How God Forgives Sin – by Des Ford
May 15, 2015 3226
You remember the story of Absalom, that beautiful boy, who rebels against his father? David is slow to take action; he loves the boy. He does not want to lose Absalom. So he is too easy going on Absalom and lets him get away with evil. Does that change Absalom?
No, it hardens him.
Soon there is a great conflict, 10,000 people die and we see Absalom strung up on a tree, feet dangling in the air. What slew Absalom? What slew the 10,000 people who died? I ‘l l tell you – mercy, unwise mercy, foolish mercy. When David tried to exercise compassion without safeguarding righteousness, he killed thousands in his kingdom and his own son.
God is too good a father to pamper us. True love does not indulge the whims and the peccadillos and the follies of the children that are loved. True love is more anxious about everlasting happiness than temporary pleasures.
When David did not preserve the right, and when he used mercy in an unjust way, he brought havoc and destruction.
Now come to the son of David and here’s a woman taken in adultery and they say, “You, who claim to be the friend of publicans and sinners, you who claim to uphold the law, get around this one, if you can! Rescue this woman and save the law, if you can! The Son of David says, “Let’s uphold the law then; the law says that the first witnesses must be those without rebuke, without blemishes, so let he that is without sin among you cast the first stone.”
Christ upholds the law! He saves the law-breaker because he is going to take her place. He is going to pay the penalty for her sin. He will endure what she should endure.
See the difference compared with David?
God is in the business of saving sinners lawfully. God is in the business of forgiving our law-breaking in a legal way.
Legal does not mean legalistic. Your marriage is legal; I hope it is not legalistic.
– Des Ford. Rom 8:27–32. From “What Do We Mean By The Atonement?”
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