White is the symbol of purity. That’s why brides wear white wedding dresses. It symbolized that they are morally pure. Listen – a bride who isn’t morally pure, shouldn’t wear white.
In Isaiah 1:18, God uses the color white to express the idea of moral perfection. He says, “Though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be white as snow…”
The word for white here is the Hebrew word lavan. And although its primary meaning is “to be or become white,” it also means “to make bricks.”
If you’ve ever been to Jerusalem, you know why there is an association between bricks and the color white. All of the buildings in Jerusalem are white. White just happens to be the color of the local stone used for building, and white is the color of bricks made from the local white clay. But although the stones and bricks are white, it’s more of a dull or impure white. So Isaiah doesn’t just say, “white,” when using the word for “bricks.” He says, “white as snow.”
We lived many years in the mid-west, and I’ve seen lots of snow. Right after a new snow I’m always impressed with how incredibly white everything is. Now we all know that snow can get dirty and dull, too. But initially it is brilliant in its whiteness – strikingly white! Now, that’s how white God will make your life when He forgives you of your sins. He doesn’t offer to make you sort-of-white, like the Jerusalem bricks. He offers to make you pure white – as white as snow. You see, when you confess Jesus Christ as your Savior – as the One who paid the penalty for your sins – God forgives you of your sins, and makes you “white as snow.”
Hey – when God forgives you, He really forgives you. White as snow is as white as it gets!