Isaiah 1:16

Let us accept the medicine that obliterates our failures. Repentance is not what is spoken in words but what is confirmed by deeds, the repentance that obliterates the filth of impiety from the heart.… Why "before my eyes"? Because the eyes of people see differently, and the eye of God sees differently.… "Do not adulterate repentance with pretense," he says, "but, before my eyes, which examine what is secret, reveal the fruits of repentance."

Beloved, see how the prophet predicted the washing of baptism. For the person who comes to the washing of regeneration with faith, renounces the devil, joins himself to Christ, denies the enemy, confesses that Christ is God, puts off the bondage and puts on the adoption is the one who emerges from the baptism "as bright as the sun," shining with beams of righteousness and, most importantly, returns a child of God and a joint heir with Christ.

For he neglects being clean after washing, whosoever after tears keeps not innocency of life. And they therefore are washed, but are in no wise clean, who cease not to bewail the things they have committed, but commit again things to be bewailed. Hence it is said through Isaiah, Wash you, be ye clean.

Now they ask wrongly who persevere in sins and ill-advisedly entreat the Lord to forgive them the sins they do not at all forgive [others]. He condemns such as these through [the mouth of] Isaiah.… Still, having regard for such as these, Isaiah shows in …

52. Wash yourselves. Here he sets out salutary counsel. And concerning this, he does three things: first, he gives the efficacious remedy; second, the effect of the remedy, where it says, come, and accuse me (Isa 1:18); third, the punishment for contempt, where it says, …

Wash ye, make you clean, &c.

Sin is defiling to the soul. Our business is to wash ourselves from it by repenting of it and turning from it to God. We must put away not only that evil of our doings which is before the eye of the world, by refraining from the gross acts of sin, but that which is before God's eyes, the roots and habits of sin, that are in our hearts; these must be crushed and mortified.

Wash you - Referring to the preceding verse, “your hands are full of blood;” and alluding to the legal washing commanded on several occasions. See Lev 14:8, Lev 14:9, Lev 14:47.

God saith to the sinner, "Wash you," &c., that he, finding his inability to "make" himself "clean," may cry to God, Wash me, cleanse me (Ps 51:2, 7, 10). before mine eyes--not mere outward reformation before man's eyes, who cannot, as God, see into the heart (Jer 32:19).

Wash you - This is, of course, to be understood in a moral sense; meaning that they should put away their sins. Sin is represented in the Scriptures as defiling or polluting the soul Eze 20:31; Eze 23:30; Hos 5:8; Hos 9:4; and the removal of it is represented by the act of washing; Psa 51:2: ‘Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin;’ Jer 4:14: ‘O Jerusalem, wash thine heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved;’ Job 9:30; 1Co 6:11; Heb 10:22; 2Pe 2:22; Rev 1:5; Rev 7:14. It is used here in close connection with the previous verse, where the prophet says that their hands were flied with blood. He now admonishes them to wash away that blood, with the implied understanding, that then their prayers would be heard. It is worthy of remark, also, that the prophet directs them to do this themselves. He addresses them as moral agents, and as having ability to do it. This is the uniform manner in which God addresses sinners in the Bible, requiring them to put away their sins, and to make themselves a new heart. Compare Eze 18:31-32. The evil of your doings - This is a Hebraism, to denote your evil doings. From before mine eyes - As God is omniscient, to put them away from before his eyes, is to put them away altogether. To pardon or forgive sin, is often expressed by hiding it; Psa 51:9: Hide thy face from my sins. Cease to do evil - Compare 1Pe 3:10-11. The prophet is specifying what was necessary in order that their prayers might be heard, and that they might find acceptance with God. What he states here is a universal truth. If sinners wish to find acceptance with God, they must come renouncing all sin; resolving to put away everything that God hates, however dear it may be to the heart. Compare Mar 9:43-47.