In those days, the Lord sent Nathan to David.
Nathan went in before the king and said to him, “There were two men in a town, one rich and one poor. The rich man had many herds of sheep and oxen; the poor man only had a lamb that he had bought; he was raising her, and she grew up with him and her children, eating her bread, drinking from her glass, sleeping on her lap: she was like a daughter. He came a visit to the rich man’s house, and not wanting to lose a sheep or an ox, to invite his guest, he took the lamb of the poor man and invited his guest. »
David was furious with the man and said to Nathan: “As God lives, he who has done this is guilty of death. He did not want to respect the other’s; for he will pay four times the value of the lamb.”
Nathan said to David, “It is you! Well, the sword will never depart from your house; for having despised me, staying with the wife of Uriah the Hittite, and killing him with the Ammonite sword.
Thus says the Lord: “I will cause your misfortune to be born from your own house; I will snatch your wives from you and before your eyes I will give them to another, who will lie with them in the light of the sun that shines on us. You did it in secret I will do it before all Israel, in broad daylight.”
David answered Nathan: “I have sinned against the Lord!”
Nathan told him: “The Lord has already forgiven your sin, you will not die. But because you have despised the Lord with what you have done, the son born to you will die.”
Nathan went home. The Lord struck the child that Uriah’s wife had given to David, and he fell gravely ill. David prayed to God for the child, prolonged his fast and lay down on the ground at night. The elders of his house tried to get him up, but he refused and did not want to eat anything with them.
Have you ever thought about how these three words are different: Sin, forgiveness and consequences? Or better yet, how do you live each one?
The reality is that the three are like links in the same chain, they are intimately linked and are part of our daily lives. The current problem of the society in which we live and also within our churches, is in the misunderstanding or incomplete interpretation of this triad.
Let’s talk about what happens in many of the churches of our times:
As a consequence of the lack of discernment, biblical ignorance and a lack of true teachers for the people, many “faithful” lead a life immersed in the practice of certain sins, from which they do not seek to escape, they live lives that do not have the slightest intention of transformation; And what is the cause?
They have been sold a God who forgives any fault without repentance, the idea has been inserted into their minds that asking God for forgiveness exempts me from the consequences of my mistakes and worse still, what can I have God and his forgiveness as a kind of immediate mechanism for when I voluntarily set out to sin.
Many live with the philosophy: He who sins and prays ties!
It is necessary to understand that every sin has two types of consequences, one of a spiritual nature and the other of a natural nature.
The first implies the immediate rupture of our communion with God, that is, we move away from his presence, just as Adam hid from God when he knew that he was naked.
God’s forgiveness is immediate in resolving this question as long as the sinner truly repents of his wickedness, however we must know that what motivates that repentance is the value that this sinner gives to his relationship with God, that is, how much The more you love God, the less you will want to be away from Him and the more real, sincere and profound such an act of repentance will be.
But the rapid return to communion with God does not imply that in the realm of the natural there are no consequences and that these consequences are not intensely experienced. It is true that only when God decides it can He prevent us from living them, or make them perhaps in less proportion than what we legitimately deserved, but this is an unknown and unmeasurable terrain for our humanity.
The truth is that regardless of whether my communion with God is restored, I will live the natural, physical and emotional consequences of my sin.
God’s forgiveness and his immediacy in forgiving us cannot turn us into a kind of beings without conscience, that is, of those who ironically sin for sport simply because they hide behind the words: I know that God forgives me, so I don’t worry .
David’s case gives us total clarity about forgiveness, sin, and consequences. David deliberately committed several sins, committed adultery, and masterminded murder. God in his mercy sends the prophet Nathan to confront him and we can immediately notice that his first reaction is on the spiritual plane, David says: I have sinned against the LordNathan replies: God has already forgiven your sin, you will not die
In these last words we can understand two matters:
- God, who sees our hearts, sees David’s and knows the depth and seriousness of his repentance. Forgiveness is immediate, his reestablishment of communion is ipso facto.
- The mercy of God could have touched the natural sphere by avoiding physical death, since by law it corresponded to him. Also in these words we find a prophetic message, because only God’s forgiveness frees us from eternal death, of which we are creditors.
However, leaving aside the spiritual plane, in the natural David had consequences: The son, product of adultery would die. This consequence touched not only David, but Bathsheba as well. In the same way there would also be consequences in his environment and this to learn from God, that our sins not only affect us but also those around us. Many suffer collateral damage from our actions.
Sin creates disorder, breaks harmony, destabilizes and shakes the foundations of everything that is good to some extent.
We can then summarize that God’s forgiveness is primarily at the level of our communion with him and therefore if there is a true repentance, it will be immediate. Our fellowship will resume without delay.
It is possible that God in his mercy and according to our love for him, can exempt us from consequences in the natural plane, or make them lessen.
God’s forgiveness brings as the first act of kindness our freedom from the mortal destiny that would correspond to us.
True repentance only happens in a person who loves God and is aware that he has just failed him. A repentant, sad and desolate heart for having disobeyed God is a pleasant aroma to our heavenly father who only seeks to love us.
Every practice of sin reflects our relationship with God or exposes the wrong way in which we understand the concept of forgiveness, repentance and his love. God’s love is not a permissive love, it is not a tolerant love to the practice of sin.
My sin harms those around me and in this I do not fulfill the commandment to love my neighbor. Alcoholism, drugs, shameful sexual passions and all vices end up harming those who love us and those we love.
We will live the natural consequences of our sins even when our relationship with God is restored, he will make it easier for us to live them, but we will still spend time in the desert. It is important that we know that many of these consequences will produce in us characteristics necessary for a higher spiritual level, to love our Lord more and to hate sin even more.