He has not dealt with us as our sins deserve or repaid us according to our offenses. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His faithful love toward those who fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.
-Psalm 103:10-12 (HCSB)
Have you ever said the phrase, “Life is not fair”? I know I have many times. When you see the people who don’t deserve blessings receiving them, and others who do things the right way struggling, you can’t help but have those thoughts. Or just flip through the pages of the Bible and you will read story after story of people who fall into the same category.
Whether it’s modern day we’re talking about or thousands of years ago, the world really hasn’t changed much in this regard, has it? Sometimes it just seems that life is not fair, and neither is God.
The problem is that God’s perspective on fairness will never make sense to us. To us, fairness is someone getting what they deserve. A person does good things, then they are rewarded. A person does bad things, then they are punished. It’s pretty simple, and that’s what our human reasoning expects.
God, however, is all about grace. And grace is getting what you do not deserve.
According to Psalm 103, our God has shown us considerable mercy when it comes to our sins. We are at fault and deserve the punishment — death and separation from the one we’ve offended. Alternatively, God has chosen forgiveness and compassion. And to what extent? Our transgressions are going in the complete opposite direction as God. The point was that the east and the west are constantly growing farther and farther apart, and the two points will never, ever meet!
Or, to say it another way… We have rebelled against God, broken our covenant with him, chosen our own way, been caught red-handed and are guilty as charged. Yet he chose not to discipline us. Instead, God chose grace, forgot about the wrongdoings, and paid the penalty himself.
I can say it with confidence: God is not fair. Because of Jesus, we do not get what we deserve.
And that’s something worth thanking him for.
