Forgiveness may not exclude consequences

2 Samuel 12; Psalms 64–65; Ezekiel 19; 2 Corinthians 5

Sometimes I disobey God, He forgives me and that is the end of it. However, sometimes my sin is serious enough that there are consequences from it that will not go away. What happened to David reminds me of this. It also reminds me that God’s forgiveness is always there and can be relied upon.

David took a man’s wife, got her pregnant and had the man put in the front lines to be killed. He thought he could get away with it. After reminding him of all that God had done for him, Nathan the prophet told David otherwise . . .

Why have you despised the word of the Lord, to do what is evil in his sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and have taken his wife to be your wife and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.’ Thus says the Lord, ‘Behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house. And I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel and before the sun.’ ” David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die. Nevertheless, because by this deed you have utterly scorned the Lord, the child who is born to you shall die.” (2 Samuel 12:9–14)

Adultery and murder are serious sins. For David, the consequences would be “what goes around comes around” and his own wives would be taken in the same way, later fulfilled when his own son slept with his concubines in broad daylight. Not only that, the sword of war would never leave him and the child that was conceived from his sin would die.

David should have also been executed. However, his repentance was genuine. Instead of denying his sin when confronted like Saul did when Samuel confronted him, David admitted it to Nathan and in Psalm 51 where his plea for mercy reveals his heart for God.

What touches my heart is Nathan’s response in this passage: “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die.” Past tense and immediate. Other verses say the same:

When iniquities prevail against me, you atone for our transgressions. (Psalm 65:3)

For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.” (Hebrews 8:12)

There are people who think that their current sins must be confessed or they will lose their salvation. This idea is about timing. They assume that Jesus died for all the past sin in the world and anything after that is covered only as it is admitted and confessed. While this response is important to enjoying fellowship with God, it is merely another way that the human heart tries to ‘do something’ to earn salvation rather than rely on the completed work of Christ. He died for ALL sin for ALL time. Knowing and believing that sets me free . . .

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:1)

As a believer in the Person and work of Jesus Christ, when I sin now, I might suffer consequences in this life, but I will not suffer condemnation. God has put away my sin and I shall not experience spiritual death, which is separation from Him.

David meekly accepted God’s decision. How it must have hurt each time violence reigned in his life. He grieved at the death of the child born to Bathsheba. He must have been enraged when his own son violated his wives. But God also blessed his life — David wrote many of the psalms and they remain to this day, blessing God’s people. His focus was on the Lord and not on his own foolishness.

APPLY: Sometimes my focus on the consequences puts me in a deep funk. Instead, I need to meekly accept that consequences are earned and turn my thoughts toward all the blessings that He has bestowed — none of which can never be earned. “No condemnation” is huge. So also is His mercy and grace to change my heart so that I want to stop sin and selfishness and live for Him. The temporal blessings of health, safety, family and friends and many other good things are amazing and so undeserved. Like David, I have sinned, but also glad for the ever-present forgiveness of God.