How many times have we heard it, “Go for it, you deserve it!” It may be said another way like, “You’ve done so much it’s well deserved.” Or, “You’re worthy of it.” Sadly, it seems that there are many people in the world today who are totally convinced that they “deserve” anything they want.
Many think that every citizen deserves to be financially supported by the government. Others believe they deserve everything their parents have worked hard to buy. There are people in churches who believe they deserve to be in leadership for unstated reasons.
As we remember Christ’s death on the cross and His resurrection three days later, it seems like a good time to think about what we really deserve.
Scripturally, it is necessary for us to understand the sin nature of man and what that sin in us deserves.
When my husband and I lived in the city we had a great neighbor who was a biker and a tattoo artist. He started taking classes at a Catholic University and came to me one day to ask about something one of the nuns had told him in class the night before. “She said that everyone is a sinner!”
I responded with a story from a time I was working in an AWANA class of third and fourth grade students, The lady teaching asked the little crowd of kids how many of them had younger brothers and sisters. Most of them raised their hands enthusiastically. She then asked them all, “Do you have to teach them to be bad or do you have to teach them to be good?
All of them responded loudly, with groans, “To be good!”
The teacher then established that this “badness” was sin, starting with their need to obey their parents (Colossians 3:20, Ephesians 6:1). She proceeded to teach them that Romans 6:23 says that the wages of sin is death.
Death. That is what we “deserve.” Death is required to relieve us of the burden of what we owe God for our sin.
In God’s grace, that was His purpose in sending Christ to take on all that sin that is on His chosen people, place the weight of it on Christ, and allow Him to die in our place. Jesus took the death penalty for all those who believe in Him. There’s a line in a song from a while ago that says, “God looked on Him and pardoned me.”
It gets better! He did not just die. When His friends went to His tomb to prepare His body, He was gone; He had been raised from death to life! He is seated at the right hand of God the Father. He intercedes for us. He sent His Holy Spirit to indwell us, to direct our steps. He will never leave nor forsake us (Hebrews 13:5).
We, in our sinful nature, do not “deserve” what Christ did for us so that we can be saved from the consequences of our own sin and live eternally with Him in Heaven. We deserve the death that He died. But, God’s grace is greater than all our sin.
Do we thankfully remember this as we take the wine and the bread during communion “in remembrance of Christ’s body and blood given for us?” Are we thankful as we observe a celebration of the resurrection of Christ?
The Bible is clear that Christ is worthy of all glory and honor and praise. Do we give Him what He deserves?
For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works. Speak these things, exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no one despise you. (Titus 2:11-15)
