Better than I deserve
Dear Friends,
How do you respond when someone asks, “How are you?” I suppose most of us reply by saying something like, “I’m fine, thank you” – or perhaps, more briefly, “All right” or “Okay”. And there are endless possible variations on those themes.
I came across one wonderful way of responding to the enquiry. Christian pastor and writer C.J. Mahaney has learned to say, “Better than I deserve.” It reminds him how indebted he is to God’s grace. And, more than once, it has given him the opportunity to explain how Christ died for his sins, and that he is forgiven by God. Sometimes people then respond to him by trying to improve his self-esteem, convinced that his self-assessment is dangerously low!
The truth is that our position is indeed far better than we deserve. We know that from the simple, and frequently repeated, Bible truth that “Christ died for our sins”. If our sins weren’t that serious, if we didn’t deserve God’s wrath and judgment, if we could somehow do something to make things right with God ourselves, there would be no need for Christ do die. And if we only caught a glimpse of how our sins truly appear to God, and what it cost him to forgive them, we would tremble with joy at his mercy to us. ‘Better than I deserve’ is just one way to express such amazing grace.
Chris Hobbs.
Vicar