Whiter than Snow

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.   1 John 1:9 

Fred Rogers once said, “Forgiveness is a strange thing. It can sometimes be easier to forgive our enemies than our friends. It can be hardest of all to forgive people we love.” Think about how magnanimous God is to forgive people He created for all the wrongs done against Him, ones who should be so eager to please and obey Him. He loved people so much He sent Jesus to die as punishment for their sins.  

What a precious promise, indeed, that God has given believers in today’s verse! He is faithful and just to forgive and cleanse. Picture your soul as a white dress or suit. Each wrong thought, action, or work is a dark stain on that clean garment. Then picture presenting it to God, and He cleans it whiter than new-fallen snow. The prophet Isaiah describes God’s desire for His people which He carried out in Christ. “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” (Isaiah 1:18).  

Believers now walk in “newness of life” (Romans 6:4). Paul paints a beautiful picture of this in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold the new has come.” Rejoice in the newness of life God has given you and the always-available forgiveness He offers when you do sin. Pray for the citizens and public officials of the United States to turn to Christ, receive His forgiveness, and live in ways that honor Him. 

Today’s Verse: 1 John 1:9

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 

All Scripture quotations and audio are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Recommended for further reading: Romans 6:1-14 

6 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 

5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 For one who has died has been set free from sin. 8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. 

12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. 13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. 14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. 

All Scripture quotations and audio are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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