“He doesn’t treat us as our sins deserve, nor pay us back in full for our wrongs” (Ps 103:10 MSG).

If we received what we deserved, every inhabitant on the earth’s surface would warrant the consequences of their transgressions. Our treatment would be harsh while the sentence would be measured against the deserving. None would be able to survive the plight of heavy-handed justice from a God who would remain just in meeting all with the same treatment commensurate to their treatment of God’s Law. God does not give us what we deserve even when it is deserved many times over as result of repeated acts of rebellion. Instead of justice, He tempers justice with mercy. His sentiments remain the same in relation to our deeds. But God continues to extend opportunities for us to hear something different than what we may have grown accustomed to hearing in order to give expression to a new way of living. His mercy cannot be demanded. It is arbitrarily granted. He will have mercy on whomever He wills. Yet we all receive it extended towards us. He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. The time will come when all will be both compensated and rewarded. They will either receive the wages of sin, death, or the gift of God, eternal life. He has given us a Savior that we did not deserve. Jesus is the gift of life that has paid the wages for our sins. Only He is able to free us from what every person deserves. 

We will ultimately be fully compensated or rewarded for every deed done in our bodies. The wages of sin are still death, but the reward to those who are faithful to the end is given the gift of eternal life. The gift is personified in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.