2 Samuel 12:1-14 - "Guilty But Forgiven"

2 Samuel 12:1-14

"And the Lord sent Nathan unto David. And he came unto him, and said unto him, There were two men in one city; the one rich, and the other poor. The rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds: But the poor man had nothing, save one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and nourished up: and it grew up together with him, and with his children; it did eat of his own meat, and drank of his own cup, and lay in his bosom, and was unto him as a daughter. And there came a traveller unto the rich man, and he spared to take of his own flock and of his own herd, to dress for the wayfaring man that was come unto him; but took the poor man's lamb, and dressed it for the man that was come to him. And David's anger was greatly kindled against the man; and he said to Nathan, As the Lord liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall surely die: And he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity. And Nathan said to David, Thou art the man. Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I anointed thee king over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul; And I gave thee thy master's house, and thy master's wives into thy bosom, and gave thee the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that had been too little, I would moreover have given unto thee such and such things. 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. Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house; because thou hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife. Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house, and I will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give them unto thy neighbour, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun. For thou didst it secretly: but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun. 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. Howbeit, because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also that is born unto thee shall surely die."

“And the LORD sent Nathan unto David” (v.1). Here is the gracious way of our God with guilty sinners—guilty but forgiven. He does not leave His child to himself. Though David may have thought the matter was covered, the LORD would not leave David alone. In the LORD’s Own time, by His Own Word, He sent His prophet with a message that would open the sore, let the poison run out, and bring David to cry, “I have sinned against the LORD” (v.13).

Nathan came with a parable—“there were two men in one city; the one rich, and the other poor” (v.1). The poor man’s lamb, nourished, fed, “lay in his bosom, and was unto him as a daughter” (v.3). The rich man, sparing his own flock, “took the poor man’s lamb” (v.4). And as David heard, “David's anger was greatly kindled” (v.5). He judged the man in the story worthy of death. And then came those words that ring even through today: “Thou art the man” (v.7).

This is how the Spirit works—He makes us see the sinfulness of our sin. Many shrug their shoulders and say, “I’m not guilty.” They imagine themselves faithful, upright, free from adultery, free from murder. But just that attitude shows blindness. For our LORD said, “Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart” (Matthew 5:28). And again—anger itself is murder: “Whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment” (Matthew 5:22). The law entered “that the offence might abound” (Romans 5:20). It is the Spirit Who shines that Light upon the heart until all our excuses die, and like Paul, we say, “I died” (Romans 7:9).

David covered up his sin, and some time went by. Yet the LORD had determined the time of his repentance. As with Saul on the road to Damascus —“It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks” (Acts 9:5), and as with the rich young ruler whose sorrow revealed the Arrow’s wound, so here. God always directs His Word to His children. Those who are without may do as they please and never feel it. Beat a dead horse all you want; he doesn’t feel it, he’s dead. But those whom the LORD loves, “he chasteneth” (Hebrews 12:6). He will not let them go.

When Nathan said, “Thou art the man” (v.7), he did not send David away to think about it. The Spirit was already at work. The Word came not to crush but to heal. For true prayer is not a formula—“Repeat this prayer after me”—but the Spirit-given cry from the heart. And the heart speaks: “I have sinned against the LORD” (v.13). Then the Gospel immediately follows: “The LORD also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die” (v.13).

How? Only One Way. Not by “the blood of bulls and goats” (Hebrews 10:4). Not by David’s tears. Sin was put away in one place, in one time, in One Sacrifice—Christ. The Lamb slain from (since) the foundation of the world, Whose death was the only reason David did not die under the law. God could be just and yet pass over David’s transgression because Christ would bear it. When God sent Nathan, He was not coming to get David to make something right. The LORD opens the wound, but only to apply “the balm,” showing not only the guilt but the Substitute Who bore it.

This is the comfort of elect, guilty sinners of God's choosing. The LORD brings His Word home—He opens the wound and applies the balm. He shows us not only the guilt, but the Substitute Who bore it. He reminds us again and again who we are, that we may see again and again how great Christ is!

Thus, we read David’s own testimony, born out of this very scene: “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered” (Psalm 32:1). Guilty? Yes. But forgiven—because Christ has put away sin for His people once for all. How was David's sin forgiven? In the non-imputation of that sin to him. Here, the word "forgiven" means "to be lifted off" of the guilty party so that God would not charge him with it. In God's forbearance, David's sin was covered (atoned) by the animal sacrifices, but still not put away. Not charged to David, but lifted off of him and covered in God's forbearance until the LORD Jesus Christ should come in a Body and put the sin away by His death. "Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity..." (Psalm 32:2).

Yet, David's sin was not merely swept aside, but the charge for it and all of his sin was not imputed to him, because God had purposed to impute it to His Son when He came to take the charge of the sin of all of the elect of all time, and put it away once for all at the cross. Paul declared in Romans 3:25-26, "Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation, through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus."

God was merciful in His forbearance to David and all of the elect in the Old Testament, until Christ came and put all of their sin away, and all of the elect since the cross, in the One Sacrificial death of the LORD Jesus on the cross. ^"And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance," (Hebrews 9:15).

God no longer needs to be forbearing with the sins of any of His elect (whose sin was put away at the cross by the death of Christ), guilty though they are, just as any whom He condemns (outside of Christ) because of their sin. There is now NO condemnation for any of the elect of God (Romans 8:1), not because they are better than others or would not be chargeable, but rather because Christ has paid their sin debt, and therefore they stand justified before God because of Christ's shed blood unto death! O What Mercy! O What Grace! Christ has died and the Father is satisfied! (Psalm 85:10).