Read 2 Samuel 12:1-31
In the last chapter we saw David doing what he wanted – he was king, surely he could do whatever he wanted even if it did mean taking advantage of a pretty woman and doing away with her husband. But however high and mighty David was in human terms, he was not above the law, and certainly not above God’s law. In this chapter we see God’s judgement upon David for his sin, but we also see that God’s grace outweighs human sin.
Again, the story is well-known. God sent the prophet Nathan to David to tell a story about a rich man who takes advantage of a poor man, taking his only lamb to slaughter for a meal for his guest, leaving the poor man with nothing. David was outraged at the injustice of the situation. The rich man had plenty of lambs of his own that he could use, but no, he went and took someone else’s. ‘That man deserves to die’ he said. Then Nathan hit him with, ‘You are the man’. Then it came home to David what he had done. He had sinned greatly. God had blessed him with many gifts (vv7 and 8). He had no need to take the man’s wife and to take that man’s life. And worst of all he had ‘despised the word of the Lord by doing what is evil in his eyes’. According to the law David deserved death (Lev 20:10), and that was his judgement too on the rich man’s actions in Nathan’s story. But this is where we see God’s grace in action.
David came before the Lord and confessed his sin (v11). Nathan told him, ‘the Lord has taken away your sin and you will not die’. This sounds a bit like David was getting off easy, but he did receive judgement, and it was personal and it was painful. Yes, God forgave David but he did not let him off scot-free. David’s confession seems to have been accompanied by genuine repentance and what we see is that God released David from the guilt of sin but still executed his judgement upon him by way of the consequences of sin.
And this is exactly what the apostle Paul tells us about sin in the New Testament. We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. But the good news is that if we come before the Lord in humility and confess our sins and repent of them, then there will be no condemnation. Why not? Because Jesus has paid for our sins on the cross and has freed us from that burden. That is not to say that there will be no consequences to our sin – sin always has consequence, but there is now no condemnation for we who are in Christ (Romans 8:1).
That is the good news. God’s grace outweighs any amount of sin. There is always the hope of restoration to God’s favour after sin and judgement. God loves to forgive and if we are truly sorry for our sins and repent of them and trust in Jesus as the one who takes away our sin, then we know that we will be restored to the Lord and will receive his grace in all its fullness even to eternal life.