ROMANS 4:6-8 DAVID'S DESCRIPTION A man who experienced God's grace in dealings with him gave testimony as to the great blessing of being justified apart from works. His history has great "highs" of victory when God used him and empowered him by the Holy Spirit to bring blessing to the nation of Israel. The works he accomplished were many and mighty. There were also great "lows" of the deepest and darkest kind that had to be faced. Did the good works of David outweigh the sins of adultery, hypocrisy, deceit and murder? David knew he was hopelessly lost apart from God's willingness to "justify him freely by God's grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus."
He knew the joy of forgiveness. We can too when we no longer deny our guilt and are willing to admit our sin. This happens when one repents to God, admits that guilt to God and accepts the fact that "Christ was manifested to put away our sin by the sacrifice of Himself." This is a fact that becomes real to us when we trust that God does what He says when He justifies the ungodly.
When iniquities are forgiven, this is more than just setting the guilty one free. The One who forgives reaches out the arms of acceptance and welcomes the sinner home, and places that one as a child in the family - in this case the family of God. Oh, the blessedness of forgiveness and the blessedness of one who has been forgiven.
To covering of his sins by the sacrifice of animals removed from sight the sins that David was so conscious of. They were out of God's sight in mercy until Christ came and put them away forever. He knew the blessing, the cause for great relief, that was his because of the blood of the atoning sacrifice. How much more do we have because the Lamb of God has come and borne away the sin of the world. Our sins have been taken away by the blood of His cross. So we can rejoice at the blessedness of sin having been taken away once for all, removed as far as the east is from the west. They are covered by seven miles of deep water in "the depths of the sea" and are "remembered no more forever."
More than being forgiven, and more than having our sins put away, is the great blessing that God will not bring up our sins again. Other believers besides me have sinned deeply, have been forgiven, have had their sins put away and their sins have not been accounted against them. This does not mean there are no consequences for sins committed by believers, but they are not counted against his standing in Christ. He has been counted justified in Christ.
People in the world often point to David's sin in taking Bathsheba, and charged God with being unfair and inconsistent. The people of the world do not like grace. They don't find a lot of difficulty in David taking another man's wife because many in the world do this. But because a believer does that and God does not reckon that sin as damning him, and for God to freely forgive a person like David, makes them angry against a God of grace. The self-righteous, sin-practicing, blind, unrepentant world does not like this at all. They judge their neighbors and reject grace because it shows up the deep-seated evil of their own hearts. They think God should judge a person by their works only. For David to be a man after God's own heart, defies the law-keeper’s opinions. Whenever a forgiven, accepted-in-Christ, God-justified person lives in the world, he or she can expect a certain resentment and even opposition to that person being reckoned righteous by God's grace alone.
There are righteous claims against us that we cannot avoid. The consequences of sin are such that a full price must be paid. Blessings have come to us because the Righteous God has laid - On Christ the iniquity of us all.
Now God can look upon us and accept us with divine favor. He is not demanding our best works or our untiring labor. Our blessedness does not come from our most earnest endeavor - But from Him who died on the tree.
Our iniquities were many but we now have been forgiven. Not by some whim of man's ideas but by the God of heaven, On the basis of Christ's death for us is this matchless grace given - And we are justified freely by His grace.
Sins were covered in the past by the blood of the atonement. A temporary "passing over" was done by God's divine agreement. Now by God's grace and Christ's death, there is a new covenant - That has taken all our sins away.
We are blessed indeed because the Righteous God has seen, The Savior standing in the place where the condemned sinner has been. Now in Christ Jesus the sinner is accepted and he's reckoned clean - Cleansed wholly by the blood of the Lamb.
God will not impute nor reckon to us again our sin. He reckons us dead in Christ, and now we're alive in Him. And because we are in Christ, He will not reckon them - Against us because their price has been paid.
"What blessedness I am experiencing this morning, Oh Gracious Father, because of these wonderful words from the Old Testament that are repeated in the New. My sins are not reckoned against me because of Thy great grace and the sacrifice of Christ for me on the cross. How I praise Thee and thank Thee for this marvel of eternal acceptance and freedom in Christ. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen."