Lessons on Sin and Grace from King David

There is that awesome grace of God again! But do you notice what it is always tied to? It is always tied to our natural sinful state! We all fall short of the glorious standard of God -- that is why we needed a Savior. You cannot truly embrace the grace of God until you embrace your sinful state.

So why then is David considered a man after the heart of God if he was such a sinner? It was because of his reaction to his sin. Let us take a closer look at two of his most infamous sins. The first is when he took a census of the fighting men of Israel. Often misunderstood, King David decided to number the men of Israel. While the Bible does not specifically say why this was sinful it does offer some clear indications that David knew full well it was. The story relates that it was actually Satan who rose up to tempt David to do such an act. The commander of his army specifically warns David that he is about to cause Israel to sin. Perhaps the sin is in the pride of the number because Scripture says David wants the report so that he "may know." Perhaps it is in placing his hope in the numbers of his fighting men instead of merely relying upon God -- who had seen him through all of his military conflicts with great success. I would probably lean towards that rationale because it hits so close to home for us today. We simply forget all the Lord has done and start to rely upon our own calculations. We start to give ourselves credit for things the Lord has done in our lives. God was less than pleased with the census and here is the exchange that follows:

God was very displeased with the census, and he punished Israel for it. Then David said to God, "I have sinned greatly by taking this census. Please forgive my guilt for doing this foolish thing." Then the Lord spoke to Gad, David's seer. This was the message: "Go and say to David, "This is what the Lord says: I will give you three choices. Choose one of these punishments, and I will inflict it on you.'" So Gad came to David and said, "These are the choices the Lord has given you. You may choose three years of famine, three months of destruction by the sword of your enemies, or three days of severe plague as the angel of the Lord brings devastation throughout the land of Israel. Decide what answer I should give the Lord who sent me." -- 1Chronicles 21: 7-12 (NLT)

Note what we need to learn here. First of all -- David recognizes his sin and admits to it. There is no excuse making. There is no blaming the devil, who had tempted him. There is no blaming anyone -- I have sinned greatly. Secondly, he immediately falls on the mercy of God. Please forgive my guilt for doing such a foolish thing. Lastly, there is still a temporal price to pay for our sin. There is still the principle of sowing and reaping. Yes God will forgive but that does not mean there is not still a price to be paid. That is what is so dangerous about grace alone doctrine. The grace of God covers our eternal consequence, not our temporal consequences. When all we want to do is focus on the grace of God what gets lost is the confession of sin, the repentance of that sin, and the eventual consequence for committing that sin. When we correctly confess, repent, and recognize the consequence THEN we can realize and take refuge in the grace of almighty God. What a realization! That God's unending grace will still cover me when I stand before Christ. That the shed blood on Calvary is sufficient to cover my sins eternally. Hallelujah! David decides on the plague and 70,000 of his people are struck dead. David then sees the death angel of the Lord with his sword drawn about to destroy Jerusalem. David and the leaders of Jerusalem put on sackcloth and fall before the Lord begging that the destruction be visited upon them and not the innocent people.

Then the angel of the Lord told Gad to instruct David to go up and build an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. -- 1Chronicles 21: 18 (NLT)

David was sufficiently broken now before God over his sin. Sometimes we pay lip service to our sin. We know we have done wrong and we say so, but we are not quite broken over it. In the key verses today we see the true sacrifice God wants is a broken spirit. Not the trifles we might offer him but a full realization of what we have done. Here we see in verse 18 God is satisfied and tells David NOW he can offer his sacrifice. David insists on paying full price for the threshing floor because he will not "offer a sacrifice to God that costs me nothing" and God relents as David sees the death angel sheath his sword. Likewise we too should not be making sacrifices to the Lord that costs us nothing. The truth is that we are seldom "broken" over our sin because brokenness is another concept that is simply not taught anymore. David confesses, takes responsibility, pays a temporal price and then becomes broken over his sin. God forgives. The other great sin of David is probably the better known example -- Bathsheba. There are so many lessons for us in this story but I always love how it starts:

In the spring of the year, when kings normally go out to war, David sent Joab and the Israelite army to fight the Ammonites. They destroyed the Ammonite army and laid siege to the city of Rabbah. However, David stayed behind in Jerusalem. -- 2Samuel 11: 1 (NLT)

However, David stayed in Jerusalem. When we place ourselves where we ought not to be, the devil will always attack. David is on his roof one night and sees Bathsheba bathing. He lusts after her; sin number one. He finds out she is married to someone who is actually fighting for him in the above mentioned conflict. He covets her; sin number two. He sends for her anyway and sleeps with her -- adultery is sin number three. Are we seeing the progression sin takes in our life yet? Bathsheba conceives from the affair because remember there are always temporal consequences for our sin that we had not weighed. David tries desperately to cover his sin up but to no avail. He sends her husband into the front lines where he is sure to be struck down and thus he commits sin number four -- murder. He takes Bathsheba to be his wife and thinks he has gotten away with his great sin. No one needs to know except he forgets as we often do that God sees everything! Sin blinds us beloved so badly that we cannot even see such an obvious progression when it is occurring in our own lives. God sends the Prophet Nathan to tell David this great story about a mean rich man who takes a little ewe lamb that belonged to a poor man to prepare as dinner for a guest. David is horrified but his sin has blinded him so much that he cannot see he is that rich man. Bathsheba was the little ewe lamb. When the realization of his sin hits him he is overwhelmed and immediately confesses that he has sinned against the Lord. No fancy words. No excuse making. Just straightforward admission and confession. Nathan informs him that God will forgive the sin but that the child born from the sin will die. David fasts and prays for God to relent for seven days but the child dies on the seventh day. This highlights the last two applications for us today. God is sovereign and second, we need to accept the judgment we receive for the sins we commit. David appealed but God said no. The price was even greater than this as David would see his own son rise up against him and take his throne. That son would also eventually die. God would restore David but there is always a price to be paid for sin. It is usually more costly than we had ever anticipated. There is no anger from David towards God. He and Bathsheba would have another child and they would name him Solomon and he would succeed David to the throne of Israel. But oh how David's life changed because of that one night he was walking on the roof of his palace and sin was born in his heart.

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