The final mark of the man of God and the man of war is gospel reliance. The above discussion of the warrior’s sin, shame, and guilt leads nicely to this point. The profession of arms is freighted with moral challenges. Living and moving in a high-stakes vocation requires anchoring. A number of critical anchor points for the warrior have been covered. The gospel is another integral anchor point, as it forms the foundational hope for forgiveness, reconciliation, redemption, and hope.
The narrative architecture of the David story is Christocentric.[1] It leans forward to the coming of another David, a greater one (Matt 1:1, 21:9; Rom 1:3). David himself recognized this dimension of his own storyline (Psalm 16, 22).[2] David’s hope was ultimately a gospel hope. He anticipated the coming Christ.[3] As a prophet, he spoke of the day when the covenant God made with him would climax in the incarnation, death, and resurrection of the Son of God (Acts 1:16, 2:25-36, 4:25, 13:33-37).[4]
David’s prototypical faith in the cross and empty tomb was a justifying trust (Rom 4:6-8).[5] He knew God the Warrior, and trusted him in battle and in life. In faith, he anticipated the day when this God would armor up with human flesh (Ps 40:6; Heb 10:5). In the deployed Son, we behold the intersection of God the warrior and God the human being. As such, he is both the rescuer of the warfighter (Acts 10:1, 47-48) and the ultimate expression of a warrior (Col 2:13-15; Heb 2:14-15; Rev 19:11-16).
With the cross as his weapon, Jesus fights for sinful David. The suspended wrath earned by David’s sin is placed upon Christ the substitute (Rom 3:21-26). David’s sins committed on the battlefield, in the bedroom, among his family, and elsewhere are covered by Jesus (Rom 4:4-8). Forgiveness, cleansing, and wholeness are secured when the tomb is vacated on the third day. The gospel is good news for the heavy-hearted vet.
The gospel does not patronize the agony of the warrior’s burden; instead, it affirms the soul-wrenching impact of war. It points to the anguish of Golgotha: to a fierce, sweating, bleeding, dying warrior who has taken into himself the horrors of our actions. That hill outside Jerusalem was an unforgiving war zone. In that place, the Son of God, the man of sorrows, expressed profound solidarity with war torn humanity.
Nor does the gospel let men off the hook for their actions. The death of Christ is a commentary on the gravity of our wrongdoing, a fierce condemnation of sin. Accountability is central to that dark moment. This is an important dimension of the gospel for the man who knows that judgment is deserved. Ironically, hope is located where sin is condemned.
In Christ sin is judged and settled before the just judge of the universe. The cold lifeless tomb is where the record of our every wrong is buried. The resurrected Christ guarantees that sin, death, and Satan are undone. The gospel speaks to a righteousness apart from the actions or merits of humanity (Rom 3:28). It is the good news of transfer: man’s wrongdoing for Christ’s right doing (2 Cor 5:21).
The person and work of Christ anchors the soul and steadies the heart against the onslaught of regret and shame (Heb 6:19; Eph 6:16; Rom 10:11). It arms the warrior for a different battle (Eph 6:11). The gospel yells “no condemnation” over the nagging voice of guilt (Rom 8:1). It is a healing balm to a seared conscience (Heb 9:14, 10:22; 1 Pet 3:21). It is a clean slate that covers over the past (1 Jn 1:9). The gospel is dogged hope for the well-adjusted and wounded warrior (Col 1:23).
[1]James M. Hamilton Jr., “The Typology of David’s Rise to Power: Messianic Pattern in the Book of Samuel,” The Southern Baptist Journal of Theology 16, no. 2 (2012): 4-18; Don Collett, “The Christology of Israel’s Psalter,” Currents in Theology and Mission 4, no. 6 (2014): 390-395.
[2]Jouette M. Bassler, “A Man for All Seasons: David in Rabbinic and New Testament Literature.” Interpretation 40, no. 2 (1986): 164.
[3]Christopher G. Norden, “Paul’s Use of the Psalms in Romans: A Critical Analysis,” Evangelical Quarterly 88, no. 1 (2016): 71-88.
[4]Ibid, 168; Peter Doble, “Luke 24:26, 44—Songs of God’s Servant: David and his Psalms in Luke-Acts,” Journal for the Study of the New Testament 28, no. 3 (2006): 281.
[5]Jackson Wu, “Why Is God Justified in Romans? Vindicating Paul’s Use of Psalm 51 in Romans 3:4,” Neotestamentica 51, no. 2 (2017): 310. Wu argues that Paul “presents David as a paradigm of one who is justified apart from the law.”