For many, a working definition of God’s grace is that he does not treat us as we deserve. (See this Web site’s Sabbath School commentary for Dec. 31, 2005—Jan. 6, 2006.) At first glance, there is biblical warrant for this idea in places like Isaiah 53 and Romans 5. However, the limitations of this explanation are increasingly troublesome for me.

If one is said to not "deserve" certain good things (like, say, eternal life) because of his misdeeds, (or perhaps his nonperformance of good deeds), then, surely, the converse should also apply; for avoiding misdeeds and doing good ones, that person, it logically follows, "deserves" to be treated well. But this is difficult to reconcile with the Christian tenet that we cannot "earn" our salvation.

An alternative explanation of our not deserving God’s favor relies on the notion that rather than depending on our deeds, our undeserving emerges from our very nature: sinful, deep-seated, unchosen. Original sin is how Catholic tradition puts it. Thus, our undeserving status rests in our very being; our cosmic worthlessness, as it were.

But this, too, is problematic because the Bible really does seem rather insistent that we do matter; we do have value—worth. That lost sheep, lost coin, and lost son (Luke 15) make little sense apart from the value of what is sought.

Furthermore, the metaphor of family (this quarter’s Sabbath School lessons) renders this idea of deserving almost incoherent. "Son (daughter) you don’t deserve this, but I’m going to treat you nicely anyway?" Christ spoke of the ridiculousness of such thinking in Matthew 7:9, then went on to assert that God’s approach is to go beyond even our most extravagant dreams. No mention of "deserving," just a "Dad" (Abba?) doing what love does.

Our obsession with "deserving," it seems likely to me, is born of the myth that God cannot deal with us unless…unless our penalty is paid; unless we are "covered" by the robe of righteousness (which, if the analogy holds, results in our deceiving God—with the help of Christ—into accepting us); unless we bring Christ along to "mediate." It needs to be relinquished. The language of "deserve" is meaningless in the face of who God is.

There is, to be sure, a force that declares our unworthiness and our worthlessness. But this force is not of God. God, so Scripture seems to hold, has gone to some extravagant lengths to tell us just the opposite. Yet we cling to the notion; cling as if the omnipotent One will thereby take pity upon us, recognize our humility—our plight—and be moved to a more positive disposition toward us.

Fortunately, the Good News revealed and heralded by Christ is that such worry is unnecessary and baseless. Created in the very image of God himself (a concept that invites, no demands, deep contemplation) we are, and have been, and remain, children of the Heavenly Father. We exist, therefore, we have value and worth. We belong to the family. This is the message of the reality of creation.

Yes, there is indeed a problem; we have given it the name "sin." It is a problem that separates, distorts, and renders us defensive, worried, and fearful. And it causes us to imagine a God who demands sacrifice, absolution, and payment to accomplish restoration back to unity with him. But to solve this problem, entered Emmanuel; God with us. To right our misperceptions; to join us in our sufferings; to show us the Father. To show us that we might be One again.

Absent this reality are the cold calculations and exchanges of the accountant. Absent, too, the legal maneuverings of the lawyer. Instead, we find that our separation from God was a willful, chosen state. And, as such, our reconciliation with him also requires an act of the will; the intelligent choosing of that which was once rejected. But now our choosing has substance; it has a face—the very face of Christ.

Images of deserving might then be seen as merely an explanatory tool that speaks to the reality of cause and effect. The natural consequence of separating from God is death; life apart from God is not possible. (This reality is sustained by the traditional Adventist teachings on soul sleep, annihilation, creation, and the Sabbath.) To actively reject the reality that one already does belong to the family of God results in separation and death. So some talk of this consequence, this natural result, as getting what we "deserve."

Deserve language, however, deals only with the negative half of reality: the consequences of what happens when we reject God. But the will of God is clear—and demonstrated in Christ; we already are family, and this is—and has always been—God’s stance toward us. The consequences of that reality, along with our choice to live in that reality, are truly glorious.

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