"Nathan then said to David, 'You are the man!' Then David said to Nathan, 'I have sinned against the Lord.'" - 2 Samuel 12:7a & 13a
The other side of that double-sided coin from two days ago is…repentance, confession, admittance, or whatever other synonym you would like to use to describe what David does here.
What else can I say? "Man! I don't like the sound of that; it means telling everyone else that I messed up. I don't mess up. I've got my stuff together. It's you that needs to see things from my perspective. I'm justified in the way I acted and in what I said because you, you (fill in the blank)!!" "You" - yelled at me first – stole something from me – tricked me – didn't do what I asked you to do, exactly how I asked you to do it – didn't give me what I deserved – gave me something I didn't deserve. "You" – accused me!
But as faithful followers of Christ, as members of the body devoted to proclaiming the Gospel, as disciples of Christ who are charged with discipling, as people who know who we really are (sinner and saint), this cannot be our response. Our response, instead, should look and sound like David's – "Man! You're right. I have been making some wrong choices, and my choices have been affecting everyone I come in contact with, and it's affecting me." I might even throw in there a little – "Could you help me with that? Would you pray with me right now?"
Pride, arrogance, malice, justification of our own poor behavior are not the way of the Gospel. We communicate the exact opposite of the Gospel when we respond that way. Remember, David, The King of Israel, could have had Nathan (justifiably) murdered within a millisecond, but look how he responds instead – confession – and instead of death Nathan receives – life. And all of the sudden this guilty man is "returning the favor" by communicating the Gospel back to his accuser. Wow. When we behave with this sort of humbleness and humility, oh, the things that can happen; I would much rather live this life than the one that breeds death.
So, this two-sided coin is all about accountability. How we hold others accountable and how we are held accountable. Remembering that God – the one who ultimately holds us accountable, to whom we ultimately confess, and from whom we ultimately receive forgiveness and salvation – is at the center of these encounters. Pray for the Holy Spirit's presence. Act as Christ. And use these encounters to communicate the Gospel.
Praise God!
Pastor Chris
"The gospel is the story of Jesus [what God's only Son has done for us that we can't do for ourselves], spoken as a promise." - Robert Jenson
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