1:18 Come now, {a} and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be {b} white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
(a) To know if I accuse you without cause.
(b) Lest sinners should pretend any rigour on God's part, he only wills them to be pure in heart, and he will forgive all their sins, no matter how many or great.
1:16-20 Not only feel sorrow for the sin committed, but break off the practice. We must be doing, not stand idle. We must be doing the good the Lord our God requires. It is plain that the sacrifices of the law could not atone, even for outward national crimes. But, blessed be God, there is a Fountain opened, in which sinners of every age and rank may be cleansed. Though our sins have been as scarlet and crimson, a deep dye, a double dye, first in the wool of original corruption, and afterwards in the many threads of actual transgression; though we have often dipped into sin, by many backslidings; yet pardoning mercy will take out the stain, Ps 51:7. They should have all the happiness and comfort they could desire. Life and death, good and evil, are set before us. O Lord, incline all of us to live to thy glory.
