That Which Cost Me Nothing

2 Samuel 24:21-25

It is so easy to slip from trusting the grace of God back into trusting your own works. If you do not feed on His goodness and His finished work, you will find that your natural instinct of law and works will begin to surface again. This is because our first father, Adam, ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and we have been trying to do the good and shun the evil every since.

David was a man that thought forward toward the New Covenant. His prayer following the sin with Bathsheba is a New Covenant prayer, “Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities…For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise” (Psalm 51:9, 17). Each one of these requests cannot be accomplished under the Old Covenant but only under the New. He was looking forward to the cross and a man named Jesus.

This is why David wrote in Psalm 32:1, 2, “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the LORD imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile”. Paul was so moved by this being a New Covenant passage that he quotes it in the middle of a sermon on justification by faith (Romans 4:5-8).

How could this man David, who obviously understands the righteousness that will come by faith in Jesus Christ, independent of works, ever return to a system of works for his redemption? When Chronicles retells the story of Israel, there is no mention of David’s sin with Bathsheba; the murder of Uriah; or the cover-up of these crimes. It should fall near the end of 1 Chronicles 20:1, but it is not there, as if it never happened. When we place faith in Christ’s finished work for our redemption, it is as if our sin never happened, and God does not record failures in heaven.

When that same book of Chronicles tells of David’s sin in numbering the people, it goes into even more vivid detail than the original telling of 2 Samuel because when David sinned that time he returned to the system of sacrifice with a little added twist. Aside from simply offering a sacrifice for his sin, he refuses any grace at all, as Araunah offers him his threshing floor for free. David refuses, saying that he will not offer “of that which cost me nothing” (2 Samuel 24:24). He wanted forgiveness which cost him nothing when he failed with Bathsheba, but not now? It is so easy to go back to our own performance for our righteousness and to feel like we must invest in it somehow.

Be careful of this in your own life. This will sneak up on you in various ways and will come out of nowhere. You can be trusting in God’s grace and mercy for all of your goodness and then you might slip and fall and before you realize it, you will be trying to “pay God back” with goodness and reading and praying and going to church. When this happens, the sense of guilt and condemnation will be thrust upon you, and sin is soon to follow all over again.

Calvary cost you nothing, so do not try to pay God back with good works. Let the Holy Spirit in you bring out good works through the finished work of the cross. Only the finished work works, so let it!

I See Nothing Wrong!

Numbers 23:18-21

Call me biased, but I see nothing wrong in my children. My son and my daughter make mistakes, no doubt, but I see nothing wrong with them, for they are mine and I love them unconditionally. There is no error that they could make, no wrong that they could perform, that would cause me to beat them, break their legs, rob their future, or destroy their dreams. I love them too much to cause them pain, for they are an extension of me. I may see problems in your kids, but not in mine!

God views every person on the face of the earth as a sheep. Many of the sheep have gone astray and are living on their own in the wilderness, and they need to come to the shepherd to find eternal life. The sheep that dwell with the Savior know His voice (John 10:27), and He refers to them as more than sheep. Those who are saved, He calls His friends (John 15:15).

When Balak, king of Moab, hired Balaam to curse the children of Israel as they passed through his land, Balaam jumped on the opportunity to make some easy money. After ascending a mountain to view an arm of Israel as it sat at camp in the valley, Balaam opened his mouth to curse God’s people, but a blessing came out instead (Numbers 23:11). When Balak moved him to another mountain in order to view Israel from a different vantage point, the result was much the same, with Balaam commenting, “I have received commandment to bless: and he hath blessed; and I cannot reverse it” (Numbers 23:20).

Though Balak had moved Balaam to a different mountain in order to see Israel in a different state (he would do it a third time as well in 23:27), each time God prompted a blessing instead of a curse. Remember, the people that Balaam wants to curse have done plenty to deserve it.

They murmured in the wilderness about having no water (Numbers 20) and then about having to eat manna (Numbers 21). They have been a complaining, miserable people since they left Egypt, yet look at how God views them in Numbers 23:21, “He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel: the LORD his God is with him, and the shout of a king is among them”. No matter how bad they had lived, God did not see the sin in His people, for He had provided a way of escape through the brazen serpent of Numbers 22.

There is the shout of a king among God’s people when they learn that their heavenly Father is not mad at them, and that He sees no iniquity in His people. It is not that we are living without sinning; it is that God views His Son’s sacrifice over our sins. WE are the ones that dwell on our wrong-doing, while God is dwelling on Jesus’ finished work at the cross.

Just as I know that my children are not perfect in their every action, our heavenly Father knows that we are not perfect either. He no more demands that we be mistake free than we would demand such impossibility from our own children. It is not that God is soft on sin and failure, but it is rather that God was hard on sin and failure in the body of His Son at the cross. God cannot be just if He is hard on Jesus for your sin and then hard on you as well. The price has been paid in the blood of Jesus, so when God sees us, he sees us as His own. Praise God that when the Father sees you, He sees the Son!

