WAS DAVID A SAVED MAN IN HIS ADULTERY?
George Burnside
I have been asked scores of times in recent months this question. If David and Bathsheba had in their adultery been run through by Uriah as Zimri and Cozbi (Numbers 25:6-8, 14, 15) were by Phinehas in their adultery, would David be saved?
It appears some people have claimed on several occasions both in Australasia and the United States that David was a saved man in the midst of his adultery. This has raised much comment and much disgust, as it has evidently been repeated by the followers in the New Theology.
So we are asked by many, would David's previous justification have secured for him a clear entrance into Christ's eternal kingdom if he had died in the midst of his adultery and murder? The advocates of Dr. Ford's New Theology maintain that David was saved through it all.
WHERE IS THIS STRANGE TEACHING WRITTEN?
Certainly not in the Old Testament! Here is the clear statement.
Ezekiel 18:24 "When the righteous turns away from his righteousness and commits iniquity all his righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned: in his trespass that he hath trespassed, and in his sin that he hath sinned, in them shall he die."
NOT IN THE NEW TESTAMENT
Luke 13:3 Jesus answers "I tell you, Nay: but, except you repent, you shall all likewise perish."
1 Corinthians 6:91, 10 "Be not deceived: neither fornicators nor adulterers shall inherit the kingdom of God."
John 15:2,6 "Every branch in me that bears not fruit He takes away and cast them into the fire, and they are burned."
Romans 2:25 "But if thou be a breaker of the law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision." What you once had you can lose in sin. Hence these plain warnings of Jesus.
If the incestuous Corinthian had been cut off in defiling his father's bed, the justification he had received at his conversion would not have saved him. If Solomon, in his filthy idolatrous worship with his heathen wives, had died before repentance he would have perished in his sins.
"Except you repent you shall likewise perish" is the clear statement of our Lord.
James 2:26 "Faith without works is dead" - it is a dead un-justifying faith - it is dead and hence is useless.
TAKE THE CASE OF JUDAS
Matthew 10:1 Jesus called Judas. He was one of the "twelve". He was accepted as one of "the twelve apostles."
John 2: 11 Judas was one of those who "believed on Him." Judas was a believer.
Matthew 19: 28 Judas was one of the twelve to whom Jesus conditionally promised him one of the twelve thrones. Judas afterwards was attracted by the shining pieces of silver as David was with Bathsheba, for she "was very beautiful to look upon."
John 6:70 "Jesus answered them, Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devi1?”
John 13:27 "Satan entered into him" - Judas. Judas was not always a devil. But Judas fell. He overlooked the words of Jesus. "He that endures unto the end the same shall be saved. Judas dallied with temptation till the evil spirit that had gone out of him at conversion, re-entered him with more and worse spirits than before.
Matthew 12:43-45 Thus Judas’ last state was worse than before his conversion. Judas the first Christian backslider stands out as a warning. He did not make his calling and election sure. "Except you repent you shall likewise perish." Not once saved always saved.
David repented and was restored. To him was restored the joy of God's salvation, for "a broken and a contrite heart, O God, You wilt not despise." Psalm 51:12, 17.