Grace Greater Than All Our Good

For I have kept the ways of Yahweh and have not turned from my God to wickedness. Indeed, I have kept all His ordinances in mind and have not disregarded His statutes. I was blameless toward Him and kept myself from sinning. So Yahweh repaid me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in His sight. With the faithful You prove Yourself faithful; with the blameless man You prove Yourself blameless.... - Psalm 18:21-25

The words above were written by the same person who would one day commit adultery and then murder to cover up his sinful actions.

Obviously, before his sin with Bathsheba, David saw God as the "Great Balance-Keeper." He believed that as long as a person was good, then God would bless, but if the person was bad, then God would punish. This system succeeded for David as long as he remained obedient, and it is clear from his own words that he considered himself personally blameless.

Psalm 51 was written by someone who came to a different conclusion; same man, but a different story.

While God surely knows the good and evil of our lives, He has chosen to weight the balance in our favor. In fact, you can actually throw all of your sin, all your sin for all time, on one side of the scale and then place the blood of Christ on the other and the result is (for those who believe) a declared innocence, righteousness, and heaven forever. God is, indeed, a great balance-keeper.

His grace is not only greater than all our sin, it is (thankfully) also greater than all our good.

Above all the grace and the gifts that Christ gives to His beloved is that of overcoming self. - Francis of Assisi