Sin
Has Terrestrial Consequences Even For God loved
ones
Disobeying God's commandments is a sin. It does not matter if we know his commandments or not. Our duty is to investigate through God's commandments. It is even a worse sin to know his commandments and tell Him that we do not feel like doing it. That was the sin of King David, and King Rehoboam and his court.
Sin has terrestrial and eternal consequences. If there is a true repentance, the eternal consequences are removed thank to the redeeming sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross. As for the terrestrial consequences, are not always removed even if we sincerely repent.
The case of David's adultery is well known. Although he sincerely repented, the terrestrial consequences of his sin followed him until the day of his death. In this passage we see the sincere repentance and confession of David, although, it did not detain his terrestrial punishment. Do not set your hopes up those that want to play “sin and repent”; even if it is a sincere repentance, you will suffer the consequences of your sin, even if you believe yourself better than David.
“9 Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the LORD, to do evil in his sight? Thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon. 10 Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house; because thou hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife… 13 And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the LORD. And Nathan said unto David: The LORD also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die. 14 Howbeit, because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme, the child also that is born unto thee shall surely die.” (II Sam 12:9-14 abbreviated)
As we see, David's repentance was sincere and God forgave the eternal consequences of his sins, but he had to suffer the terrestrial consequences until the day of his death.
A similar case is that of King
Rehoboam and his court, even though they repented of their
sins, God submitted them to Shishak King of
Egypt. Here we can see that King Rehoboam and the people of
“7 And when the LORD saw that they humbled themselves, the word of the LORD came to Shemaiah, saying: They have humbled themselves; therefore I will not destroy them, but I will grant them some deliverance; and my wrath shall not be poured out upon Jerusalem by the hand of Shishak. Nevertheless they shall be his servants; that they may know my service, and the service of the kingdoms of the countries.” (II Chr 12:7-8)
Christians are quick to "learn"
of the example of the forgiveness of Mary Magdalene, but do not even want
to think about the example of the punishment of David and Rehoboam.