that he would do it for us. You and me. Me. Our sin is not an obstacle for him. He is not afraid of it, he is not overcome or put off it by it. He doesn’t turn his face away from our failings… In fact, he sent his son right in the middle, muck and mess of our beautiful, fragile, stuffed up and crazy lives.
Our ability to believe that he would do that for our individual selves is the problem. Sin is absolved. But guilt and shame? The shadows of our sin nature? They stick around, wafting about our lives like a smell that will not dissipate, reminding us of where we’ve been, what we’ve done and what has happened to us.
Shame has crippled life since I can remember. I have felt shame around the way I look, the way I talk, my ideas, my dreams, my sins… my deep insecurity made best friends with it and they bullied me for a long time. I know God dealt with my sin at the cross, but I always believed that he died for me because God was so offended and angry and upset with me that Jesus was the only way I could be accepted by him again.
This is why reasoning is important. To ask questions, to inquire of God, to dig deep, search and find… if we don’t, we end up moving in with our shame and insecurity (or whatever it is for you) and learn to co-exist.
When I was 14, I was in a loud, raw and unruly Church service. The memory of it brings a crazy smile to my face. The atmosphere was one of great expectation and faith. I closed my eyes and asked God to speak to me. Instantly a movie-like scene appeared in my mind. I was walking across a field covered with snow in every direction. All was white and crisp, so much so that you could hardly see the rise and fall of the land… pure, brilliant, bright white.
I opened my eyes and contemplated what this could mean for a long time. I felt God prompt me to read Isaiah… “the whole book?” I found a quiet corner and sat down to read.
When I got to Isaiah 1:18, all my fears of reading the whole afternoon were dispelled (the book of Isaiah is 66 chapters long), and an understanding of the grace and goodness of God was birthed in my heart. I began to realise how he saw me. White as snow, not red as scarlet.
And more than that, he invited conversation, exchange – reasoning. He knew that I (we) would wrestle with my (our) redemption and forgiveness. That our minds and hearts would need time to wrap themselves around grace and acceptance. Sanctification. Justification. God knew that we would need to nut it out and talk it over. And again and again as our questions take different shapes through the different seasons of our lives. After all, the moment you called Jesus ‘Saviour’ was not the moment you stopped sinning, stopped experiencing challenges and being touched by tragedy, hopelessness… fear didn’t stop knocking on your door (or mine) that day.
We live in a complex and tainted world and we need to keep the topic of our redemption on the table. In fact, we need to keep it all on the table, keep the conversations alive, open and healthy. Two-way.
Jesus did die for me, but not because God couldn’t love me in my sinful state. He wanted to show me (us) that he loved me even in my sin, warts beauty and all. Enough to die for. Sin is no match for his love.
So talk about it. Talk about snow and blood and life and love… God has invited us and there’s always a chair at the table for us.
