We find the good news in I John 1:9. If those who are trusting Christ as Savior and bowing the knee to Him as Lord confess our sins, God will forgive us and cleanse us of all unrighteousness. He does this because He is faithful and just: we are reconciled to God because Christ has paid the penalty that all our sins deserve. And in accordance with this good news, David confessed his sin with Bathsheba to Nathan, and Nathan said that God had taken away David’s sin (II Samuel 12:13).

But there’s some corresponding bad news both for David and for us: even after our sins have been forgiven, their consequences often linger. After all, a pebble dropped in a pond causes ripples to spread. And even if that pebble is later removed, those ripples keep spreading.

We know this all too well. A relationship harmed by harsh words is not immediately restored by even the most sincere apology. True contrition for a sexual infidelity cannot immediately regain the trust of a spouse, much less remove the presence of a disease contracted during the illicit encounter. And even if someone confesses and repents of abusing his wife or her child, patterns of abuse are often transmitted down the generations. Once the dominoes start falling, it’s hard to keep all of them from tumbling down.

In David’s case, the consequences of his sin were as serious as they were predictable. The child born as a result of his adultery with Bathsheba died (II Samuel 12:14, 19). And David’s own family was infected with the same sort of violence he had unleashed on Uriah (II Samuel 12:10). In fact, II Samuel 13 tells a sordid tale of incest and vigilante justice that unfolded between two of David’s sons, while he stood by, unwilling to condemn them for the same sorts of things he himself had done. Eventually, David’s son Absalom lost so much respect for his father that Absalom tried to seize the throne in a coup (II Samuel 17-18).

So no, it is not enough just to confess and repent of our sin. We also need to reckon with its consequences, and do the best we can to repair the damage our sin has caused to others. Anything less is a denial of reality.

II Samuel 12:9-14 (NASB)

9 ‘Why have you despised the word of the LORD by doing evil in His sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword, have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the sword of the sons of Ammon.
10 ‘Now therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised Me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.’
11 “Thus says the LORD, ‘Behold, I will raise up evil against you from your own household; I will even take your wives before your eyes, and give them to your companion, and he shall lie with your wives in broad daylight.
12 ‘Indeed you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, and under the sun.'”
13 Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.” And Nathan said to David, “The LORD also has taken away your sin; you shall not die.
14 “However, because by this deed you have given occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme, the child also that is born to you shall surely die.”