WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WE DELAY OUR REPENTANCE?

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 What happens when we sin and delay our repentance? The Bible provides many examples of how God deals with believers who sin and do not immediately repent. One striking passage is the account of David.

When David committed adultery with Bathsheba, he did not repent right away. God had to send the prophet Nathan to confront him (2 Samuel 12). Only then did David confess, “I have sinned against the Lord” (v. 13). God’s discipline soon followed in a severe way (v. 15).

Several truths stand out from this event. First, God disciplines those He loves (Proverbs 3:12). Because He loved David, He would not allow him to remain in sin. Second, God may use other people to rebuke believers who refuse to repent. David knew God’s Word, but it still took Nathan’s rebuke to bring him to repentance. Third, the severity of God’s discipline can depend not only on the nature of the sin but also on how long a believer delays repentance. David waited until Nathan confronted him, and God’s discipline became unavoidable.

God is always ready to forgive those who confess their sins (1 John 1:9). The consequences of sin, however, depend on God’s decision—He may choose to give them, reduce them, or remove them altogether. A believer who refuses to repent invites God’s corrective discipline. Charles Stanley, in his article David: A Case Study in Repentance, writes, “If you and I deal with our sin genuinely, openly, and immediately, God can lessen the severity of our discipline. This makes sense in the light of the nature of discipline. Discipline is designed to get us to change, to obey. If God sees that we want to cooperate and that we have purposed in our hearts to obey the next time, then stern discipline is not usually needed.”

Finally, God offers forgiveness and restoration to those who repent. Although He took the child conceived in David and Bathsheba’s sin (v. 15), He later blessed them with another son: “She bore a son, and he called his name Solomon. And the Lord loved him and sent a message by Nathan the prophet. So he called his name Jedidiah [which means ‘beloved by the Lord’], because of the Lord” (vv. 24–25). Stay Curious.

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