The Gospel of Grace According to David III 2 Sam. 12:13-25

Summary of Genuine Repentance:

Psalm 51:1, 4 (NIV) 

  Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love…Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge.

Genuine repentance requires that we first determine if our guilt is true, false or proportionate by what is right or evil according to God’s standards

Genuine repentance requires that we take full responsibility for our sins without the need to justify or refer to the sins and mistakes of others

If we focus on consequences of our sins, that is self-pity because the focus is on what will grieve us/me

Genuine recovery, joy and confidence returns when we return and focus on the unfailing love of God that we have trampled on and not on consequences

How to Fall Down, Wrestle on the Ground, and then Get Up

2 Samuel 12:15-18 (NLT) 

    After Nathan returned to his home, the Lord made Bathsheba's baby deathly ill. [16] David begged God to spare the child. He went without food and lay all night on the bare ground. [17] The leaders of the nation pleaded with him to get up and eat with them, but he refused. [18] Then on the seventh day the baby died. David's advisers were afraid to tell him. "He was so broken up about the baby being sick," they said. "What will he do to himself when we tell him the child is dead?"

2 Samuel 12:20-21 (NIV) 

    Then David got up from the ground. After he had washed, put on lotions and changed his clothes, he went into the house of the Lord and worshiped. Then he went to his own house, and at his request they served him food, and he ate.  [21] His servants asked him, "Why are you acting this way? While the child was alive, you fasted and wept, but now that the child is dead, you get up and eat!"

1 Peter 4:19 (NIV) 
    So then, those who suffer according to God's will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.

1. This suffering is not because of punishment or payback

2 Samuel 12:13 (NLT) 

    Then David confessed to Nathan, "I have sinned against the Lord." Nathan replied, "Yes, but the Lord has forgiven you, and you won't die for this sin.

David has already been forgiven. 

The legal punishment has been removed

Psalm 32:1-2 (NIV) Of David.

     Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.  Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord does not count against him and in whose spirit is no deceit.

The word, “but” indicates another reason for David’s son’s death. 

2 Samuel 12:14 (NIV) 

    But because by doing this you have made the enemies of the Lord show utter contempt, the son born to you will die."

There is a radical difference between punishment and consequences

2. This suffering was surgery and not punishment

2 Samuel 12:14 (NIV) 

    But because by doing this you have made the enemies of the Lord show utter contempt, the son born to you will die."

2 Samuel 12:14 (NLT) 

    But you have given the enemies of the Lord great opportunity to despise and blaspheme him, so your child will die."

2 Samuel 12:20 (NLT) 

    Then David got up from the ground, washed himself, put on lotions, and changed his clothes. Then he went to the Tabernacle and worshiped the Lord. After that, he returned to the palace and ate.

2 Samuel 12:23 (NLT) 

    But why should I fast when he is dead? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him one day, but he cannot return to me."

As a result of the surgery, David returns to his first love in God and lives from this day in humility, and genuinely loves and serves people

3.  Often when we go through God’s radical surgery, we don’t know what the surgery is on, but we trust God anyway

Psalm 143:1-2, 4-7 (NLT)

     A Psalm of David: Hear my prayer, O Lord; listen to my plea!  Answer me because you are faithful and righteous.  Don’t put your servant on trial, for no one is innocent before you…I am losing all hope; I am paralyzed with fear.  I remember the days of old.  I ponder all your great works and think about what you have done.  I lift my hands to you in prayer. I thirst for you as parched land thirsts for rain. Come quickly, Lord, and answer me, for my depression deepens.  Don’t turn away from me, or I will die.

2 Samuel 12:22 (NLT) 

    …I will go to him one day, but he cannot return to me."

Psalm 16:10-11 (NLT) 

        For you will not leave my soul among the dead or allow your godly one to rot in the grave.  You will show me the way of life, granting me the joy of your presence and the pleasures of living with you forever.

As believers in Jesus, we can rest assured that all punishment has already fallen on Jesus – so our suffering cannot be punishment!

2 Sam. 12:24-25 (NLT)

        Then David comforted Bathsheba, his wife, and slept with her. She became pregnant and gave birth to a son, and they named him Solomon. The Lord loved the child [25] and sent word through Nathan the prophet that his name should be Jedidiah—"beloved of the Lord"—because the Lord loved him.

Matthew 1:1, 6 (NIV) 

    A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham… David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah's wife,

4. If we are willing to respond correctly to God’s surgery humbly and with confident trust, we can get off the ground and return to God’s Plan A!

I am grateful to Tim Keller, from whom much of this sermon came from…