6 For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Romans 8:6 (NKJV)
King David was not a perfect man, not by a long shot. He did many things that went against the law of God, yet God considered him a man after His own heart. God established the throne of David forever, yet banished the throne of his predecessor, King Saul.
Why would that be? Because David truly sought God’s forgiveness in his heart, in faith. Saul did not.
We have all sinned in our flesh. The question is, do we listen to our conscience and do something about it?
David always turned to the Lord and repented after committing sins against Him. It was a priority for him to seek to please the Lord, even though there were many times when he failed to do so. When this happened, he would listen to his conscience, turn back to God to seek forgiveness, and make amends the best he could to atone to others for his wrongdoing. He had the Spirit of God working in his imperfect life, shaping him and guiding him to become the person and king that God wanted him to be.
The same principle of being continually shaped and purified by the Spirit of God and filled with His eternal life still applies to us today.
10 And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. Romans 8:10-11 (NKJV)
Christ would not come to earth until a thousand years after David, but the benefits of forgiveness and the life that Christ’s sacrifice brings us were provided through David’s holy tabernacle sacrifices. These were done in a manner prescribed by God to satisfy heavenly requirements until Christ Himself came to fulfill them.
Forgiveness does not come without expense. The forgiveness of sin only comes through the shedding of blood, as the wages of sin is death. It is only through the loving sacrifice of Jesus Christ that we can experience God’s true healing, restoration, and wholeness forever.
As the prophet Isaiah foretold about Jesus, the Messiah, many centuries before He came:
5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. Isaiah 53:5-6 (NKJV)
We come to the cross to experience complete forgiveness for all of our sins and shortcomings. In this way we can be truly freed from our sins to live eternally with the Lord. Despite his many shortcomings, David’s faith and attachment to God allowed him to press into the fullness of God’s forgiveness and to be regarded as faultless in God’s eyes.
When our conscience calls us to respond to our own bad thoughts, words, or actions which we know are contrary to God’s law, we have two options: 1) we can respond by turning back to God, seeking His forgiveness, turning away from our sin, and making amends to those we have hurt, if possible, or 2) we can ignore our conscience and just keep going along the same harmful ways.
We all sin and find ourselves at this crossroads, but the likely result of habitually choosing the second path is a life that will continually slide down a slippery slope of poor choices. Our conscience can eventually become seared, making it easier and easier to find ourselves on a downward spiral along a path of ever-more damage and destruction, or even death.
So given the choice, we are wise to choose the path of forgiveness and life today. David did. And he prevailed to be given an eternal throne by the Lord, the One who forgives, and deeply loves, each one of us.
Reflection
Is there something in our conscience that we have been ignoring and need to take before God?
Father God, hear us as we come to You with all of our sins, imperfections, and shortcomings. Help us to listen to our conscience today and to fully return to You, walking along Your path of light and life. May we be touched by Your Spirit to experience the true freedom, healing, and forgiveness provided through the sacrificial death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We ask this in Jesus name, Amen
Daily Meditations from the Genealogy of Jesus 