I have been working on a couple other projects that are rather intense and not finished. This is an article I wrote years ago and updated a couple times. The most recent update was this month. It is a subject that is good to repeat because we are so needy of God's forgiveness and also so tempted to doubt that He has given it.
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1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Psalm 51:7 ...wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Isaiah 1:18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
Simple Confession and Godlike Forgiveness
In 2 Samuel chapter 11 we read the ugly story of David's sin. The sweet psalmist, prophet, and king who was called a man after God's own heart by the Lord Himself (1 Sam. 13:14) proved what Jeremiah, the wise prophet, later declared. The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? Jeremiah 17:9 Not only did David descend to the folly of adultery, but he followed it up with murder.
God sent Nathan, the faithful prophet who loved David, to tell the king to his face that he was wicked. The parable was given. The king condemned himself in judging the selfish rich man worthy of death. Nathan spoke the judgment of the Lord clearly, Thou art the man...Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the LORD, to do evil in his sight? thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon. 2 Samuel 12:7 and 9. He then continues to describe the consequences that this sin will bring upon David and his family.
What follows would hardly qualify as a great revival among most professing Bible believers and Baptists. The Bible does not tell us that David went up to the altar to weep and pray. He did not even fall on his face before God and Nathan and beg for mercy. Instead we are told in 2 Samuel 12:13, And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the LORD. And Nathan said unto David, The LORD also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die.
The simplicity of it is almost shocking to minds that have been nurtured in the idea that only with great wrestlings, tears, and lamentations can we gain forgiveness from God. Yet, there it stands. Direct, plain, and with no frills. David said "I have sinned against the LORD," and immediately God not only put away his sin, but delivered him and Bathsheba both from the death penalty (see Lev. 20:10). Dear friends in Jesus, if we can grasp this thought what liberty in Christ we might enjoy!
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