Can a Person Live “Pure as the Driven Snow?”

Stepping across the threshold into a New Year is like opening the front door of your home on a quiet winter morning and being greeted by a perfectly white blanket of snow sparkling in the pure light of dawn. Not a single trace of man nor beast.  For that moment the world seems perfect—until we take our first step to mar its perfection.

On this New Year’s morning, already six hours beyond the threshold into 2022, I imagined myself at midnight, wondered how many seconds would elapse into the New Year before my sin would mar it.  Is it possible for anyone to begin at some point in time and think only pure thoughts, speak only loving words, and act from purely unselfish motives as the clock marks time?  Perhaps our metaphor of the newly fallen snow can give us an answer.

“Pure as the Driven Snow?”
Although freshly fallen snow looks pure and white, science tells us that each snowflake is formed by crystallization (freezing) of water around so-called ice nucleators.  An ice nucleator is any particle such as dust, organic matter, or microbial cells that promotes condensation of water vapor in the air to liquid and then triggers crystallization (ice formation).  Therefore, the ice crystals of each sparkling white snowflake have their beginning on the surface of an impurity—an ice nucleator.  What appears pure and white actually begins with an impurity!  Who would have known this apart from science?

Purity of Water Affects Freezing
But there is more!  Contrary to popular belief, pure water does not freeze at 0^o C (32^o F).   Pure water can actually remain in liquid form and “supercool” to as low as minus 37^o C if it is not contaminated with ice nucleators.  When pure water reaches its freezing point, only a few ice-nucleating particles can set off a cascade of crystal formation that spreads dramatically to flash-freeze the liquid water into ice.  Freezing is pictured graphically by the sudden spike in temperature (an exotherm) caused by release of heat when water molecules give up their kinetic energy and become anchored into an ice crystal lattice.  

Notice from the graph (click on graph to enlarge) that the freezing point and time course of freezing differs for pure water, water plus dissolved table salt (NaCl), and water plus an ice nucleating protein (INP).  When INP’s are present, water will freeze at a higher temperature than pure water and occur over a longer time (Note the more rounded spike where freezing occurs over a 20-min period versus the sharp spike with freezing occcurring within 10 min.).  More on this below, but we see t that, in nature, ice and snow are not composed of pure water.  In fact, ice formation actually depends on impurities!

There is much more to the fascinating subject of freezing temperatures and ice nucleators.  It turns out that animals and plants both have an ability to control the temperatures at which their tissues freeze.  They can also regulate the rate of tissue freezing by either producing or eliminating INP’s.  These physical relationships based on properties of water and INP’s are the basis for amazing physiological mechanisms designed through the Providence of God to assure survival of plants and animals in cold temperatures. In addition, microbes such as the bacterial species Pseudomonas syringae can influence geographic distribution of rainfall and snowfall by what is commonly called “cloud seeding.”  If you’d like to read more on these subjects, click on the title of a fascinating article by Jennifer Tsang, Snow Is Coming - What’s That Have to Do With Microbes?

Forgiveness of Sin: “White As Snow”
In order to illustrate the cleansing and forgiveness sin ultimately realized through the New Covenant of Christ’s blood (Hebrews 9: 11-14), God’s revelation points to two of the whitest things in His creation-- snow and sheep wool.  Although no one would deny the “pure white” appearance of freshly fallen snow, if every snowflake has a particle that contaminates the snow, why does God use snow as a picture of true purity.  In Isaiah 1: 18, we read God’s promised judgment of Judah and invitation for them and all of us to repentance from our sin with His promise of cleansing and forgiveness:

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.

God the Creator of water knows that all snowflakes form around some contaminating particle.  The Good Shepherd also knows that sheep can encounter things that stain and dull the whiteness of their wool.  Still, the illustration communicates a clear message of the Gospel by virtue of the stark contrast God uses.   

There is another application for us from the particles within snow.  On the one hand, repentance and God’s cleansing forgiveness from our sin can make us “white as snow.” But on the other hand, as human descendants of Adam and Eve we still retain the “contaminating particle” of the sin nature within us until we are resurrected with new bodies in the likeness of Christ (1 Corinthians 15: 20-26; 1 John 3: 2-3).

Sin Nature and the Rule of “Self”
How does the contaminating particle of the sin nature work within us?  Just as one ice-nucleating particle serves as a “seed” to trigger crystallization to form a snowflake, so our sin nature can spread a network of pride and selfishness into every aspect of our life.  Our conflicting values and priorities become jumbled into a tangled lattice that disorients our life purpose and corrupts our relationship with God, with our neighbor, and with God’s creation. 

The organization Cru provides a helpful illustration of the person who is ruled by the sin nature. Here, the sin nature, like our “contaminating particle,” is illustrated by an “S” for “Self” on the “throne” of a person’s life imperfectly ruling over a jumble of priorities in conflict with one another.  This is the “Natural Person” who rejects God’s gift of salvation by faith in Jesus Christ.  Therefore, Christ, represented by the Cross, remains outside the sphere of his or her life.  (see 1 Corinthians 2: 14).

