Compounding Sin
Sunday, 27 June 2010 05:00
Sin has a way of drawing you deeper and deeper into trouble. It has been said, “Sin will take you farther than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay and cost you more than you are willing to pay.” There is more truth to this than many are willing to admit.
Like all men, David was subject to temptation, though not beyond his ability to endure (1 Cor. 10:13). As with all sin, David gave way to the desire in his heart and sin resulted (James 1:14-15). However, at this point, there was only one sinful act to repent of and a limited, albeit difficult, consequence to face. As with most sins, things could and did get much worse.
As stated earlier, Satan is not content to settle for one sin when he can bait you into another and another. In David’s case a child became the result of his sin with Bathsheba, hence he had to cover that up. Rather than covering it with the truth and finding mercy (Prov. 28:13), David chose to cover it up with further sin. He had Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah, murdered. To do so, he even had to involve Joab in his sinful plot.
As the story goes, David managed to turn one sin into many sins by the bad choices he made. He even managed to deceive himself into believing he had hidden those sins (cf. 1 John 1:8) with the added bonus of taking Bathsheba for a wife after Uriah died. However, one statement sums up the one thing David, and all sinners, rarely take into consideration. “But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord” (2 Sam. 11:27b). Sin had inevitably brought forth death—separation from God (James 1:15b).
The power of the story is not in the fact that David compounded his sin until he even managed to deceive himself that he could have a happily-ever-after without answering for his sin. The power of this story is seen in what happened next.
The Lord, who is faithful, sent Nathan to David. Nathan told David a parable that invoked a response of righteous indignation in David that should have been reserved for himself (2 Sam. 12:1-6). When directly confronted with his sin, David finally made the right choice—he acknowledged it, accepted the consequences for it, put it away from him, and was victorious (2 Sam. 12:7-23; note Psalm 51).
Was the consequence steep for David’s sin? Was it easy to hear and acknowledge the awful things he had done? Was facing his sin head on and dealing with its consequences the correct response to sin?
Let us always be aware of the fact that one sin will lead to further sin. It is inevitable. To cover up one sin, one must commit another (e.g., telling a lie to cover a sin). To avoid the guilt of sin, one will commit others (e.g., cease praying to God because of the shame of unrepented sin ). To continue in sin one might very well involve others in your sin (e.g., involving others in deception to cover sin). To avoid the consequences of sin, one will compound his sin!
The only way to stop the vicious cycle of sin is to trust in the gracious mercy of our Lord. Might there likely be immediate consequences? Certainly. However, it is the eternal consequence of not accepting the Lord’s mercy that we should be concerned about. The ultimate consequence for all sin is eternal condemnation (Rev. 21:8). The only way to avoid that consequence is to come clean with God and come away clean because of God (1 John 1:8-9). “But You, O Lord, are a God full of compassion, and gracious, longsuffering and abundant in mercy and truth” (Psa. 86:15).