God's Forgiveness and God's Justice

PSALM 32:1-8 (ESV):

1 Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.

2 Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.

3 For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.

4 For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. Selah

5 I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to

the Lord,” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah

6 Therefore let everyone who is godly offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found; surely in the

rush of great waters, they shall not reach him.

7 You are a hiding place for me; you preserve me from trouble; you surround me with shouts of deliverance. Selah

8 I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you.

One of our highest privileges as believers of Jesus Christ is to be able to relate and rely on the great

creator of the universe who revealed Himself in the Bible. He is the same God as Jacob, Moses, David, and

Mary. But the question for all of us is:

How do we know if we are relating to the real God?

In Pastor Tim Keller’s devotional book on Proverbs, he answered this same question by saying:

“There is no real knowing of God unless we know Him through His Word. Otherwise, we are creating a

God out of our imagination.”

I totally agree! I believe that although God is beyond the understanding of our finite minds, He has

made an effort to reveal Himself to us through the Bible. So, whenever we are reading the Bible for our daily devotions or doing Bible studies, we should be able to determine what truth about God we are learning

from it.

For the past three Sundays, we have been studying together the significance of a well-balanced understanding of God’s character. We have already covered three seemingly contradicting doctrines:

1. God’s love and God’s hate

2. God’s sovereignty and man’s freedom

3. God’s transcendence and God’s immanence

This morning, the doctrines we need to balance carefully are God’s forgiveness and God’s justice.

And if there’s a passage that can help us examine these truths, it would be Psalm 32. This chapter is one of

the Psalms written by King David after he committed his shameful sins of adultery with Bathsheba and the

murder of her husband Uriah. At first, David tried his best to hide his sins, but God confronted him by sending the Prophet Nathan to him. If you read the account in 2 Samuel 12, Nathan started with a parable about

two men, one rich and the other a poor man, who lived in one city. The rich man had many flocks and

herds. While the poor man had nothing but one lamb that was so precious to him. To make the long story

short, one day, the rich man had a guest and decided to honor him with a meal. However, instead of taking

one of his own lambs, he took the poor man’s only lamb to prepare a good meal for his guest. After hearing

this story, David became so angry and said these words to Nathan, “As the Lord, the man who has done this

deserves to die, and shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no

pity” (2 Samuel 12:5). And to David’s surprise, the prophet Nathan responded by saying, “You are the

man.”

Now, as we study this text together, there are three important truths we need to

expound from the passage:

I THE DELIGHTS OF FORGIVENESS (vs. 1-2)

Psalm 32 begins with King David acknowledging the blessings of being forgiven by

God. Forgiveness brings so much joy in life when we have a good understanding of the

seriousness of our sins.

King David conveyed this truth by carefully using the four words in verses 1-2 to describe his sins

against the Lord.

A. Transgression – The Hebrew word used literally means “to rebel” or “to revolt.” This word describes

a willful act of disobedience.

B. Sin – This word comes from the Hebrew word, which is commonly used for wrongdoing suggesting

“to miss the mark” or “to miss the way.”

C. Iniquity – The Hebrew word used for this word carries the idea of being “Crooked” or “Twisted.” So,

iniquities literally suggest bending or twisting the laws of God that lead to His punishment.

D. Deceit – The Hebrew word literally suggests “treachery” or “deception” (in some cases – “selfdeception”).

With a very clear understanding of how much he offended the Lord, David, then, proceeded to describe the extent of God’s forgiveness. Listen to these two important phrases that conveyed God’s forgiveness on his life:

1. “Sin is covered” (v1)

In the Old Covenant, whenever they offered animal sacrifices for the forgiveness of their sins, their

sins were simply atoned or covered until the coming of the ultimate Lamb of God, who would take away their

sins.

John 1:29 (ESV):

29 The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the

sin of the world!

John, the Baptist, when he was about to baptize Jesus Christ, publicly testified that Jesus would have

the ability to take away sins.

2. “Lord counts no iniquity” (v.2)

In essence, the true picture of God’s forgiveness in the Bible is when God cancels the debts of sin

from our account. He is willing to give a sinner a debt-free standing.

How is this possible if God is just and does not ignore sin? The answer is the cross. When the Lord

Jesus Christ went to the cross to die for the sins of the world, He satisfied God's demand for justice. He punished humanity’s sin through the substitutionary of Jesus Christ.

Isaiah 53:5-6 (ESV):

5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.

6

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid

on him the iniquity of us all.

When King David, in a way, expressed his absolute assurance that his sins would no longer be charged

against him, on the basis of the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. Today God is able to

completely forgive us of all our sins when we believe in what Jesus has done for us.

This truth is perfectly illustrated by a story about a businessman who found out

about an elderly widow who was unable to pay her rent. Feeling pity for her, he went to

some of his friends and asked them if they would be kind enough to contribute something to help pay her rent. They responded, and he got two months' rent. He went to the widow's house that

week to deliver the money.

Although he knew she was inside when he knocked, he got no answer. He knocked a second time,

and still no answer. He knocked a third time, but still no answer. He knocked a fourth time. Not knowing

what else to do, he returned to his business.

