“And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the LORD. And Nathan said unto David, The LORD also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die.” – 2nd Samuel 12:13
Bathsheba - Artemisia Gentileschi, Public Doman Image
In 2nd Samuel chapter 11 David commits the grievous sin of adultery. Small sin leads to greater sin. First David defers his responsibility to go fight the Lord’s battles. While he is sitting idle he sees a beautiful woman who happens to be another man’s wife, and he covets her. They commit adultery and she becomes pregnant. To cover up his misdeeds he has her husband killed so that he can marry her. “But the thing David had done displeased the LORD.” -2nd Samuel 11:27
This incident illustrates both the doctrine of eternal security and the doctrine of the Lord’s chastening. Nathan the profit goes directly to David and confronts him with his sin that he has been covering up. Moses warned the children of Israel that if they sin against the Lord, “be sure your sin will find you out.” No one can hide their sin from God. And if you are saved today the Bible says that you are blessed because the Lord will not impute sin upon your soul (Psalm 32:2), but Hebrews 12 also says that:
6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and he scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
7 If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?
8 But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.
So of course David, who is described as “a man after God’s own heart,” receives a severe chastening for his severe sin. Nathan tells David that “Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house (2nd Samuel 12:10).” He also says in verse 14, “Howbeit, because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme, the child also that is born unto thee shall surely die.”
This verse mirrors Paul’s advice to Titus to exhort his congregation, particularly women, “To be discrete, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed (Titus 2:5).”
The Prophet Nathan Rebukes King David, Eugene Siberdt, Public Domain Image
We are exhorted in scripture to be found blameless among our fellow men so that God is glorified through us. But we should not fall into the strange doctrine found among some Charismatic circles that if we sin in some way it means that we are not saved or that we have somehow lost our salvation.
If sinlessness came automatically with our salvation, there would not be so many exhortations to good works found in the scriptures because we would not need them. We could just get the gospel from Romans 10 or 1st Corinthians 15 and be done. But 1st John 5:8 clearly states: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” But the good news is, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1st John 1:9).”
Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash
The main reason that David’s punishment was so severe is because rather than confess it immediately, he covered it up. "He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy (Proverbs 28:13)." Bathsheba brought the child to term and gave birth, meaning that for at least nine months David left his sin unconfessed, hoping that his way would still prosper. Do not wait for your sin to find you out my friends, confess and repent immediately.
Out of this incident David gives us Psalm 51, an incredible psalm of repentance:
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
11 Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.
12 Restore unto me the joy of my salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.
You see, in the Old Testament a permanent indwelling of the Holy Spirit was not given to believers. Instead the Holy Spirit came and went as God saw fit. John 7:39 clarifies this: “(But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because Jesus was not yet glorified.)” So what David is referring to in Psalm 51 is the anointing of the Holy Spirit that made him king over Israel and a prophet of the Lord, which he could take away from David as rightly as he took it away from Saul his predecessor.
Furthermore, in verse 12 David asks for God to restore the joy of his salvation, not his salvation itself. Sin will surely take away your joy and peace, but your salvation as a free gift that wasn’t granted through works, can also not be rescinded by your works.
“As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.” - Psalm 103:12
Amen!
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