It’s not that the Natural Person doesn’t try to have a fulfilling life with well ordered priorities.  But to make this work, he or she has to be very religious.  In fact, all people are religious.  With “Self” on the throne of their lives instead of Christ, their self-centered view of life leads them to seek other ways to justify their sense of purpose and merit in the eyes of other people and of the Higher Power.  These alternative justifications center around “doing good works”—philanthropy, church membership, social justice, environmentalism, animal rights, support for the wok movement, minority rights and retributions, etc. 

Even Christians can become careless and allow their sin nature and Self to displace Christ from the throne of their lives, or try to please God in their own strength. "Carnal Persons" are not rejected by their Heavenly Father but suffer the consequences of their choices and miss the joy and peace God offers.  Sadly, untold millions of lives today are lived in misery or in cycles of temporary pleasure and misery in failed attempts to fill the spiritual void and find peace without turning to Christ or honoring Him as Lord.

Deny “Self” and Enthrone Christ
“Spiritual Persons” are Christ-followers who trust in Christ’s death and resurrection alone, by faith in God’s grace alone, as their basis for salvation and acceptance into the family of God (John 1: 12; 3: 16; Romans 6: 23).  To be a Christ-follower (disciple) one must follow Jesus’s calling (Luke 9: 23): 

If anyone wants to come after Me,
he must deny (disavow, reject) himself,
take up his cross daily,
and follow Me.

Jesus calls His disciples to “deny Self”—reject and remove “Self” from the throne of their lives; or as the Apostle Paul testified figuratively speaking, to be “crucified with Christ (Galatians 2: 20).”  Then, we can enthrone Christ as our Lord and Master, and follow Him as willing servants, stewards, and learners (2 Corinthians 4: 5).  As Spiritual Persons, we still possess the sin nature, the contaminating particle that can still “seed” clouds of pride, selfishness, and disordered priorities.  However, when we deny Self and submit our natural proneness to sin under the authority of God and His Word by the power of His Spirit (see Romans 6-7), Christ can reign in us (see Ephesians 4: 22-24).  He can direct our priorities into an ordered structure that helps us radiate His Person and Nature as light in a dark world, bright as new-fallen snow.  In 2 Corinthians 4: 5-6, Paul beautifully sums up how submissive servanthood toward Christ allows us to radiate the light of His love through our witness in word and deed:

For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Not Sinless, But Blameless?
The Spiritual Person brings us full circle back to my original question:  Is it possible for a Christ-follower to step through a door at a given point in time and live a consistently sinless life?  The Apostle Paul’s testimony suggests the answer is “No.”  Paul’s consuming priority was that he might know Christ, be found in Him, and be justified by His righteousness on the basis of faith.  But in all humility, Paul adds, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3: 9-14). 

Paul gives us more insight about how he “pressed forward toward the goal” while experiencing the “backward pull” of his own tendency to sin.  In Acts 24: 16 he wrote, In view of this, I also do my best to maintain always a blameless conscience both before God and before men.  Like Paul, we cannot expect to be sinless, but we ought to strive to be “blameless.” That is, we should maintain a short account with God of our known sin by confessing it and turning from it.  Our sin nature will follow us on our first steps that mar the blanket of newly fallen snow of the New Year.  But our tracks in the snow should follow in the steps of Christ (1 Peter 2: 21), carrying our cross, and following the path where He leads us (Psalm 23: 3).

What Are Your Disciplines for Holiness?
What personal attitudes and practices are necessary to maintain a blameless account with God while we are continually faced with our proneness to serving Self, sin, and Satan, the “father of lies?”  This question begs an answer for another day—and from more and wiser people than this author.  From personal knowledge of your lives, I know that many of you place a high priority on personal holiness and living a life wholly committed to walking with Christ.  Remember, being holy means pressing on with the aim of being blameless (Acts 24: 16).

So, here’s the plan.  I will list some disciplines and practices for holiness which I am aiming to develop more in my life, in 2022.  Please reflect on how each of them might play a role of your Christian life, and which one(s) you might want to emphasize in your goals for 2022. Maybe you would choose to share a “Comment” for the benefit of Oikonomia readers and myself.  Or, you may want to ask a question about one or more of them in which you are struggling.  You are welcome what has helped you grow in one or more areas.  Here is the list for your consideration (click on list to enlarge):

For readers who want to know more about how you can find peace with God and learn to walk daily in newness of Eternal Life, click HERE to read a short online booklet entitled, “Have You Made the Wonderful Discovery of the Spirit-filled Life?” .  As always, we invite you to post your questions or responses using the “Comment” link below, or e-mail me at silviusj@gmail.edu.