When sinners are proved to be unrighteous and without hope, God extends the offer of Righteousness by faith in the Lord Jesus. Saints who lay hold of His promise cease from their own works of law-righteousness and believe on God Who justifies the ungodly.
To those who so believe, God will not impute their iniquities for Jesus' sake. Rather, He forgives their sins and imputes to them an alien Righteousness by the obedience and blood of the Lamb slain at Calvary.
Though often a type of Christ, King David's forgiveness of Shimei falls far short of God's forgiveness of those who trust in Him. For David took back his forgiveness as he lay a-dying.
One difference between David's forgiveness and God's is that Shimei proposed that David forgive him, while God proposed that He forgive sinners who trust in Him.
Another stark difference is this: David never loved Shimei. He was his enemy. Shimei never did David any good, but only evil. So David had no heart motive to forgive Shimei for ever.
But God loved sinners when we were rebels against Him and hated Him! Indeed, He loved those whom He would save from eternity past!
God's love for us is displayed in His delivering up His own dear Son as a sacrifice to save us. Christ died for us even while we were yet sinners.
But God's love is greater still: He makes us sons and joint-heirs with Christ! No wonder the Apostle John exclaimed "Behold! What manner of Love!"
And the Lord Jesus loved His own ones until the very end. Even as He approached the awful death He would die to redeem us, He still loved us!
Unlovely as we were, He loved us. David never loved Shimei, but God loved us and will save us.
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John Pittman Hey was born in 1961 in Jackson, Mississippi, to Godly parents who from the beginning raised him in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. With child-like faith he came to Christ on his fourth birthday at his mother's knee. He received his education at church...
