TRANSFORMED
BY GOD’S LOVE AND MERCY!
Psalm
51:1-2
1
Have mercy on me, O God,
according
to your steadfast love;
according
to your abundant mercy
blot
out my transgressions.
2 Wash
me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse
me from my sin!
In
2 Samuel 12, the account of God’s dealing with David’s sin against Him is
recorded for all to read. We remember how he had sinned by committing adultery
with Bathsheba, and then by having her husband Uriah killed to avoid discovery,
since Bathsheba was with child.
Why
would David, under the inspiration of God, write a psalm that would remind all
of his sins, from that time on? Certainly it was both the overflow of his
repentant heart, and, in the long term, to teach us some very valuable lessons
from his experience.
David
is described by God, Himself, as a man after His own heart:
Acts
13:22-23
And when he had removed
him, he raised up David to be their king, of whom he testified and
said, ‘I have found in David the son of Jesse a man after my
heart, who will do all my will.’ From this man's offspring God has
brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, as He promised.
David
loved God, he pleased God, and was chosen by God to be not only the king of
Israel, but also in the lineage of Christ. He was inspired by God to write about
78 psalms recorded in the Scriptures.
We
should never believe that we are above any sin. Our lives need to be in
continuous submission to God, for when we allow ungodliness to creep into our
lives, the most heinous sins can follow right behind.
When
David sinned, his return to God was based on the only way any person ever
receives forgiveness: by God’s grace, alone.
There is no sin that cannot be forgiven; the grace and love of
God is sufficient to forgive every sin.
1
John 1:9
If we confess our sins, he
is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from
all unrighteousness.
David
approaches God on the basis of His steadfast love and abundant mercy.
God’s
love can never be merited, or even attracted, by us. God is so holy and pure
that He could never have loved us, based on what He saw in us. His love is
perfect, eternal, unwavering, faithful, true, relentless, and immense. Paul had
to pray that believers would understand this transforming love of God in Christ.
Ephesians
3:17-19
so that Christ may dwell in your
hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may
have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and
length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that
surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of
God.
God’s
love goes beyond anything we could ever imagine.
David knows that his forgiveness
will come only by the limitless grace of God. Grace cannot be deserved, or it
would stop being grace. God loves to show His grace to undeserving man. Only
those who humbly come to Christ, broken and aware of their inability to please
Him, will find grace.
John
1:14,16,17
And the Word became flesh
and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only
Son from the Father, full of grace and truth… For from his
fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was
given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
Apart from grace, we could never even
approach God,
no matter what kind of sin we have committed.
Romans
5:1-2
Therefore, since we have been
justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus
Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into
this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the
glory of God.
Romans
3:23,24
for all have sinned and fall
short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a
gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
God
is the only One who can wash away sin; David knew this very well, and so he came
to Him for forgiveness.
Dear
friend, no matter what sin you may have committed, there is forgiveness by
coming to Christ in faith. There is no sin that cannot be forgiven, and no sin
that can be forgiven any other way. You
can take 100 steps away from God but it only takes one step to come back: true
repentance.
Our
hearts should be overwhelmed by the love of Christ and by His mercy! We should
also be watchful and sober, as we live our lives. Any of us is capable of any
sin, and we know that there is no sin acceptable in God’s eyes. He is grieved
every time we sin. May our confession of every known sin be both sincere and
prompt.
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