What Do We Deserve?

People talk a lot about deserving love, and respect and honor because they are human beings. On a psychological level this is true, as all people are created in the image of God and thus are very valuable. We should treat everyone with respect, for God made them. We rightly want justice in these matters, for ourselves and hopefully for others.

If we have a job, we want to be paid for our work, unless of course we are doing it for charity. If we have a family, we want people to treat us and our family rightly. If we own property, we want people to respect our property and not to violate it.

However, what does God say we deserve? God loves all people as the Bible says, but the wrath of God also rests on those who are not yet born again from above. The Bible says, “The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23) Our wages are what we deserve and what we deserve is death. This includes physical death, spiritual death and eternal death in hell.

The consequences of sin are death. Even if we have only sinned once, the consequences are death. God’s word says: “For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all” (James 2:10). Divine justice requires that there be consequences because of God’s attributes of holiness, goodness, love and justice. God is always true to Himself, and therefore there must be justice in His love.

According to Jesus and the Bible what we deserve is death and hell. If we all got what we deserve we would all end up in hell. This is not easy for the natural man to accept. Man wants to create God in his image, but this is just to live in an illusion. God is not limited to or by man’s perspective.

The Good news is that God at great cost to Himself, in that He stepped down from heaven, yet holding the universe all together at the same time. He took the form of a man and let his own creation nail him to a cross, so that He himself might be the substitute for our sin and provide for us what we don’t deserve. (John 1:1,14; Philippians 2:6-11) This is what grace is—undeserved favor. The gift of God in Jesus Christ must be received or it does us no good. He is the remedy for our dire circumstance and in Him we can have life, abundant life with peace and joy and eternal life. We need to turn to Christ to save us and forsake sin.

What do Christians deserve? God loves us as Jesus deserves, because now He sees us through Christ and His righteousness which is credited to our account. It is not our righteousness it is His. Imagine being loved by God as He loves Jesus. Let that really sink in. The Holy Trinity is complete in Himself, but He especially loves the children of God in Christ Jesus.

The Christian however, is called to a holy calling. That means being pure on the inside as well as the outside, reflecting God’s character. We cannot be just be concerned with trying to keep God’s word on the outside, even the Pharisees did that. “Yet Jesus affirms that his disciples must exhibit a righteousness that exceeds that of the Pharisees and teachers of the law.[1] (Matthew 5:20) We must be pure in heart as the ideals Jeus presented in the Sermon the Mount in Matthew 5-7. “Jesus did not merely do the right thing; he did the right thing for the right reason—reasons that emerged from a heart that was pure. This is precisely the kind of spiritual formation we need.”[2] However, this is a progressive enterprise.

For instance, Jesus said, “But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; an whoever says, ‘You fool” will be liable to the hell of fire” (Matthew 5:22). This is the utmost of the ideal. As Christians will we not go to heaven if we call someone a fool? According to Jesus this is what we deserve. However, we can repent of sin and God will gives us grace and we can then grow in grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a progressive purification of the heart, but this doesn’t take away from the ideal. (1 John 1:8-9)

The Sermon the Mount and especially the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:2-11) are the qualities that God wants to see develop in our lives. “How do God’s values from me compare with the things I want to develop in my life? The Beatitudes expose our motives and God’s priorities.”[3]

We can get what we deserve or what Jesus deserves. The choice is yours, but you cannot save yourself. You must seek God to do a mighty work in your life. It is a supernatural work and God changes us from the inside out. God will accept us when we truly turn from sin and to Jesus. (Genesis 4:7)

Seek the Lord while you still have a choice and a chance, because God’s Spirit will not always strive with man. (Psalm 103: Luke 13;24) Do not hardened your heart and supress the truth with unrighteousness. As God’s word says, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness” (Romans 1:18)

God’s love is undeserved. It is received not achieved in salvation. In Christ we receive more than we deserve, much more. Do you want to try to earn your way to heaven or demand that you enter on your own terms or your own goodness. According to Jesus and the Bible you will be enormously disappointed. We only enter in by God’s grace and by getting real with the living God. Again, as God’s word says,” For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9)

No one is perfect, no one is without sin. The only remedy to getting what we do not deserve is the grace of God in Jesus Christ the Lord. Turn to Him and be saved and receive God’s amazing grace and than grow in grace and knowledge of Jesus to His glory

[1] Klein, William W, Become What You Are, (Georgia, USA, Authentic Publishing,2226) p. 32

[2] Ibid, p. x

[3] Ibid, p. 57