In crying out to God to be merciful to him, David acknowledged his sin and sought God’s mercy. He was humble enough to admit he had gone wrong and made no attempt to justify himself. He realised that his suffering physically was because of sin. Sin takes root in the heart. Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked; who can know it?...” David realised that his heart was sinful and acknowledged it and asked God for forgiveness. It takes a humble heart to admit sin and confess it to the Lord.

David said, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.” (Psalm 51:5) We, like David have a sin nature when we are born. Our actions as we grow up express what our nature is. We sin because we have the nature of sin already in us. And it proceeds from our heart.  In Matthew 15:18, 19, Jesus said, “But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, and blasphemies.”  Hence a cleansing of the heart of man is needed.

Romans 3:23 says, “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.”  Before we are saved, we are all slaves to sin. There is only one way to overcome sin in our lives and the only one who can cleanse us from our sins is Jesus Christ. John 1:29 says, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”   Our way to victory over sin is through Jesus.  But in the world we live in, we see wickedness and sin prevail over goodness and righteousness. Man, in his human wisdom tried and even today tries to solve this sin nature by trying to be good, doing good deeds to overcome the bad.  But the sinful nature is not gone; it is only being covered up by our own efforts to be good.

The Word of God teaches us the solution to overcome sin: we need to be born again! Jesus said, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised by my saying,’ you must be born again.’”  In Romans 7:21-25 Paul explains the dilemma in man who wants to do good and please God but the sin nature trying to wage war against his soul. Finally he says, “Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!”  To win the war of the flesh against the spirit, we trust in the One who has already got the victory for us. The only one who can rescue us is Jesus Christ. Each day can be a victorious day for the believer if he trusts Christ by yielding to the Holy Spirit who is constantly at work in him/her to gain victory over sin.

Friend, if you have not received Christ into your life—if confess you today, with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in our hearts that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.  Now you are a new man renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him and willing to do what is right- what is God’s will for you.

Remember: “If we confess our sins, He [Jesus] is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)