Some (not all) Protestants often claim that repentance is a once-for-all event in the life of a believer, as one’s sins, not just past and/or present, but also then-future, are forgiven at the moment of one’s justification. Of course, as we have shown on this blog, many key texts (e.g., 1 John 2:1-2; Heb 2:17), speak of Christ as a present propitiation, not simply a past propitiation, and true believers are to repent of any sins they commit after their remission of past and then-present sins (which occurs at baptism . . .)
The life of David is rather instructive in refuting this heresy. For instance, in Psa 32 (cf. Psa 51), after the murder of Uriah and his adultery with Bathsheba, and after being convicted of his sins by Nathan the prophet (2 Sam 12), David repents of his sins in a very potent manner:
Happy is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered over. Happy the man whom the Lord does not hold guilty, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. As long as I said nothing, my limbs wasted away from my anguished roaring all day long. For night and day Your hand lay heavy on me; my vigor wanted as in the summer drought. Selah. Then I acknowledged my sin to You; I did not cover up my guilt; I resolved, "I will confess my transgressions to the Lord," and You forgave the guilt of my sin. (Psa 32:1-5; JPS 1985 Tanakh; emphasis added)
That David was a justified believer prior to these events is clear when one reads 1 Sam 17:45, where David called upon Yahweh to defeat Goliath as well as the fact that 1 Sam 13:14 and Acts 13:22 call David a "man after God's own heart," a distinction given to no one else in the Bible, showing the close relationship David had with God (further, 1 Sam 13;14 is before David's adultery with Bathsheba and murder of her husband, Uriah [see above]).
There are other instances in the life of David where he had to repent of his sins. Mark Boda writes:
A similar trend is evident in 2 Samuel 24. After taking a census of his army, David’s conscience is stricken, and this prompts his confession (‘I have sinned greatly in what I have done . . . I have acted very foolishly’) and request for mercy (‘O Lord, please take away the iniquity of your servant’; 24:10). Yahweh declares that he has taken away David’s sin, even though there are still consequences for sin seen in the choice of mitigated punishments given to David in 24:11-13. Again in 24:17, as the angel of the Lord is about to strike Jerusalem, David once more confesses his sin (‘it is I who have sinned, and it is I who have done wrong’), but this is a preclude to his request that Yahweh spare the city and instead exact punishment on him and his family alone. Both city and king are spared through this request and accompanying sacrifice (24:18-25). Admission of sin and sacrificial ritual are key components in David’s returning to a faithful relationship with Yahweh. (‘Return to Me’: A biblical theology of repentance [Nottingham, England: Apollos, 2015], 53-54).
