No Condemnation - King David's Story 

Hi there! For those of you that don’t know me, my name is Laura, and I am currently on an internship with HBC and Overflow Church. I have put this article together from my own learning as part of the internship. It seems especially timely to release this now, as Paul and Beth Stevens have just preached on the topic of ‘there is no condemnation’, a topic that I think is drawn out very well by looking at David’s story. I have included Bible references throughout, but if you would like to read up before you read on, 2 Samuel 11 and 12 is the place to go.  

We pick up David in 2 Samuel 11:1, he had been incredibly successful in battle, and so this year, he chose to take the time off and remain at home whilst his army went off to fight. Right at the very beginning, we are seeing David doing something he shouldn’t be! Strike 1. Next thing we know, David is lusting after Bathsheba as she bathes, he even sent a man to find out information on her. Strike 2. She was sent for, and then he slept with her, she became pregnant. Strike 3. Hoping to cover himself, David brought her husband, Uriah, back from the battlefields and made attempts to get him to go home to his wife and sleep with her (which would allow them to pass the child off as Uriah’s). Strike 4. But Uriah was a man of principle and would not return home to the comfort of his wife whilst his fellow soldiers were sleeping under canvas at the battlegrounds. When plan A didn’t work, David sent Uriah back to the front and back to his death. Uriah’s commander was told to put him in the most dangerous place so he would surely die, and he did. Strike 5. Word eventually reached David and Bathsheba, so he took her as his wife, and she bore him a son. But all these things David had done displeased the Lord. Displeased in this context has connotations of something evil, bad, imperfect or in fact displeasing and to be fair, David is on 5 strikes: laziness, lust, adultery, deceit and murder. Surely, God must be counting him out by now?  

God though had other plans and in 2 Samuel 12, God sends Nathan, the prophet of David’s time, to go and speak to David. Nathan told David a story about a rich and a poor man. A traveller arrived at the place these men lived, but the rich man would not sacrifice one of his many livestock to feed the traveller and instead killed the only sheep the poor man owned. This sheep, the poor man had raised like a child, it had even slept in his arms. David ‘burned with anger’ towards the rich man and claimed that the rich man should pay for that lamb four times over, according to the law (Exodus 22:1). Nathan revealed that the rich man was in fact David. Nathan goes on to speak to all of David’s sins, all those things he has tried to keep secret. Then Nathan reveals God’s heart for David, in verse 8: “I gave you all Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more.” Take a moment to put yourself in David’s position now. How would you be feeling? Amazed by God’s grace or ashamed of your sins? Perhaps a bit of both? I have found the exercise of putting myself into David’s position really insightful – it has revealed to me, that I don’t always think God is gracious and that I am fearful God is condemning me for my sins. Whilst revealing those things is a little uncomfortable, long term it allows me to process that well with God. Let’s see now how David responds...   

David chooses to repent for his sin, and Nathan describes what God has in store, forgiveness and cost. Bathsheba’s child dies only a short time after he was born. There is no getting away from that uncomfortable truth, that sin has a cost, it separates us from God and ultimately just brings us harm. In the time of David, priests attempted to pay that cost through offerings and sacrifices. I wonder whether today we still try and pay off our sins, through works or by condemning ourselves and punishing ourselves for our sin? The good news of Christianity is that the cost of our sin has been paid in full! When Jesus died on the cross, he paid all of our debts. Yes, he even paid off yours! No matter how big our sin is, God’s grace is bigger, He forgives, and He has the power to redeem any and every situation, the amazing thing about David is that he catches God’s gracious and forgiving heart in a time when God was seen as angry and judgemental. The practical consequence of this in David’s life looks like David and Bathsheba having another child that they name Solomon, a child whom, we read in 2 Samuel 12:24, the Lord loved. Redemption much!? Plus, that battle David had sent his men to fight was won! God didn’t leave David in the mess and pain of his sin, in fact, God drew alongside David by sending Nathan and pointed out the way ahead. If you answered ashamed to the question in the previous paragraph, I challenge you with this: would a God that can so graciously redeem David from his sins want you to feel ashamed of your sin? Does your response line up with the truths about God’s character revealed in this story?   

