I recently noticed that the toothpaste I’m using carries a claim that it ‘removes 100% more stains’. Immediately, the mathematician within me wanted to point out something important. That doesn’t mean it removes 100% of stains. It is saying that it removes the same amount of stain as whatever it’s being measured against PLUS the same amount again. To put it crudely, you could say it’s twice as effective at removing stains. That’s still a highly impressive claim but not the same as removing everything.
UK advertising laws require such a claim to be backed up by evidence so I followed the accompanying asterisk to a small statement on the packaging that simply added the words ‘than a regular toothpaste in 14 days when used as directed’. I can’t say that makes me much the wiser but I do like to use the toothpaste, claim or no claim.
The first chapter of the book of Isaiah also talks about removing stains:
“Though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red as crimson,
they shall be like wool. (Isaiah 1:18)
In those days, dyes like scarlet or crimson were notoriously difficult, if not impossible to wash out of clothing. You could try but at best you’d be left with a pinkish hue. Had there been advertising claims at that time, nobody would have dared advertise a 100% removal rate. Yet that’s what God does when talking about our sins. No guilt. No shame. No staining. All dealt with and gone.
Later on in the Bible, in the book of Revelation, we read of people having their robes washed white in the blood of the lamb (Revelation 7:14). That, metaphorically, is what brings our cleaning. It is through the cross that the stain of sin in our life is removed. It is through the actions of Jesus that we are restored to be the people God created us to be.
God claims it to be 100% effective and, with my mathematician hat on, I can see no reason to disagree.
Prayer: Lord God, I thank you for all that Jesus has brought me. Give me the assurance that if my sins are forgiven then that is 100% effective. Help me to take on board, at the deepest levels, that through your grace you now see me as ‘whiter than white’. Amen.