Better than I deserve | Anchored in Hope Devotions

How can I live my life, when I’ve done so much wrong? How can a God so perfect love me after all?

“The wages of sin is death…” Romans 6:23a

We deserve hell, the real place of eternal fire and burning. But why don’t we get that? It's because of a gift - Romans 6:23 - for the wages of sin is death but the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord - given by a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.

“The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin…” Exodus 34:6-7a

In our day-to-day life, we aren’t burning eternally. We aren’t separated from our creator. We have fresh air, the beauty of nature. We have knowledge. We are ALIVE. That enough is grace. But, we were given families, and friends, and food, and water, and home, but not only that, as Christians, who have accepted his gift, he has blessed us with every spiritual blessing.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him…” Ephesians 1:3-4

We have peace and hope in our Savior. We have forgiveness for everything we have done and will do. We have the Holy Spirit in us as our guide. The disciples had Jesus to talk to and learn from. We have the Holy Spirit, the living breath of God, inside of us.

How can I live my life, when I’ve rejected righteousness? How can my perfect God love me? You can’t pretend it doesn’t exist. Sin is real, but Jesus took our punishment completely. Paid in full. It is finished.

“When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, ‘It is finished,’ and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.” John 19:30

I don’t have to carry the burden and weight of my guilt. My sin doesn’t define me, God’s grace does. God saw the worst in us, but planned from the beginning how he would save us. Yes, our life has bad things, we are full of sin and get bogged down in trials and temptations, but, with not only our lives but with God’s grace, we really are better off than we deserve.

- Anneliese Barlow