will do all My will." - Acts 13:22
This verse speaks about David (See I Samuel) as a "man after God's own heart". However, some may find themselves confused upon reading this. Israel's greatest king was not without some serious faults. The one most remembered is when he committed adultery with Bathsheba and then had her husband, Uriah, killed.
There is a lot more to this story, but the point I'm trying to make today is that we are all like David, in that while judged by human standards, we claim to be good, but by God's standards, we are not. When put our faith in God, we are given what's called an "alien righteousness". This means that since Jesus paid for our sins, our sins are now forgotten - past, present and future sins, and God can now see us as righteous, not because of the good that we think we have done, but because of the payment that Jesus paid in our stead.
Oh, and this doesn't mean that Christians now have a license to sin, by the way. When someone is born again, he/she is give a "new heart" with new desires...a desire to follow and serve God. We now battle against sin instead of being its buddy and giving in to it without a second thought. Follow me?
This is how, even though David sinned, he could be seen as a man after God's own heart. He had faith in God and in the future messiah. He was forgiven through Jesus Christ, since Jesus paid for the sins of all who have repented and put their faith in him. All sin. Past, present, future. David's sins, my sins, your sins.