Amazingly we have a great insight into David’s heart during this story, as whilst David is going through all of this, he wrote Psalms 32 and 51. If you have a few minutes, I suggest having a read of them now. For me, the significance of these Psalms is not to be underestimated. In both, David agonises over his sin but then turns to a place of repentance and confession: “Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord.” And you forgave the guilt of my sin.” (Psalm 32:5) Then David rejoices that he has been set free of the sin that had trapped him, asking God to create in him a new heart. This really brings home 1 John 1:9; “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” Being really honest, when I have read the verse from 1 John in the past, my response is often to disqualify myself saying; maybe for others you mean that God, but not me, my sin is too big or too bad, I should have done better. Looking at it objectively, we can say all the same things of David. He was well educated in the law, God called him a man after his own heart, he had the faith to slay Goliath – surely, he knew better too. In God’s eyes there is no measure of sin, but even if there was David has racked up a fair tally and yet God forgave him. Why then would God treat me any different to David?  

If God can do it for David, do you believe God can do it for you too? My main reason for doubting that He can is that I fear I will sin again and stuff it all up. David has worked his way up to 5 strikes and then when he really feels the cost of his sin, he turns to God and is delivered. What if I am still building up to that point? In response to this, I went on to read 2 Samuel 13, where David is faced with the rape of his daughter, Tamar, by her half-brother Amnon. Later, Amnon is murdered by Tamar’s brother Absalom. Whilst David himself didn’t do anything expressly wrong here, some commentaries I have read suggest that he is a ‘fatally weak father’ and ‘had David taken action he might have prevented both the murder and the later rebellion’. My point here is that David is still human after he gets forgiven, he isn’t perfect and still makes mistakes. Why then should I worry that I won’t be perfect after I have been forgiven? God’s forgiveness isn’t finite, it isn’t something He measures out based on your actions or personality. It’s just like maths... If you multiply anything by zero you get zero. It doesn’t matter the size of the original number you start with; it could be 989 x 0 or 1 x 0 both are 0 in the end. Because of God’s overwhelming, never-ending, no-catch forgiveness even the ‘biggest’ sin can be forgiven, cancelled out to 0. Whatever total I have accumulated, and whatever total I will accumulate, it can’t ever be too big to clear. In fact, as far as God is concerned it already has been cleared.  

In closing, I have been reflecting on Psalm 51:16-17. “You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.” God does not delight in any amount of me punishing myself for my sins. There is nothing I can do to make it right with him except offer him my heart. On my own, my heart and my spirit will become more and more broken, more and more crushed if I try and carry the weight and the cost of my sin on my own. But Jesus already lugged the weight of my sin with him on the cross. I don’t need to be worried that God is going to turn me away – He won’t despise my heart if I have the guts to fully give it back to Him. He didn’t turn David away, He didn’t turn the sinful woman away when she came to anoint Jesus (Luke 7:36-50), He didn’t turn Peter away after Peter’s denial (John 21:15-19). They all had to deal with there being a cost attached to their sin, but instead of paying for their sin twice by condemning themselves, they stepped into the fullness of God’s forgiveness.   

Through looking at David’s story, I have gained more understanding of what God is like as a forgiving Father. He is gentle and soft in the way He convicts David, sending Nathan to speak to him initially though a story, teaching David the theory before helping him to put it into practice. Despite living before the resurrection of Jesus, David caught the heart of God – a heart of grace and second chances. If we truly understood that we had full and complete forgiveness, I wonder what the impact would be in our lives. Would we identify ourselves by our sin? Would we seek perfection or the illusion of perfection in our lives? Would we fear God’s rejection when we do make mistakes? Or instead of giving in to the overwhelming shame of our sin, would we picture Jesus looking into our eyes saying, “Your sins are forgiven.”?  

If you made it the end – thank you! I would love to hear any feedback or questions you may have, so drop me an email at intern@overflowchurch.org.uk anytime. Have a lovely week!