The Greatest Gift is Not Getting What You Deserve

Have you ever ordered something online only for it to arrive in the mail and be the wrong color or the wrong size? Perhaps a gift you had been sent was broken during transit or the package never arrived in the first place. Undoubtedly, we have all experienced one such horror story or another, or we know someone who has. This last fall, my wife and I received a wedding gift in the mail… around 15 months after our wedding date. Somehow it had gotten lost in the good ole’ system of the postal service. Needless to say, the feelings that come over us when we encounter such unexpectancies can greatly vary. From laughing at a comical inconvenience to having a total complete melt-down, we have difficulty coping with circumstances where we don’t get what we rightfully deserve.

Our response to receiving what we don't deserve depends largely on what it is we do deserve. For example, we all are familiar with the passage in Romans 6:23 that tells us that the wages of sin is death, but for some reason I think we forget the practical picture that this theologically rich verse is painting for us. I mean, I have yet to meet someone who complains when payday comes around. Everyone is happy when they get paid for their work; getting your hard earned wages is a good thing, right? Right. However, receiving your wages doesn't sound so exciting when we’re confronted with the truth of Romans 6:23, because it doesn’t matter how much sin you’ve worked in life… you’re wage is still death. And the smallest dose of death is a grave as the largest… All of a sudden getting we what deserve doesn’t sound so rosy.

And this is where we are introduced to mercy. Mercy is a beautiful term that I think has often gotten garbled together with the definitions of other beautifuls words like “grace” and “forgiveness.” Now, are these term related? Of course. Mercy happens to be one of God’s greatest gifts (grace) to mankind that resolves our conflict with Him (forgiveness). Mercy, by definition, is not getting what you deserve. But unlike the wrong package that came in the mail and caused you a headache, God’s mercy cannot be separated from the gracious purposes of His love. David’s cry for mercy recorded in Psalm 51 show a desperate man who embraces his dependence on our God of Mercy:

“Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin!”

But how could David makes such a cry for mercy? Shouldn’t he be out performing religious sacrifices to make God happy with him? And how could God seemingly omit His justice to make room for mercy? The answer to these questions help us understand the magnitude of God’s mercy that is available even to us today.

1. Religiosity is a poor substitute for God’s mercy. I can see a Pharisee reading about David’s situation (2 Samuel 12) and saying, “David, before you do anything else, go and make a sacrifice. That way, God will approve of you! Then, and only then, you will experience His steadfast love.” David knew better. You see sacrifice without repentance was just the meaningless slaughter of animals. For David, this wasn’t about cooking up the right religious recipe to make God happy with Him. This was David’s humble realization that his sin had to be forwarded on to someone else who could deal with it completely. All that David could do was appeal to God’s mercy, and trust His sovereign redemptive plan.
2. God’s justice and mercy intersected at the cross of Jesus Christ. Though King David didn’t know the minute details of how God would unfold His redemptive plan through his own lineage, he did trust the promise of God that from him would come a Chosen One who would crush sin. This Chosen One was none other than Jesus Christ, both the fulness of God’s mercy and grace toward us as well as the substitutionary recipient of His complete justice for our sin on the cross. David cried out for God to not give him what he deserved. And God said, “Yes, in Jesus.”

So perhaps the next time you open a mail package to find an unexpected surprise or even when you get the wrong toppings on your hamburger, take a moment and think of it as a gracious little reminder of the great mercy of God, that it’s a good thing that you don’t always get what you deserve. Because when we forget the deadly wage of the sin we so willingly indulge in every day, we neglect the immeasurable worth of the mercy we’ve received in Jesus. No matter the stain of sin that you wear, if we cry out to God for His mercy, we can rest assured that His response is “Yes, in Jesus.”