When we confess our sins God is faithful. David should not have done what he did but he did. He could not change the past but God extends mercy and grace towards him again and he must therefore continue from this new point.

Bathsheba is his new wife. It must be extremely hard for her as she is now living with the murderer of her husband!  She had also lost a son. I feel for those people who choose to live with the knowledge of their husband’s or wife’s past sins, you have my full admiration. You extend grace, mercy and forgiveness as Christ would. I am sure the sin against you hurt so deeply yet you have chosen to forgive. The Lord keep you!

David did love Bathsheba, and she loved him. In God’s amazing grace Bathsheba conceived again and gave birth to a son (2 Samuel 12:24-25). They could bask in the knowledge that God loved him. David was sure that this son, that came out of a real mess at the beginning, was God’s chosen heir (1 Chronicles 28:6-7). David seemed to have a great relationship with his son Solomon which was a great relief to David as most of David’s sons thought badly of him. Solomon often used the term ‘David my father’ which was a term of deep affection (1 Kings 8:15, 17, 20,24, 25, 26). What is wonderful is we find David and Bathsheba together in David’s old age albeit in a little conflict (1 Kings 1:15-27).

It is that mystery of ‘all things working together for good’ but also the fact that we cannot exhaust God’s grace. God’s grace is outstanding and we have received it in abundance. Let’s just dwell on grace for a moment, although we are not going to be able to cover it all.

Grace has meaning only when we see ourselves as fallen, unworthy of salvation, and liable to eternal wrath. It is precisely because people today have lost sight of the depths of human depravity that they think so little of grace. What makes Paul’s statement  that we are saved “by grace” so significant is his earlier statement  that we were “dead” in trespasses and sins, “gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature,” “following its desires and thoughts,” and we were by nature the children of divine wrath (Ephesians 2).

Grace does not contemplate sinners merely as undeserving, but as ill-deserving. So often we are inclined to think of ourselves prior to our salvation as in some sense “neutral” in the sight of God.  We are sometimes willing to admit that we have done nothing to deserve His favour. Our works, regardless of their character, are unacceptable in His glorious presence. But this is entirely insufficient as a background to the understanding of grace. It is not simply that we do not deserve grace it is that we do in fact deserve hell!

Fallen and unredeemed humanity is not to be perceived as merely helpless, but as openly and vehemently hostile toward God. It is one thing to be without a God-approved righteousness. It is altogether another thing to be wholly unrighteous and thus the object of divine wrath. It is then, against the background of having been at one time the enemies of God, that divine grace is to be portrayed (Romans 5:10)

Grace is not ever to be thought of, in any sense, as dependent upon the merit or demerit of us. This may be expressed in two ways. In the first place, grace ceases to be grace if God is compelled to give it because of our merit.

In second place, grace ceases to be grace if God is compelled to withdraw it when we mess up. Indeed, grace is seen to be infinitely glorious only when it operates, as Packer says, “in defiance of” human demerit. Therefore, grace is not treating a person less than, as, or greater than he or she deserves, it is treating us solely according to the goodness, kindness and sovereign purpose of God.

I think I will stop here, every time I write something I think of something else that’s stunning about grace.

So, grace cannot incur a debt, which is to say, that it is unrepayable (not sure if that’s a word). Since grace is a gift, no work that is performed, no offering made, no service given with a view to repaying God for His favour works. The biblical response to grace is that it is received by faith and by faith we receive yet more, and more.

Oh blow it just one more thing!

Grace is free! Just think of it – free grace! But, of course, if grace were not free it would not be grace. True indeed, but what a glorious and magnificent repetition it is: “justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus” says Paul in Romans 3.

Just keep repeating it and telling yourself over and over again until it makes a difference.

Let Kate Simmonds lead us in our worship of our God of grace.

“Oh the mercy, oh the mercy of our God, of our God” (repeat and probably repeat for the rest of our lives!)

[Song: Grace is not earned by Kate Simmonds, Copyright © 2010 Phat Music / Administered by Song Solutions CopyCare
14 Horsted Square, Uckfield, East Sussex, TN22 1QG England info@songsolutions.org]