David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die.” 2 Samuel 12:13
It is striking that when Saul broke the law of God, it was all over for him: “The Lord has rejected you,” Samuel said. Saul never repented, and he was never restored. But when David sinned, God went after him. God disciplined him and restored him.
Why did God do that for David? Because God had made a covenant promise with David: “I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men… but my steadfast love will not depart from him” (7:14-15).
The reason God went after David and restored him is that God was bound to him in a covenant promise. God never lets his own children go, and if you are in Jesus Christ, you are included in that covenant promise as well.
David’s sin deserved death. He had taken a life, and according to God’s law that deserved death. So where did God put David’s sin? He put it on Jesus: “The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isa. 53:6).
Jesus sealed God’s covenant promise. He bore our sins in his body on the tree. And the future for all who look to him is not retribution or renunciation, but restoration.
Give thanks that in Jesus Christ you are a child of God, and that he has put away your sin on the cross.
