The snow has melted from off the earth. The winter has come and gone, and we are well into spring. All around life is springing forth from the earth. Grass shoots up. Flowers begin to bloom. Trees cover themselves with their leaves. Where once the snow covered all, now the earth is laid bare.

But did you see the picture in the snow? The picture to which I refer is the picture of our salvation in Christ Jesus. We know this passage in Isaiah 1:18 well: “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” A lovely picture for the child of God. A marvelous reality! Sin like scarlet but white like snow. That is the truth. That is the reality for the child of God: sin like scarlet shall be as white as snow. And in the winter God sets that reality before the whole world with that most lovely picture, the white snow.

A picture is something earthly that points to or resembles some heavenly or spiritual reality. Scripture uses many pictures. Jesus often used pictures in his public ministry. Jesus calls himself a vine and his people the branches, which is a picture of their union and his life-giving power. There is the picture of the ground on which a sower casts his seed that shows the types of men to which the gospel comes. There are many soils and many responses, yet only one type is prepared by the Lord to spring to life. A graft as a picture of faith; leaven as a picture of the abundant pollution of sin; and the stars of heaven, the dust of the earth, and the sand by the seashore for the innumerable throng of elect, known and numbered by God alone, are all examples of how scripture uses the earthly as a picture of the heavenly and spiritual. 

Pictures in scripture are given for our instruction, which is always the case with a picture. A picture makes something easily graspable by someone. Teachers employ pictures to instruct children. A picture places before their eyes a concept that their minds cannot easily grasp and makes the concept more easily understood. The minister gives pictures or examples; they sprinkle so-called salt and pepper into their sermons in order to drive home a point or to explain a word or concept to the congregation. God also uses the picture to instruct. That which God would have us know is heavenly, that which “eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him” (1 Cor. 2:9).

God puts before us a picture so that we might understand, so that we might have a little glimpse of what he has prepared for us, and getting a little glimpse, so that soon we do not forget. Is that not also the point of a picture? A picture can be grasped so that we remember. A picture is worth a thousand words. That is the value of a picture; it keeps the truth of it before the mind. You will not go astray in your mind with a solid picture.

The problem with false teachers is that they ramble on and on. They ramble about faith. They ramble about forgiveness and repentance. They ramble about justification. And in all their rambling speeches, they mix truth with falsehood, and the end is a confusing mess that one has to wade through and wonder if this is correct or if that is correct. And one says to himself, “Something does not add up, but what is it?”

Remember the picture—the truth set forth in a clear example, in a clear representation. A simple picture is sufficient to condemn false doctrine and to confound false teachers. Deeming themselves wise, they become fools, and esteeming highly their wisdom, their wisdom is made folly.

The picture that we consider is snow. In Isaiah 1:18 sin is opposed to the white snow. Isaiah gives a picture of sin in the text too. Sins are as scarlet and as red as crimson. Sin is as bold and brazen as scarlet. Sin is deep and dark like crimson. Crimson and scarlet are both shades of red, a bold and pronounced color. Who wears red to be inconspicuous? Red easily catches the eye; it stands out. And red cannot be blotted out. When you spill wine on a white shirt, it does not come out. The stain remains; you cannot get it out. Worse yet, the stain is red, and everyone can see it. You will have to get rid of the shirt. That is sin in the text, but more specifically that is sin in God’s eyes. Sin is brazen rebellion. Sin is bold transgression. Sin is pollution that cannot be blotted out. Sin is guilt that cannot be masked. The sinner cannot clean himself, and he cannot hide. His sin ever provokes God to anger. This truth stands for all of man’s works, even the works of faith. Sin is as scarlet and as crimson. If one sin is committed, then the whole work is corrupted. There is a big, red stain in the work. Will not God, who sees all things, notice? Will he love that which is polluted? Will he suffer the stain that provokes him to anger?

But the reality for man is far worse than a mere stain. Man from head to toe is red. His whole nature is glaring with sin. Flowing from his heart is crimson iniquity. All he minds is sin. All he wills is sin. All he does is sin. His whole existence is one of sin. Sin is all man ever does. Man does not have only a red stain, but he himself is also thoroughly stained red. This is all men, and this is the child of God too by nature. You cannot miss that in this picture. The child of God must think this concerning himself: “I am the sinner.” His sin is not only as scarlet and crimson, but also he himself is as scarlet and crimson. All his sin pollutes and condemns him. He is a bold, glaring provocation in the eyes of God. That is all man ever is.

Though all this is true of God’s people, God has a word to them in Isaiah: “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” A lovely picture. Sins like scarlet shall be as white as snow. Red is made white! Who has heard of such a thing? Who can perform it? But that is the gospel. Scarlet and crimson are made white. That is impossible. Yet that is what God promises in this verse, and that is what God actually does. But greater, that is what already has been done!

