Romans 10:3, “For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God”
In the case of David in 2Samuel 24, David sinned by numbering people, he goes before God and asks for forgiveness. I would imagine God easily forgiving him, but not quite yet. I’m in no way saying God wasn’t going to forgive him, I’m saying that God had to first show him THE SERIOUSNESS OF HIS SIN AND THE COST TO MAKE THINGS RIGHT.
A boy saw a vase that was priceless at his house. He did not know it’s true value and did not know why his father had placed in the safe. One day as the boy was running around the supermarket to his surprise he saw a vase that looked exactly like the one his father had preserved. Looking at the price tag, it only appeared to be $5. The boy could not believe why his father could value a vase that only cost $5. So the boy went back home and for some unknown reason played around with the vase, dropped it and shattered it into a thousand pieces. He wasn’t concerned because he remembered he had $5 and could just run to the store and buy the one he saw to replace what he broke. That’s what he did and put it back. When his father came home, the boy told his father he broke the vase and that he shouldn’t worry about it because he replaced it. Suddenly the boy looked at the face of his father turn pale why? that vase was not a cheap vase, it was antic worth $25,000 and not $5 as the boy thought. The horror filled the boy’s heart, what he broke and thought he could easily replace was more than what he anticipated. Suddenly fear gripped the boy’s heart, he now understood the true value of that vase, tears filled his eyes and began to say, “I am sorry, I am sorry”. The father seeing how truly sorry his son was said, “Son I see how truly sorry you are because of what you have done, but there is no way you will be able to replace that vase, but because I love you, I will replace it myself”. The boy could not believe what he heard especially his father forgiving him for his disobedience and replacing what he had broken. Joy filled his heart and his desire from now on was to do that which was right and pleasing to his father. Had the father just forgiven him without showing him the value of the vase and the cost of replacing it, he would have robbed the son the means of contrition, a place of sorrowful heart leading to repentance. Now I understand that if I bring someone to Christ without showing them the value of God’s law and the seriousness of breaking them, they will not have contrition and a sorrowful heart the very means that lead them to repentance. All they will think is that their cheap self-righteousness will save them on the Day of Judgment and therefore they will not submit to righteousness which is of God.
Let’s see how this applied to David’s case. 2Samuel 24:10, “…so David said to the Lord, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done; but now, I pray, O Lord, take a way the iniquity of Your servant for I have done very foolishly”. This to me is a very sincere prayer. Sinners make the same prayers if not once, always. Good confession but their confession is not good enough and I will explain why shortly. In the morning, God sends a prophet to bring to David a message to pick out one of the three punishments he had lined for him. The first two punishments involved men and the last which is “three days of plague in his land” involves God directly. He chooses to go for the last one because he would rather fall in the hands of God than men’s. Why plague? if you remember God sending the 10 plagues to the land of Egypt, they are like the 10 commandments that plague us. It’s like the prophet brought one of the commandments to plague David. Sinners have to be plagued by the Ten Commandments, shutting their mouth of justification hence repenting. Without repentance, there can be no salvation.A quote Charles Finney, “This gospel plan seems to sinners deep and dark as midnight, till the Holy Ghost reveals to him his self-righteousness, cleaves down that self-righteous spirit, knocks out his props, and HE FALLS DOWN AND DIES!.. THEN THE CROSS REVEALS LIFE, AND HE REJOICES WITH EXCEEDING JOY IN A SALVATION WROUGHT OF GOD THROUGH REDEEMING BLOOD”, to continue, blessings Ev
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- Submitting To God’s Righteousness, Part 1of10, Evans Olang (magnifyhisword.wordpress.com)
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