Being a follower of Christ can be extremely difficult at times, but the joy of knowing Jesus is beyond worth the trials He may walk us through. When many of us think of the difficulties that come with being a believer, our thoughts jump to the persecution much of the church has endured throughout its history. However, another key component of our Christian walk that promises difficulty is our internal battle: the battle between flesh and Spirit.
While Jesus has empowered us by the Spirit to have victory over our sin, the pervasiveness of sin in our fallen flesh is often underestimated. With this being said, when sin gets the best of us, as it inevitably will, how are we to respond?
This week, I studied David’s response to the sin he had committed against God following his affair with Bathsheba and murder of Uriah in Psalm 51. This Psalm is heavy, full of the weight of David’s brokenhearted repentance. This Psalm gives us a beautiful, yet devastating peek at a genuinely repentant heart.
Towards the end of this moving Psalm of lament and repentance, David closes with a powerful statement about the gracious heart of God.
Psalm 51:16-17
You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;
you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.
My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart
you, God, will not despise.
Verses 16 and 17 teach us that in response to our sin, we are not to offer up a “sacrifice” in order to atone for our mistakes. As Hebrews 10:10 tell us, Jesus is the once for all sacrifice that has made atonement for our sins. Instead, we are to follow in David’s footsteps by offering the Lord a broken and contrite spirit.
Jesus will never turn away a child of His who is heartbroken over sin. Instead, He welcomes us back to Himself in the midst of our mess, reminds us of His finished work of the cross, and calls us higher. As we are convicted by the Spirit of our mistakes and shortcomings, let us not be burdened by the accusations of the enemy, but instead allow the full weight of our sin to be felt by reflecting on the grace of Jesus. He is a savior who is more than capable of forgiving even the darkest of our sins, just as we see here in Psalm 51.
FROM THE STAFF—Colton Lee