David and on-going sin

How often has David's history with Bathsheba recounted to show how the Lord Our God deals with sin? David slept with his friend's wife, got her pregnant, and sent her husband (his friend) off to the deadliest part of a war so that he would surely be killed, and actually was killed. Then David covered it up... and the Lord God sent Nathan to him and Nathan described a man to David who did all the things that David did and David condemned the man... only then did Nathan reveal that it was David himself that he was telling him about. And of course it's recounted that David is a "man after God's own heart." Verses like Ps 89:19-37 and Acts 13:22 are cited.

The incredible Ps 51 is this same man repenting and confessing before the Lord, and being restored!

This is all true. But I am writing today to say that this is probably not the best example of David's failing before God Almighty. I propose a reading of Deut 17:14-20, where God gives some explicit instruction on what a King must do.

Deu 17:14 "When you come to the land which the Lord your God is giving you, and possess it and dwell in it, and say, 'I will set a king over me like all the nations that are around me,'
Deu 17:15 you shall surely set a king over you whom the Lord your God chooses; one from among your brethren you shall set as king over you; you may not set a foreigner over you, who is not your brother.
Deu 17:16 But he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, for the Lord has said to you, 'You shall not return that way again.'
Deu 17:17 Neither shall he multiply wives for himself, lest his heart turn away; nor shall he greatly multiply silver and gold for himself.
Deu 17:18 "Also it shall be, when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write for himself a copy of this law in a book, from the one before the priests, the Levites.
Deu 17:19 And it shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God and be careful to observe all the words of this law and these statutes,
Deu 17:20 that his heart may not be lifted above his brethren, that he may not turn aside from the commandment to the right hand or to the left, and that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children in the midst of Israel.

Of course we know that David took many wives. There are at least 8 named in the Bible but I've been told (sorry I could not quickly prove) that he had as many as 300 wives and concubines.

The Lordship Salvation proponent will tell you, as readers of this blog have become well familiar with, that 1 John 3:9 means that a "True Convert" can not "continue" in sin.

1Jn 3:9 Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.

I think it's clear that David is a "True Convert" given God's statements in Ps 89 about him. It is also clear that David continued in sin. I would argue that 1 John shows the source of sin, and shows that our New Man, that created in the image of Christ for good works cannot sin - at all. Eph 2:10 But that the flesh, or our Old Man, though our spirit is alive in Christ is still dead in sin. Rom 8:10. I also argue that the we must abide in Christ, by walking in the Spirit in order to live holy lives and not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. Gal 5:16

I do not write these things to promote sin. In fact I hope that each of you will read 1st John closely without making excuses and without changing the meaning of the words to suit your idea of what the Epistle must mean. Just read it. There is the solution to sin found there. There is assurance and there is exhortation. I will close with Romans 6:1-15

Rom 6:1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?
Rom 6:2 Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?
Rom 6:3 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?
Rom 6:4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
Rom 6:5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection,
Rom 6:6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.
Rom 6:7 For he who has died has been freed from sin.
Rom 6:8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,
Rom 6:9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him.
Rom 6:10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.
Rom 6:11 Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Rom 6:12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.
Rom 6:13 And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.
Rom 6:14 For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.
Rom 6:15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not!