In 2 Samuel 12, God sends Nathan, His prophet, to King David, to report a crime to him. "There were two men in one city, one rich and the other poor. The rich man had exceedingly many flocks and herds. But the poor man had nothing, except one little ewe lamb which he had bought and nourished; and it grew up together with him and with his children. It ate of his own food and drank from his own cup and lay in his bosom; and it was like a daughter to him. And a traveler came to the rich man, who refused to take from his own flock and from his own herd to prepare one for the wayfaring man who had come to him; but he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him." (v1b-4).
David was initially enraged, and began to speak threats against the rich man, saying "As the Lord lives, the man who has done this shall surely die!" (v5). But Nathan delivered the harsh truth: "You are the man!" (v7). The story had been a parable, describing David's own crimes; the murder of Uriah the Hittite, and the affair with Bathsheba, Uriah's wife, whom David took for himself.
David's tune quickly changed. Rather than being enraged against a hypothetical man, he realised he had sinned against the Lord. Nathan then assured him "The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die. However, because by this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also who is born to you shall surely die.”" (v13-14).
As Christians, we can be assured that God has also put away our sins. But we must be careful, lest we show similar disregard for God, and give His enemies occasion to blaspheme. As I like to say, the Gospel is a safety net, not a hammock. We should be saved by falling into it, and make absolutely sure it is a fall, but we should never rest comfortably within it, as if all sin is now fair game. As Paul says, "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life." (Romans 6:1-4).
But perhaps Nathan's parable gives us occasion for something more than just "The Lord has also put away your sin". I wonder if he may have given us a tool for accountability and self reflection. In general, we seem quite blind to our own sin, but are quick to judge the sins of others. So what if we translate our own sins into similar parables?
Of course, doing so requires us to actually know our own sins in the first place, but it would be silly to imagine David needed a parable to know he had done wrong. The parable convicted him, it didn't inform him. He knew the law, he knew his deeds, he knew that it was by God's grace alone that he had not been dragged into the public square and stoned to death like a murderer. Like the murderer he actually was.
But the thing about parables is they actually depict things that can actually happen. It wouldn't be hard for a rich man to steal a ewe and slaughter it for a traveller. In fact, it would be easier than David's actual crime. In the same way, we can actually look at things that really happen, maybe the very same sins we actively judge. Paul speaks to this in Romans 2, where he says "Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge, for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things. But we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things. And do you think this, O man, you who judge those practicing such things, and doing the same, that you will escape the judgment of God?" (Romans 2:1-3).
That's quite the statement. In Christ, there is no condemnation for us (Romans 8:1), but in the flesh, we are still sinners. It's a lifelong war between the flesh and the spirit. What does this mean? It means we can harness the power of our own folly. Take a look at the absolute worst scumbag you can imagine. Much like David, you may rage against this person. "As surely as the Lord lives, that man shall die", you might say. Or let's get more modern: "There's a special place in Hell for you".
Well my brethren, there's a special place in Hell for you, too. Thank God, He has put away your sin, so you will never have to find out. But it's there, because you are the man. You are the man who steals. You are the man who blasphemes. You lie, you covet, you commit adultery and other forms of sexual immorality. If we take Scripture's logic that even hatred is adjacent to murder (1 John 3:15), where does that leave you and I?
At the foot of the cross.
Obviously at the foot of the cross. The closer you get, the more you see it. You see your endless rap sheet, charge after charge is read off, and only in Christ is it written off. You are the man. So what do we do? We repent, as David did, even famously writing Psalm 51, in which he not only begs the Lord for salvation, but that God would create in him a clean heart. Then, he will teach transgressors the ways of God, and sinners will be converted. (v13).
The sinners we look down on? That's us. Apart from God, we would be exactly where they are. In the flesh, we very well may still be. This view will convict us, as it did David, not only moving us to repent, but ultimately, to see those in need of repentance, and have compassion on them, knowing that our sin has been put away, and we can show them how theirs can be too. Let us therefore look at those we judge most harshly as our parable from Nathan, and say to ourselves "you are the man". Then we may turn to the Lord and say "you are the Son of man, the Christ, who blots out my transgressions." But what does John tell us? "And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world." (1 John 2:2).