That Which Cost Me Nothing

2 Samuel 24:21-25

It is so easy to slip from trusting the grace of God back into trusting your own works. If you do not feed on His goodness and His finished work, you will find that your natural instinct of law and works will begin to surface again. This is because our first father, Adam, ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and we have been trying to do the good and shun the evil every since.

David was a man that thought forward toward the New Covenant. His prayer following the sin with Bathsheba is a New Covenant prayer, “Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities…For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise” (Psalm 51:9, 17). Each one of these requests cannot be accomplished under the Old Covenant but only under the New. He was looking forward to the cross and a man named Jesus.

This is why David wrote in Psalm 32:1, 2, “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the LORD imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile”. Paul was so moved by this being a New Covenant passage that he quotes it in the middle of a sermon on justification by faith (Romans 4:5-8).

How could this man David, who obviously understands the righteousness that will come by faith in Jesus Christ, independent of works, ever return to a system of works for his redemption? When Chronicles retells the story of Israel, there is no mention of David’s sin with Bathsheba; the murder of Uriah; or the cover-up of these crimes. It should fall near the end of 1 Chronicles 20:1, but it is not there, as if it never happened. When we place faith in Christ’s finished work for our redemption, it is as if our sin never happened, and God does not record failures in heaven.

When that same book of Chronicles tells of David’s sin in numbering the people, it goes into even more vivid detail than the original telling of 2 Samuel because when David sinned that time he returned to the system of sacrifice with a little added twist. Aside from simply offering a sacrifice for his sin, he refuses any grace at all, as Araunah offers him his threshing floor for free. David refuses, saying that he will not offer “of that which cost me nothing” (2 Samuel 24:24). He wanted forgiveness which cost him nothing when he failed with Bathsheba, but not now? It is so easy to go back to our own performance for our righteousness and to feel like we must invest in it somehow.

Be careful of this in your own life. This will sneak up on you in various ways and will come out of nowhere. You can be trusting in God’s grace and mercy for all of your goodness and then you might slip and fall and before you realize it, you will be trying to “pay God back” with goodness and reading and praying and going to church. When this happens, the sense of guilt and condemnation will be thrust upon you, and sin is soon to follow all over again.

Calvary cost you nothing, so do not try to pay God back with good works. Let the Holy Spirit in you bring out good works through the finished work of the cross. Only the finished work works, so let it!

I See Nothing Wrong!

Numbers 23:18-21

Call me biased, but I see nothing wrong in my children. My son and my daughter make mistakes, no doubt, but I see nothing wrong with them, for they are mine and I love them unconditionally. There is no error that they could make, no wrong that they could perform, that would cause me to beat them, break their legs, rob their future, or destroy their dreams. I love them too much to cause them pain, for they are an extension of me. I may see problems in your kids, but not in mine!

God views every person on the face of the earth as a sheep. Many of the sheep have gone astray and are living on their own in the wilderness, and they need to come to the shepherd to find eternal life. The sheep that dwell with the Savior know His voice (John 10:27), and He refers to them as more than sheep. Those who are saved, He calls His friends (John 15:15).

When Balak, king of Moab, hired Balaam to curse the children of Israel as they passed through his land, Balaam jumped on the opportunity to make some easy money. After ascending a mountain to view an arm of Israel as it sat at camp in the valley, Balaam opened his mouth to curse God’s people, but a blessing came out instead (Numbers 23:11). When Balak moved him to another mountain in order to view Israel from a different vantage point, the result was much the same, with Balaam commenting, “I have received commandment to bless: and he hath blessed; and I cannot reverse it” (Numbers 23:20).

Though Balak had moved Balaam to a different mountain in order to see Israel in a different state (he would do it a third time as well in 23:27), each time God prompted a blessing instead of a curse. Remember, the people that Balaam wants to curse have done plenty to deserve it.

They murmured in the wilderness about having no water (Numbers 20) and then about having to eat manna (Numbers 21). They have been a complaining, miserable people since they left Egypt, yet look at how God views them in Numbers 23:21, “He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel: the LORD his God is with him, and the shout of a king is among them”. No matter how bad they had lived, God did not see the sin in His people, for He had provided a way of escape through the brazen serpent of Numbers 22.

There is the shout of a king among God’s people when they learn that their heavenly Father is not mad at them, and that He sees no iniquity in His people. It is not that we are living without sinning; it is that God views His Son’s sacrifice over our sins. WE are the ones that dwell on our wrong-doing, while God is dwelling on Jesus’ finished work at the cross.

Just as I know that my children are not perfect in their every action, our heavenly Father knows that we are not perfect either. He no more demands that we be mistake free than we would demand such impossibility from our own children. It is not that God is soft on sin and failure, but it is rather that God was hard on sin and failure in the body of His Son at the cross. God cannot be just if He is hard on Jesus for your sin and then hard on you as well. The price has been paid in the blood of Jesus, so when God sees us, he sees us as His own. Praise God that when the Father sees you, He sees the Son!