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 "And
Nathan said unto David, Thou art the man ...And David said unto
Nathan, I have sinned against Jehovah (II Sam. 12:7,13). When
Nathan went to David to reprove him for his sin with Bathsheba,
David was honest enough with himself to admit his sin. He did
not try to rationalize or conceal or place the blame elsewhere
— he simply accepted the fact that he had sinned, took
responsibility for his actions, and confessed to Nathan and God,
"I have sinned."
Many
Christians today find it hard, if not impossible, to face the
fact that they have sinned. This usually results in unnecessary
anxiety and guilt that often hinders their full potential as
Christians. David was not able to deal with his sin until he had
faced it. We must also have this ability to be honest with
ourselves if we are to deal with our sin. We must accept the
fact that we sin, take responsibility for our actions, and
confess our sins to God and our brethren.
The
publican, in Luke 18:13, exclaimed, "God, be thou merciful
to me a sinner." Paul wrote that "There is none
righteous, no, not one" and "for all have sinned"
(Rom. 3:10,23). If we accept the fact that we are human, then we
must also accept the fact that we are not perfect. "In
admitting to yourself that you are or have been guilty of lust,
or greed, of pride and of judging, of an unforgiving nature, you
are not saying that you are worse than others... You are simply
joining the human race and confessing that you are in need of
God's help and forgiveness." (Cecil Osborne)
After
we can face the fact that we sin, we must then take the
responsibility for our sin.
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We often try to blame others for our
actions. We tend to say that "we are mad because he
did this!" rather than admitting that we are mad because we
let ourselves get mad. Someone reminded me that I was not
responsible for what people did to me — I was responsible only
for the way I reacted to them. John tells us that we will be
judged according to our works (Rev. 20:12) — not according to
what others did to us. It’s a waste of time to recount the
mistakes of others that "made" us react in one way or
another. David did not try to make any excuses for his sin; he
simply admitted, "I have sinned."
When
we're finally able to make this admission without making any
excuses, then we can begin to deal with our sin by relying on
our brethren and God. Paul tells us that we are to "bear
one another’s burdens" (Gal.6:2). James says that we are
to "confess our faults one to another" (Jms. 5:16).
I'm not advocating that we confess our sins to every brother. It
would be foolish to think that every brother will understand
your weaknesses and can help you with them. Yet to refuse to
confess our sins to those who can give us mature and sound
advice and solutions is to neglect a very effective way to deal
with our sins. We must, however, also rely on God and His word.
David, who admitted that he had sinned, who accepted the
responsibility for his sin, and who confessed this to God before
Nathan, also wrote, "Thy word have I hid in mine heart,
that I might not sin against Thee."
(Psalm 119:11) Kevan O'Banion
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