Deserving Nothing and Gaining Everything

Where does this sense of feeling like we deserve something come from?

We all hear statements like "You deserve that vacation!" or "I don't deserve that kind of treatment!" every day. For most of my life I haven't given much thought to those passing phrases, not thinking that they were a big deal, but lately my mind has been changing.

What's wrong with feeling like we deserve something?

"For all of sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Romans 3:23

It seems like this verse makes it abudantly clear why there is something wrong with everyone thinking that we are owed something or that we deserve so much out of life. The truth of the matter is that we deserve absolutely nothing. Romans 6:23 says that "the wages of sin is death..." So not only is my entitlement to a good life stripped away, or my entitlement to anything at all stripped away, but it gets worse. The only thing that I do deserve is eternity in hell. That is all that I have racked up on my own.

I am not a good person. My heart is prideful, selfish, deceitful, full of lust, envious, jealous, bitter, hostile toward God. On my own I have done nothing but rebel against His holy and perfectly righteous law and character.

When you start to look at what you deserve out of life through the eyes of a holy God, your list starts shrinking fast. I don't deserve a good life, with family and friends. I don't deserve to enjoy the beauty of a sunset or sunrise. I don't deserve the ability to play music. I don't deserve anything. Even the common grace that God gives to every man is totally and completely undeserved. Through God's eyes we deserve nothing but eternal separation from Him and "every good and perfect gift" that He gives.

Here comes the radical part. Even though we deserve absolutely nothing. which is clear in, "the wages of sin is death, there is a second half to Roman 6:23 which says "...but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."

We deserve: "the wages of sin is death."

In Christ we receive: "but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord."

Goodbye feeling of deserving something in life! I don't need you anymore. Admitting I deserve nothing is just fine by me because when I realize that I don't deserve anything...I gain everything.