What We Really Deserve

I prayed for humility.

And He answered with clarity that cut through my soul like a sword:

You know what you really deserve? Wrath.

That message did not come to shame me. It came to free me. Because in seeing myself rightly, I could see Him rightly.

We live in a culture where self-love and pride are talked about as if they’re always good. We’re encouraged to “take pride” in who we are, to be confident, to believe we deserve good things. And there’s some truth in that: Every person is made in the image of God and has inherent dignity. But if we’re being honest, as the gospel compels us to be, we must admit something deeply uncomfortable: we are not entitled to grace. In fact, we are not entitled to anything at all except divine wrath and judgement.

You're Not That Nice. You're Not That Holy.

We all like to think of ourselves as good people.

But the truth is, I am not that nice. I am not that holy. I am far more sinful than I can even comprehend—filled with pride, with envy, with lust, with desires and ambitions that constantly compete with my love for God.

All of us have become like one who is unclean,
    and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags.

— Isaiah 64:6a

He Owes You Nothing

If we received what we truly deserved, we wouldn’t have woken up this morning.

If God repaid us according to our sins, none of us would have a future to look forward to. And yet, we did wake up. We breathed in mercy and walked into blessing. We had the audacity to open our mouths in prayer, many of us not even realizing that it was His mercy that even allowed us to speak His name.

But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.

— Ephesians 2:4-5

The wrath we deserve fell on Christ. The prayers we whispered were heard, and answered. Not because of our worthiness, but because of His compassion.

The LORD is compassionate and gracious,
    slow to anger, abounding in love.
He will not always accuse,
    nor will he harbor his anger forever;
He does not treat us as our sins deserve
    or repay us according to our iniquities.

— Psalm 103:8-10

Every sunrise is a testimony to divine patience. Every heartbeat is proof of God's restraint. We all deserve wrath. Yet we received the gift of life.

The Lord Heard Our Cry

Can any of us fathom the Love that the Living God has for us? The same God who has every right to destroy me chose instead to forgive me. To love me.

He took the wrath that was mine and placed it upon Himself at Calvary. And in its place, He poured out grace. Not because I loved Him. Not because I was good. But because He is love.

This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

— 1 John 4:10

Glory to God in the Highest

We need to start looking at life with different eyes.

There are countless blessings we receive every single day that we take for granted. Even the trials we resent are invitations to deeper surrender. Our salvation is not something we “accepted,” but as something that seized us when we were running the other way.

We have a Savior who bore our wrath, answered our cry, and gave us something we never could have earned: Himself.

Glory to God in the highest.

Because what I deserved was wrath—but what I received was grace.