“Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin” (Rom. 4:6-8).

Obviously David knew no more about the present “dispensation of the grace of God” than did Abraham, and he certainly did not live under the dispensation of grace. He lived under the dispensation of the Law, when sacrifices were required for acceptance with God. Had David said that the offering of sacrifices was unnecessary, he would have been stoned according to the Law.

But David, unlike many today, understood the purpose of the Mosaic Law: to bring man in guilty before God. In Psalm 130 he said: “If Thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? But there is forgiveness with Thee.” He did not know how God could righteously acquit a guilty sinner, but he believed it to be a fact and rejoiced in Psa. 32: “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered… unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity…”

Thank God, we now know the reason! God has revealed through Paul, the chief of sinners saved by grace, how He can be “just, and the Justifier of him that believeth in Jesus” (Rom. 3:26). It is because “God hath made Him [Christ] to be sin for us, [Him] who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him” (II Cor. 5:21).

David’s blessedness may be ours too, if we will but do what David did: trust in Him who graciously forgives sin and (as we now know) justifies believers on the basis of the redemptive work of Christ.

To the Reader:

Some of our Two Minutes articles were written many years ago by Pastor C. R. Stam for publication in newspapers. When many of these articles were later compiled in book form, Pastor Stam wrote this word of explanation in the Preface:

"It should be borne in mind that the newspaper column, Two Minutes With the Bible, has now been published for many years, so that local, national and international events are discussed as if they occurred only recently. Rather than rewrite or date such articles, we have left them just as they were when first published. This, we felt, would add to the interest, especially since our readers understand that they first appeared as newspaper articles."

To this we would add that the same is true for the articles written by others that we continue to add, on a regular basis, to the Two Minutes library. We hope that you'll agree that while some of the references in these articles are dated, the spiritual truths taught therein are timeless.

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