Day 95 - 2 Samuel 20-22

ONE-YEAR JOURNEY OF THE BIBLE
Day 95- 2 Samuel 20-22 (Would You Like to Be Blameless?)
(To View Past Posts Click: http://tonyvicreyes1-yearbible.blogspot.com/)

"The LORD rewarded me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands He has recompensed me.  For I have kept the ways of the LORD, and have not wickedly departed from my God.  For all His judgments were before me; and as for His statutes, I did not depart from them.  I was also blameless before Him, and I kept myself from my iniquity.  Therefore the LORD has recompensed me according to my righteousness, according to my cleanness in His eyes."  (2 Samuel 22:21-25)

How can David declare in our text above that he was righteous and that his hands were clean and that he had obeyed God and have not wickedly departed from Him?  How dare him say that he was blameless and free from iniquity? Didn't this same David commit the horrible sins of adultery and murder?  How then can he regard himself as righteous and blameless before God?

The answer to these questions can only be had by those who have experienced the saving grace of God and who understand the nature of salvation by grace through in Christ.  David understood, with regards to the repentant sinner's guilt and sin, Scriptures teach, "As far as the east is from the west so far has He removed our transgressions from us."  (Psalm 102:12)

The central teaching of the Bible is that man is a sinner and as such must pay the penalty for sin which is death, both physical and spiritual.  But "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."  (John 3:16)  Therefore, the sinner who repents and believes in his heart that Jesus Christ is Savior is saved from eternal punishment and receives eternal life.

The Bible teaches that salvation is completely the work of God apart from any contribution from the sinner: "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast."  (Ephesians 2:8-9)  

Grace means unmerited favor.  What the sinner deserves is eternal death but instead, by the grace of God, he receives eternal life.  Salvation is through faith. Faith is being sure of that which we do not see, says the author of the book of Hebrews.  The sinner is saved by trusting in Jesus Christ, whom he does not see, to save Him from the punishment of sin as a result of bearing the world's sin on the cross, and to bring him to heaven, which again is unseen and in the future.

In order to understand how David could declare himself righteous and blameless, we need to understand one more characteristic of salvation which is called sanctification.  Sanctification simply means that the sinner saved by grace through faith in Christ has been made righteous by God before Him.  God made this possible by removing the sin of the repentant person and transferring it on His Son as He hung on the cross, thus judging sin's death penalty upon the innocent Lamb of God. 

Removing the sin from a person alone will not make him righteous; God needed to then impute or credit the righteousness of His Son upon the sinner thus making him righteous before Him.  David fully understood this mystery of sanctification when he wrote, "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow."  (Psalm 51:7)  No wonder David was able to make the confident declarations in our text above regarding his righteousness before God.

Would you like to be made righteous before God and have your sins removed as far as the east is from the west?  Then humble yourself before God and repent of your sins and through faith believe that Jesus died for your sins and wants to forgive you and give you His own righteousness to wear forever.