A couple of days later, he saw her downtown on the sidewalk, looking destitute. He walked up to her

and said, "Ma'am, some friends of mine and I found out about your situation. We want to help. We got

enough money together to give you rent money for two months. I came to your house to give it to you this

week, but I knocked several times and got no answer."

She took a gasp of breath and put her hand to her face. She said, "Oh, I thought you were the landlord coming to evict me." You see, in the same way, God is not out to punish. God is out to pardon.

If you want to see the balance between God’s forgiveness and God’s justice, you need to magnify the

cross. God is able to forgive because He punished sin on the cross of Jesus Christ! I trust that we will never

lose sight of the fact that it cost God the life of His own Son, so He can freely forgive our sins. Yes, our forgiveness is free, but it is never cheap because of the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.

II THE DEMAND FOR FORGIVENESS (vs. 3-5)

Going back to the story of David, we can also highlight the fact that even though God is graciously

offering forgiveness, the sinner has the responsibility to genuinely repent from his or her sins. As you read

verses 3-4, King David would take us back to the time he “kept silent,” and refused to acknowledge his sins

– “For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night

your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. Selah,

Notice, David plainly stated that he suffered physical, mental, and emotional pains when he tried to

keep hiding his sins, rather than confess and repent from his sins. Watch out for how he described his inner

agony and torture:

 “my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long”

 “For day and night your hand was heavy upon me”

 “my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer”

Have you ever felt that you are suffering because God’s hand had been heavy on you? Or the vitality

of your body is being squeezed out of you? The last phrase describes a tree trying to survive without water

from refreshing rains. That’s how David felt. He was desperately miserable in his sinful state!

However, God’s restoration came upon him when he acknowledged and confessed his sins. Listen to

verse 5 - I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah”

To confess our sins demand that we look at our sins the way God looks at our sins. We stop excusing

them, or, perhaps, blaming others for them. We personally accept before God our guilt for having committed our sins. True repentance has always two sides. First - It begins with an honest confession of our

sins. Second - It results in an intentional forsaking of them. This is plainly stated in Proverbs 28:13 (ESV):

13 Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.

God will be merciful in forgiving those who humble themselves, confessing their sins, and at the

same time, forsaking them. Let me add one more New Testament verse that can give us

tremendous assurance when to go to add and seek to make it right with Him.

1 John 1:9 (ESV):

9

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us

from all unrighteousness.

Regardless of what sins we have committed against Him, because of what Jesus

Christ has done on the cross, He can guarantee us that He will forgive and cleanse us from all (not some) of

our unrighteousness.

However, there is an important truth that we should not fail to emphasize – Yes, God is gracious to

forgive our sins, but in God’s justice, we need to be prepared for the direct consequences of our sins.

Case in point, in the life of David, his sin of adultery and murder resulted in some direct consequences. If you read 2 Samuel 12:10-12, you will find the prophet Nathan referred to this truth:

10Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised me and have

taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.’

11 Thus says the Lord, ‘Behold, I will raise up evil

against you out of your own house. And I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your

neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. 12 For you did it secretly, but I will do this

thing before all Israel and before the sun.’”

Dr. Warren Wiersbe in his commentary on these words said:

“The sword did not depart from the king’s household, and his wives were taken and violated just as

he had taken Bathsheba. Indeed, David did pay fourfold, for Bathsheba’s baby died, and his sons Amnon, Absalom, and Adonijah were slain (13:29; 18:14–15; 1 Kings 2:25). David’s beautiful daughter

Tamar was raped by her half brother (chap. 13), and David’s concubines were humiliated publicly by

Absalom when he captured the kingdom (16:22). For the rest of David’s lifetime, he experienced one

tragedy after another, either in his family or in the kingdom. What a price he paid for those few

minutes of passion with his neighbor’s wife!”

When we have this reminder of sin’s consequences, we will not be careless with sin and abuse the

grace of God. We will not say, “Oh, I can live in sin. Anyways, God will always forgive me.” Since God is

just, He will still deal with the sins of believers. Remember, God, disciplines the ones He loves (Hebrews

12:6).

III THE DEDICATION TO THE FORGIVER OF SINS

Finally, King David concludes this section of his confession Psalm with some encouragements to seek

the Lord because of His grace towards sinners like him. God is worthy of our wholehearted devotion because of what He continues to do for us:

A. He Hears Us (v.6)

As sinners, we are exhorted to pray to the Lord while He can still be found. When this is done, calamities in life (“rush of great waters”) will not overwhelm us.

B. He Hides Us (v. 7)

David places his full trust in the Lord because it is He who has protected and preserved his life. God

has never failed to deliver David from his enemies.

C. He Helps Us (v. 8)

God helps in providing adequate instructions and guidance. He will do His best to lead us to the best

destination in life.

God is extremely gracious. Yes, He promises to forgive based on what Jesus has done for us on the

cross. But we should never abuse the grace of God. Instead, it should compel us to seek the Lord and love

Him continually. Let me end with this quote from Oswald Sanders, My Utmost for His Highest (Devotion for

November 20):

“Forgiveness is the divine miracle of grace; it cost God the cross of Jesus Christ before He

could forgive sin and remain a holy God… When once you realize all that it cost to forgive you, you will be held as in a vice, constrained by the love of God.”

February 26, 2023/Bishop Jeremiah Lepasana