Friday, July 29, 2011

"There Is Forgiveness With Thee"

 
    David, declared by God as "a man after Mine own heart," nevertheless succumbed to grievous temptations of lust, fear, murder and willful blindness (Acts 13:22).
 
    "David sent messengers, and took Bathsheba; and she came in unto him, and he lay with her" (II Samuel 11:4).
      "And the woman conceived, and sent and told David, and said, I am with child.  And David sent to Joab, saying, Send me Uriah the Hittite...David wrote a letter to Joab, and sent it by the hand of Uriah. And he wrote in the letter, saying, Set ye Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle, and retire ye from him, that he may be smitten, and die" (II Samuel 11:14-15).
      "Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the LORD, to do evil in His sight?  Thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon" (II Samuel 12:9).
 
    The New Testament never mentions this terrible sin and failure of David, nor does it ever negatively reference him in any manner.  He suffered difficult consequences, and lived "by the sword" as a result (II Samuel 12:10).  Israel's greatest king nevertheless shines forth in the New Testament, mentioned by name 59 times, and again, affirmed by God as a man who shared His thoughts, motivations, intents and values.
 
    In our present existence, genuine godliness does not mean sinless perfection.  Of course, no sin is ever inevitable, condoned, or without consequence, especially if, as in David's case, we do not quickly respond to the Holy Spirit's conviction.  Nor can the born again believer in the Lord Jesus Christ hold a light view concerning the sin that led our Savior to a cross of untold sorrow, agony, forsakenness and death.  However, we recognize, and more importantly, God recognizes that a "law of sin" remains in our fleshly humanity that always bears the potential and sometimes produces the actual in our present experience (Romans 7:23).  This is true in every believer, from the least devoted to the most sincerely devout, and will be true as long as we are on the earth.  "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us" (I John 1:8).
 
    This consideration can easily raise questions that direct attention toward ourselves and our present experience.  The better response, at least initially, is to consider the realities it displays about our God.  How gracious must He be, to so strongly affirm the man David, who so carnally and callously disregarded Him!  How vast must be His mercy and forgiveness!  How deeply He must look within His trusting children to see hearts of love and faith, even when mind, hands and feet are waywardly veering from the path of righteousness!  And how sure He must be that the good work He has begun in us will be continued and culminated regardless of those times when our faithlessness seems to ensure that all is lost! (Romans 5:20; Micah 7:18; I Samuel 16:7; Philippians 1:6).
 
     If we have trusted in the Lord Jesus and been born of His Spirit, we can get up if we have fallen.  "There is forgiveness with Thee" exulted the David who so well knew the forgiveness and cleansing of the God far more gracious and merciful than even the most trusting heart can fathom (Psalm 130:4).  We might suspect that the king of Israel loved the King of Heaven all the more because He delivered him from so great a pit of moral and spiritual disaster, self imposed.  And we would be correct...
 
"Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little."
(Luke 7:47)

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