Sin leaks

 This week's verses are 1 Samuel 12:13-19:

Then David exclaimed to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord!” Nathan replied to David, “Yes, and the Lord has forgiven your sin. You are not going to die. Nonetheless, because you have treated the Lord with such contempt in this matter, the son who has been born to you will certainly die.”

Then Nathan went to his home. The Lord struck the child that Uriah’s wife had borne to David, and the child became very ill. Then David prayed to God for the child and fasted. He would even go and spend the night lying on the ground. The elders of his house stood over him and tried to lift him from the ground, but he was unwilling, and refused to eat food with them.

On the seventh day the child died. But the servants of David were afraid to inform him that the child had died, for they said, “While the child was still alive he would not listen to us when we spoke to him. How can we tell him that the child is dead? He will do himself harm!”

When David saw that his servants were whispering to one another, he realized that the child was dead. So David asked his servants, “Is the child dead?” They replied, “Yes, he’s dead.”  

 These verses take place after Nathan has just spoken God's curse over David. Nathan tells him that his family will turn on itself and his sons will humiliate him in front of all of Israel because of his sins of adultery and murder. It was a lenient punishment for David when the penalty for either of those sins was death.

David realizes that his sin has offended more than just the man he killed. God himself is angry with him! And at the same time, God has been incredibly merciful with him in allowing him to live. But the poor child of that adulterous liaison will die. 

We have kind of a sanitized view of sin thanks to our understanding of grace. If modern Christians were to have written the old testament, instead of God saying "your sons will kill each other and rape the women in your family, and that cute little baby over there will die" he would be like "aw bro it's all good. Jesus loves you. Hugs!"

David is saved from certain death, but it doesn't mean his sin has no consequence. And the consequences it has are not limited to him. His legacy is forever tainted by his series of bad decisions, but innocent people are also affected, even to the point of death and extreme trauma with lifelong consequences. In sinning, he has released something wicked into the world. Those closest to him are defiled.

This should change how we think about sin. Sin gets on people. It hurts those we love, even if they have absolutely nothing to do with it. It corrupts the world around us. Even those beloved by God are affected. We can't just look at it as if it's a private affair between us and our sin.

What we might write off as rugged individualism does not have individual consequences. We live entangled with others, and when there is a toxic spill of sin, they sometimes get poisoned by it too. If we care about others, we need to see our decisions as having deeper consequences than their effect on us alone. The world chips and cracks as we treat God with contempt and choose our own way.

But this doesn't lessen the wonder of God's grace. David deserved a miserable death, twice over, for what he did, but God forgave it all. God honored his covenant with him. God kept him as king, even. And he was not executed and sent to suffer for eternity.  David got a fantastic deal for being such a wicked man.

As Christians, we are in the same position as David. We sin, and we are forgiven in eternity, but it doesn't mean our sin has zero impact on the world around us. The reason we are not torn apart by it is because of his grace, not because it is of no importance. As David's family found out, sin was of critical importance.

We should take our behavior seriously. We don't smoke cigarettes with young children or drive drunk, because the human consequences are still there even if the lawyer can get us out of the charges. We should obey God's instructions for us out of love for him and love for humanity, not just because there are penalties for infractions.

When we sin, we have sinned against God. It's beyond wonderful that he forgives us, but that doesn't make sin harmless. Our sin can still pollute the world and hurt those we love. Thank God he forgives us and gives us a chance to try again.