Isaiah 1:18 (NKJV) “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.
We live in an unreasonable time. With the out-of-control growth of the language of “tolerance” (which is completely intolerant of any idea that is different from its own) and the decline of people’s ability to disagree civilly, the amount and intensity of unreasonable people has grown dramatically.
When we finally do take the opportunity as Christians to reason with unbelievers, it is now common to present a feature-rich, personally-beneficial, “what’s in it for YOU” Gospel message. We just want them to say “yes!”, even if it’s built on emotion and the expectation of superficial blessings.
If you notice from our verse, there are two sides to the Gospel story. There’s the feel-good side that your sins will be “white as snow” (forgiven) but there’s also the bad side: your sins are “red like crimson”. That means you have blood on your hands… you are guilty and owe a debt to your Holy Creator. Modern evangelism leaves that part out which is a big injustice to the unsaved world.
They need to hear the good news AND the bad news. In fact, good news is not even good news unless you have bad news to compare it to.
Think It Over: When was the last time you reasoned with someone about salvation? Did you give them both sides of the story? Have you ever stopped to consider: how can someone know they need a Savior if they don’t know they need to be saved from something? Why would someone need to hear about going to heaven if they don’t know and believe they are going to Hell? Bad news, then the good news