This verse shows that man can never have any part in his salvation. Can man make white the crimson of sin in his nature and deeds? That is the impossibility that is always taught when men teach that there is that which man must do to be saved. They teach that in some way, shape, or form man must make red into white. You want to get blessings for your obedience? You want the experience of your salvation by works? Can you make all your redness into white? And folly of follies, how shall man do it? By more crimson? Such are man’s deeds and man’s nature. No, salvation and its blessings come from him who can change red into white. From him, by him, and through him alone.

God performed this wonder of grace at the cross. That is when red sin was made as white as snow. That is what God speaks of in Isaiah 1:24–27:

24. Therefore saith the Lord, the Lord of hosts, the mighty One of Israel, Ah, I will ease me of mine adversaries, and avenge me of mine enemies:

25. And I will turn my hand upon thee, and purely purge away thy dross, and take away all thy tin:

26. And I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counsellors as at the beginning: afterward thou shall be called, The city of righteousness, the faithful city.

27. Zion shall be redeemed with judgment, and her converts with righteousness.

These verses refer to the coming and work of Jesus Christ. Isaiah also speaks of this later in Isaiah 9:6–7: “His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” And he sits upon the throne and kingdom of David “to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever.” And Malachi 3:2–3 says that Christ “is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap,” and he “shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver.” And Christ, “whose fan is in his hand…will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire” (Matt. 3:12).

Christ came in judgment. That is what you must always understand about him. He came to execute judgment. He came to purge his floor. He came as fire to purify and redeem Zion and to ease and avenge God of his adversaries with unquenchable fire. That is what happened at the cross. With the fire of God’s judgment, God purged in Christ all our sins. And with fire God consumes all the reprobate because they are not given to him; thus they do not partake of the cross. God with fiery judgment turns the red to white for the elect, and he leaves all others in the red. God does this when he takes sin away. Sin is always as scarlet and crimson; it cannot be made into good. Sin must be punished and taken away; that is the only way. And in Christ, God gives to his people righteousness as white as the snow. Zion is redeemed with judgment and her converts with righteousness. She is purified. She is as white as snow.

White is symbolic of absolute purity. There is no stain in white. There is no imperfection. There is no filthiness. White is clean. White is beautiful. White shines in the light. That is what God made his people at the cross—white like snow. That is the truth of the cross. When Christ said that it was finished, he meant it. You must believe that. And when God speaks this promise, you must understand that this is how God sees his people. They are as white as snow before his eyes.

This is an astounding reality. Does he not see our sins yet? Do we not pollute and defile ourselves with the red of sin? The answer is no. The red is made white forever. The white garment of righteousness that Christ gave to his people at the cross never can be polluted. You can pour sin all over the white garment, and it will remain white. Imagine that you would take a bottle of wine and pour it all out over a white shirt, and the shirt would remain white. You would say, “That is impossible!” But that is the wonder of grace.

And God displays this in the picture of snow. Every winter God covers the earth with snow. White and clean. Pure and unpolluted. Writ large in the earth, God declares this heavenly reality: “I have washed my people. I have purged away all their pollution. Though they sin, they are as white as snow. This is how I see you! White as snow.” That is God’s word to us every time we see the snow.

But do we believe it? I say that we barely do. There is much sin in us; are we not red like crimson? We sin against God; how can we be clean? We transgress; are we as white as snow? That is why God gives us the picture. He would have us to know and understand the reality of our salvation at the cross. No matter how grievous, no matter how great, no matter how many sins, the truth is that though they be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. That is the believer’s comfort over against all his sin. Though he sins, there is no sin in him. Though he sins, he is not guilty. Though he sins, God is not angry with him. A wonder explained in Christ alone.

And the simple picture makes the truth simple. I say this over against Protestant Reformed theology, which teaches that man must do this before God can and may do that. Man experiences his salvation in the way of his obedience. Man must repent before he is forgiven. Have those in the Protestant Reformed Churches never seen snow? If we are as white as snow, what remains to be done? Does not God bless the righteous? Shall that which is white become cleaner? Are they blind? But they teach that there is that which man must do for salvation because they deny the cross. They do not believe the word in Isaiah 1:18. They even do not believe in Jesus Christ. Does his word mean nothing? Has he not said, “It is finished?” Has God spoken a lie? A simple picture is sufficient to show their lie and folly. “Christ is not enough,” they say, “so let us use crimson to make scarlet to be white.” Surely that is all of man’s repentance. It is all red; it is polluted with sin. Can man’s works be anything else? And that is what they attempt to use to appear clean in God’s eyes. It is all folly. The truth of our salvation is very simple and is able to be shown in a little snow that falls on the earth.

But now the snow is gone from off the face of the earth. It has melted away, and the filth of the earth is again exposed. We are well into spring, and we head toward summer. The snow is long gone and will not soon fall again. Yet the truth abides, and we have a simple picture. A picture worthy to be remembered. A picture of a glorious reality. We are washed perfectly clean now and forever. That is the picture in the snow. A profound wonder shown forth in some earthly snow.

Praise, honor, and glory be to God!