If my parents decided to set up a bank account for me with millions & millions of dollars in it, would I have earned it? No. Would I deserve it? Yes, because it was given to me. I am entitled to that bank account because of their giving. If someone found a way to steal from my account they wouldn't deserve it because it is my account, it was set up for & given to me. I don't have to ever access that account but that doesn't mean the money isn't there. I could grow poor & die if I refuse to access that account but that doesn't mean the money isn't there. A father can deem his children worthy of gifts either because of works they do or simply because he loves them.
To be deserving is to be worthy, which means to have enough worth, to have enough value. Love gives value. Mankind has always been loved & valued by God. Like an infant you don't have to work to be valued, you just have to be loved. Sin devalued mankind, it earned us death (in physical and spiritual). But sin never devalued God's love for mankind. Who do you want to judge what you deserve, you, someone else, sin, or God? Which eyes do you want to look at mankind through, they eyes of sin, which demands death, or the eyes of God, who offers life?
Christ wiped out our old sin accounts and opened new grace accounts for us. Did I earn grace? No. Do I deserve grace? Yes because He has put my name on it. My name is in the book of life. Scripture is clear that everyone's name starts off in the book of life. It says names have to be blotted out, not that names have to be written in. Every person on earth has a grace account that God has provided for them. Grace accounts only close on judgment day for those who still refuse them. Everyone deserves to be saved, everyone deserves grace because the Giver has deemed it so.
God has already taken away the sins of the world. Everyone on earth is entitled to salvation. God already has your name on the title you just need to sign yours. An atheist once said to me, “Well if I have to take the gift it is not free.” The Father doesn't force people to take a gift they don't want. In His love He does not demand His own way. It is a fully paid for gift being offered to all but He doesn't grab your arms and force you to unwrap it. He leaves the gift there hoping you'll experience the joy of what He has given you by unwrapping it!
“The wages of sin is death but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Death has been earned but life has been given. If I started a huge fire, would my father abandon me saying, “You started the fire so you deserve to die.” Or would he try to save me? Would he do whatever it took to get me out of the flames regardless of who started it? In my father's eyes did I deserve to die? In God's eyes, my Father's eyes, do I deserve to die because of my sins? If your answer is “Yes,” what kind of father do you think God is?
The bible says, “The wages of sin is death,” not “The wages of God is death if you sin.” God is our savior, not our slaughterer. Once the lamb had been slain I've been entitled to everything He offers me. The lamb was slain long before anyone alive today was born. On top of that the lamb was slain before the foundation of the world. God's eyes are the perfect eyes to look through & you've never deserved death in God's eyes for a moment of your life because the gift has always been given. Your name has always been in His book of life, a book that says, “He deserves life. She deserves life."
Saul (Paul) killed many of God's children. Did He deserve death in God's eyes? No, God saved Him. Paul was called “the chief of sinners,” the worst man that ever lived. God is love & love keeps no record of wrongs. God is love & love does not demand its own way therefore God gives everyone a choice. God says, “I have set before you life and death. Therefore choose life, that you may live!” Jesus is life.
Typical Christian teachings see it like this, “You are scum soaked because you've sinned. God hates scum so He will either make you clean yourself up or He will burn you up so He doesn't have to look at scum anymore. Either way all that matters to Him is not having to look at scum.”
God sees it like this, “You are sick because of sin and are going to die. God wants you to trust Him and take the cure for your sickness. You being sick doesn't make Him love you any less, it only makes Him try harder to get you to agree to taking the cure.”
The reason why this doesn't seem like God's viewpoint is because gospel isn't presented as good news. Christians are hypochondriacs, constantly medicating and talking about the sickness of sin as if it were still there when Christ has in fact cured them. Thus non-Christians have no good reason to believe Jesus is the cure.
You can look at God one of these two ways. God is either a murderer who demands that you die because He has CHOSEN to be offended at you, or He is a savior & a lover who knows love doesn't work in forcefulness, love only works in freedom. If you think God demands death you are looking through the eyes of sin.
Jesus said, “I came to the earth in the flesh so you may have life, not just a little life that barely gets you by but overflowing, abundant life that lasts forever.”
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