Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more. Romans 5:20

We often hear grace defined as “God’s granting us what we do not deserve.” God’s grace is evidenced in His forgiveness of sin, His provision of many things we need, and just want. Grace is also seen in the relationships we have on earth. It is a gracious thing when God offers us people who will bear our burdens and share our joys.

Our God, the One True God, is a God of grace. 

2 Samuel 12:1 starts the account of Nathan’s confrontation with David over his sin with Bathsheba and his killing her husband, Uriah, like this:  “And the LORD sent Nathan to David.” Nathan then confronted David very tactfully (after all, he was the King) but deliberately about his sin by using a story. David convicted himself by seeing the sin of the man in Nathan’s tale.

What we cannot miss about God’s grace is that He is the One who sent Nathan to David. God cared so much about His relationship with David that He could not allow David to ignore his own sin. He was restoring their relationship.

Isaiah 59:2 warns us that our sin will separate us from God, “but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.” David, though he saw the sin once Nathan pointed them out, had not acknowledged or repented of those sins. He was acting like nothing was wrong when there was a lot wrong between himself and God.

Are we doing the same thing?

David repents. 2 Samuel 12:13, David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.” David makes no excuses and doesn’t try to blame anyone else. “I” have sinned against the Lord! And Nathan said to David, “The LORD also has put away your sin; you shall not die.”

Will we repent?

The Lord tells David that there will be consequences. His life has been spared but the “sword will not depart from his house.” His family will suffer because of his sin.

Even with such consequences David has been extended great grace by God. His baby by Bathsheba, the one conceived in sin, dies as an infant as part of this judgment, but God gives them another son, Solomon. Nathan calls this baby Jedidiah, “beloved of the Lord”.

The conviction of sin is a blessing. When we respond in repentance God adds grace to grace, blessing us.

We can read this account of David’s sins against Bathsheba and Uriah and think we are pretty safe. Most of us have not committed adultery or murder. We have not sinned against God – like that! The Bible is clear that none of us is free from sin. In fact the Bible talks about pride and gossip as seriously as it does about murder. Which one of us is not guilty of pride or gossip? The fact is that there is no lack of sin among God’s people.

Praise the Lord there is no lack of His grace either! Even when God disciplines us and sends consequences for sin there is a gracious purpose, drawing us back to Him, in those consequences. His grace when we repent is truly, as the hymn says, “grace greater than all our sin.”