Sometimes students will complain that they “deserve a better grade.” Sometimes employees will argue that they “deserve a raise.” Sometimes children will claim that they “deserve a treat.” The word deserve means “to do something or have or show qualities worthy of reward or punishment.” Sometimes people get what they deserve. Sometimes people get what they don’t deserve. Let’s consider two monumental examples of the latter.
Jesus didn’t deserve what He received! The Bible says that the Son of God took on flesh and came to live among man (John 1:14; Phil. 2:5-8; Rom. 8:3). What did He deserve? He deserved the highest praise, honor and devotion that humanity could muster. But that is far from what He received!
Scripture records that “He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him” (John 1:11). As Isaiah had foretold, Jesus was “despised and rejected by men,” and rather than “esteem Him,” man “esteemed Him stricken” and “afflicted… wounded…bruised” (Isa. 53:3-5). With “lawless hands,” they “crucified and put to death” the Christ (Acts 2:23). Of all people, Pilate is the one who kept repeating, “I find no fault in Him” (John 18:38; 19:4, 6; Luke 23:22), for He had “done nothing wrong” (Luke 23:41). Jesus did NOT deserve any of this!
We don’t deserve what we’ve received! God created us in His image (Gen. 1:26-27). What a thought that is! Then He took the rest of His creation and “gave” it to us (Gen. 1:29-30) and gave us “dominion” over it (Gen. 1:26, 28). He told us what we needed to do to please Him (Gen. 1:28; 2:15-17), and then we snubbed our nose at Him and did exactly what He told us not to do and then tried to blame others for our failings (Gen. 3:1-6, 11-13). But it wasn’t just Adam and Eve. “Through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned” (Rom. 5:12).
Yet, here is the amazing part! “Even when we were dead in trespasses,” bearing the just guilt for our own sins, God’s “great love with which He loved us” was extended to us through the coming of Christ (Eph. 2:4-7). “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8), so that we might have “forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified” (Acts 26:18; cf. Eph. 1:7). We certainly did NOT deserve any of this!
If none of this was deserved, why did all of it happen? Simply, it is because of “the exceeding riches of His grace” (Eph. 2:7; 1:7). Our God is “rich in mercy” (Eph. 2:4), and He lovingly allowed Jesus to receive what He didn’t deserve so that we could receive what we don’t deserve! Wow!