Written and Media by Bradley Stubbs.
In the last article we talked about David and how he was a man after God’s own heart but then fell into sin after he grew complacent about the things he had done. Today we’re going to look at how God redeemed David from his sins and how God will redeem us when we fall into sin.
The first thing you need to do for God to redeem your sins is to admit you have sinned. David did that after a conversation with one of his friends, Nathan. He asked David if he could tell him a story and he said yes. So, Nathan told the story of a rich man and a poor man. The rich man had it all, including tons of sheep, while the poor man had nothing but one little lamb. One day these two men passed by each other on the road. The rich man needed a sheep, but instead of taking from one of his many sheep, he took the sheep from the poor man and killed it. David admitted that this was awful, and Nathan told David that the rich man symbolized him.
This is found in 2 Samuel 12:7-9 which says,
“Then Nathan said to David, ‘You are the man! This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. I gave your master’s house to you, and your master’s wives into your arms. I gave you all Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more. Why did you despise the word of the Lord by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites.’”
After David was confronted by Nathan and heard this, he realized he had sinned and asked for forgiveness from God and repented. In our lives, it may take a friend or something else to show us that we’ve sinned. However, when we realize we’ve sinned, we need to ask for forgiveness and repent if we want to see redemption.
We also need to have faith that God will redeem our sins even if He doesn’t do it right away. Nathan told David that bad things were going to happen to him because of his sin. Jesus died on the cross for our sins, paying the penalty for sin. Just because the penalty of all sins has been paid doesn’t mean consequences don’t exist. Grace is not a trampoline, it’s a safety net. We cannot keep sinning repeatedly and expect a change. Consequences will continue to arise. For David, his firstborn son died and problems developed in his family, yet God blessed David with another son named Solomon. God will continue to forgive, but His judgment still exists.
Solomon went on to write two books in the Old Testament. What’s more is that generations later in the lineage of David comes Joseph, who marries Mary, who would become the mother of Jesus. God redeemed David’s sin and turned something awful into salvation for all who believe years later through Jesus coming to earth and dying on the cross for our sins.
God may not redeem your sins right away, but if you trust in God and have faith that He will use your failures for His glory, great things will come from your failures and trials.
My senior year of high school, my thyroid stopped functioning in my body. Because of that, I struggled with anxiety and depression and I didn’t know what good was going to come from it, but I trusted God. I see now after working at summer camps how God used that struggle to allow me to relate to other kids going through the same thing.
If you ask for forgiveness of your sins and repent of them, realize that consequences may still remain from your decisions, but have faith that God will redeem you and use your failures for His glory.
