In my attempt to read the Bible from cover to cover for the first time in my life, I arrived at II Samuel chapter 11, this morning. This is the chapter which narrates how David remained in Jerusalem while his army went to war, saw Bathsheba bathing, committed adultery with her, and when she conceived, attempted to cover it by recalling her husband Uriah. When Uriah would not go to his wife, David arranged for him to be placed in the heat of battle and abandoned, leading to Uriah’s death. David then took Bathsheba as his wife, and she bore him a son. The chapter ends with the solemn statement, “but the thing that David had done displeased the LORD.” II Samuel 11:27.
David committed adultery and committed murder, and Scripture does not minimize that. Yet when we speak of his person or character, it is important to remember how God Himself describes him, “a man after mine own heart.” Acts 13:22. His fall was real, and the sins were grievous, but his identity was not bound up in being “an adulterer” or “a murderer” in the sense of a settled course of life. Those titles, in Scripture, usually denote people whose pattern is unrepentant continuance in such sins. I Corinthians 6:9-11. David’s repentance, Psalm 51, shows the difference between a child of God who falls into sin and one who lives in it. He bore heavy consequences in this life, but God did not leave him under that identity. David was not “marked” as an adulterer or murderer forever; he was a forgiven sinner, restored by grace, though still scarred by sins consequences.
Interestingly enough, in I Kings 15:5, it says, “David did that which was right in the eyes of the LORD, and turned not aside from any thing that he commanded him all the days of his life, save only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.” Notice how David’s life is summed up. The adultery and murder are not denied, but they are not what defines him. Though David sinned grievously, God still holds him forth as one who walked in His ways. This distinction is vital for the believer. Sin may stain us, but it does not define us if we are in Christ. God remembers His children in Christ’s righteousness, not in their shame. Just as David’s life is remembered as a walk in God’s ways, so the believer’s life, though marred by failure, is summed up in grace, “ye are washed, ye are sanctified, ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus.” I Corinthians 6:11. Such is the triumph of divine grace, that God does not define His people by their darkest day, but by His eternal purpose in Christ. David’s sins were real, but the record of heaven calls him “a man after God’s own heart.” What God declared of David, He declares of all who are in Christ, their story is no longer written in sin, but in righteousness. “This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD.” Isaiah 54:17. The believer’s comfort is not that he has never fallen, but that Christ has never failed. His obedience stands where ours falters, and His blood speaks pardon where our conscience condemns. MPJ