Sin Has It's Penalty
You may say, “It seems unfair. A person does wrong and then he’s penalized for the rest of his life.” Yes, sin, many times, carries a stiff penalty.
What about the girl who falls for a man and commits fornication with him one time and contracts a venereal disease? Does the venereal disease leave when she becomes a Christian? No, she may have to live the rest of her life with the disease—all because of a few moments of sinful pleasure.
A man who lived a very sinful life before becoming a Christian married, and soon fathered a child. The baby, however, was born blind due to the father’s venereal disease. The man lamented to the doctor that God had forgiven him and that he had lived a pure life since becoming a Christian. The doctor nodded, saying that he did not doubt his testimony. “ But,” he explained, “your past sin has been passed on to your innocent baby.” Yes, God does forgive, but the results of our past sins may go with us the rest of our lives. The same can be said of those who divorce and remarry. A lady, complaining about the unhappy results of her second marriage, sobbed, “Do I have to keep paying—and paying, and paying?” There are penalties that follow a sinful life.
The beloved King David, though a man after God’s own heart, committed adultery. Vainly attempting to hide his sin, he became a murderer. Though he repented bitterly, a stiff penalty was pronounced upon him. God sent Nathan, the prophet, to tell him: Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house; because thou host despised Me, and host taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife. Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house . . . the child also that is born unto thee shall surely die (II Samuel 12:10-11,14). Here again we can see that the father sinned and the innocent baby, as well as other members of David’s household, had to suffer the consequences.
Yes, God forgave David’s sin for we read: The Lord also hath put away thy sin (II Samuel 12:13), but Nathan went on to tell David that because of his sin he had given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme (II Samuel 12:14). Yes, your sin can be forgiven by God but you will have to live with the consequences of that sin.
