We read in Isaiah 1:18, “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”
Scarlet is a fixed color and a permanent color. They say that if you get scarlet in a garment, it is impossible to get the color scarlet out of a garment because it’s permanent.
The word scarlet in the original Hebrew is defined as double dyed. To illustrate, when you dye a garment, it’s almost the color you want, but not quite, so you dye it again, and then the second dye brings out the color you want. And the word scarlet, means double dyed or twice dipped.
We as sinners are double dyed; we are twice dipped. This is the vile pool of original corruption, the bath of personal acts of transgressions. We are sinners twice over, by nature and by choice. There is no power in chemistry that can take the color scarlet out without destroying the fabric. But, God’s Grace solves what is impossible with chemistry.
You can remove other colors, but not scarlet. The Bible does not indicate black as the color of sin, although we do it a lot in preaching. But scarlet is the color of sin in the Bible because scarlet cannot be taken out. However, there is a remedy that takes scarlet out, and that’s the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the only remedy for sin.