God's Forgiveness with Consequences
God is love, and He is holy. Both His holiness and His love are prefect. He is both at the same time, and His actions are always loving and holy at the same time. David found this out very dramatically when He committed adultery with Bathsheba, and committed murder when he had her husband Uriah killed. The prophet, Nathan, came to David and confronted his sins. David confessed his sins, and God forgave him, so he would not die. However, God's consequence for his sins was the death of the son who was conceived by Bathsheba. (II Samuel 12:13,14) I am sure many people, even some believers, will be confused by this, because we sometimes have a false view of God's forgiveness. Let's take a minute to consider what God did and why.
God can and does forgive serious sins like adultery and murder, if we sincerely confess and repent like David did. (Psalm 51) God's forgiveness is complete, in that, our relationship with Him is fully restored, and He does not hold those sins against us any more. That is a result of God's love and grace. Then, many times He chooses not to punish us as much as we deserve for our sins. That is God's mercy, which comes from His love, too. That is why David did not die for these two sins, even though they called for the death penalty in the law of God. However, since God is holy, He must punish sin, and He must do what He knows is best to show us the seriousness of our sin, so we will hopefully never do it again. That is why God gives us very serious consequences for serious sins, like David's son dying. The son went to heaven, but David and Bathsheba grieved for him for a long time, and they never forgot their sin. This is what God does for us, when He forgives our sin. We will have some consequence that reminds us to do God's will and causes us to have the fear of God we should have. Therefore, please, do not think that when we confess our sins and repent of them, we will have no more trouble from them. That would cause us to sin more, thinking we can just go to God afterward and have Him remove all of the punishment. God never works that way, even though He is gracious to forgive very serious sins, when we respond correctly.
#NHBaptistdotorg
Tomorrow, I intend to read II Samuel 13-15.
God can and does forgive serious sins like adultery and murder, if we sincerely confess and repent like David did. (Psalm 51) God's forgiveness is complete, in that, our relationship with Him is fully restored, and He does not hold those sins against us any more. That is a result of God's love and grace. Then, many times He chooses not to punish us as much as we deserve for our sins. That is God's mercy, which comes from His love, too. That is why David did not die for these two sins, even though they called for the death penalty in the law of God. However, since God is holy, He must punish sin, and He must do what He knows is best to show us the seriousness of our sin, so we will hopefully never do it again. That is why God gives us very serious consequences for serious sins, like David's son dying. The son went to heaven, but David and Bathsheba grieved for him for a long time, and they never forgot their sin. This is what God does for us, when He forgives our sin. We will have some consequence that reminds us to do God's will and causes us to have the fear of God we should have. Therefore, please, do not think that when we confess our sins and repent of them, we will have no more trouble from them. That would cause us to sin more, thinking we can just go to God afterward and have Him remove all of the punishment. God never works that way, even though He is gracious to forgive very serious sins, when we respond correctly.
#NHBaptistdotorg
Tomorrow, I intend to read II Samuel 13-15.