Getting What’s Coming


We might occasionally learn of a person who has made poor decisions and, as a result of them, received some negative consequences. They may have treated someone unfairly or unkindly and later endured some unfortunate treatment themselves. Or, perhaps it was some other negative event that was contributed to by their own prior behavior. We might say, “What goes around, comes around.” We might even be reminded of where God spoke through Hosea saying: They sow the wind, And reap the whirlwind (Hosea 8.7).

However, installing ourselves as God and rendering harsh judgment on our fellow man, is not helpful as we attempt to be more and more like Jesus every day.

Let us not forget scriptures such as Romans 5.6-10:

For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
For scarcely for a righteous man will one die;
yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die.
But God demonstrates His own love toward us,
in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Much more then, having now been justified by His blood,
we shall be saved from wrath through Him.
For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.

Notice the first line: …Christ died for the ungodly. I was about as undeserving as it gets, yet, Christ loved me anyway, and did what was necessary to help me. This whole rich and under-taught area of the contrast of what God did for me versus what I deserved from Him needs to register with us. We need to lift our gaze toward heaven and begin to realize just how unworthy we are and just how mercifully God is treating us.

Then, we need to take that next step that God has in mind for us – and try real hard to treat each other the way God is treating us.

The devil says: “Ignore them, they are unworthy, they asked for it, let them get what’s coming to them.” I believe God has just one question:

“What if I had treated you that way?”