Blameless? Me???
"The LORD has dealt with me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands he has rewarded me. For I have kept the ways of the LORD; I have not done evil by turning from my God. All his laws are before me; I have not turned away from his decrees. I have been blameless before him and have kept myself from sin. The LORD has rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to my cleanness in his sight.” (2 Samuel 22:21-25 NIV)
For a person who is unacquainted with God Almighty, this portion of David's song of thanksgiving might be a little hard to swallow. After all, David did sin. He committed adultery with Bathsheba. He caused her husband, Uriah, to be killed – an act of premeditated murder. He avoided responsibility many times. He went through a period in his life when he was indecisive and morally corrupt. So how could someone who did all that say that he was righteous?
And what about you and me? The first tough thing we have to face is our own sinfulness. That's what David did in Psalm 51. But for many of us, that is the very thing that keeps us away from Jesus for years and years and years. Suffering under the misimpression that we're "good" people, we see no need for a Savior. On the outside, our lives look pretty good. We don't rob. We don't steal. We don't lie. We don't commit adultery. We honor our fathers and mothers. We don't cuss or take the Lord's name in vain. Right? Good people go to heaven, right?
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Then one day we come face to face with Jesus. And in the light of His perfection, we see how really dirty we are – even the "good" people. The more we see His perfection, the more we realize how totally imperfect we are. And that causes us to come up against the second tough thing we have to face… the fact that part of His perfection is His grace, His love, His forgiveness. That's what David is doing in this song of praise - accepting God's love for him and realizing that through His forgiveness, David was righteous. David was blameless. Not because David had never sinned. But because through God's unfailing love, David was forgiven – washed "white as snow". And God didn't even remember the sin.
This one fact is the most awe-inspiring, the most humbling and the most joyous thing we can ever come to know. That through Jesus, you and I – and every other sinful person on earth – has the opportunity to stand blameless before God! Isn't that amazing? Isn't that wonderful? Isn't that what you want to do?
From Dogwood Ministries, Inc.
J-R-and-Bonnie@dogwoodministries.org
Used with Permission
