John 15:
15Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.
16Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.
One of my guilty pleasures is that I loved the movie Pretty Woman. Ha ha, so sue me. But there is a scene in the movie towards the end where Edward looks at Vivian and says, "I have never once treated you like a prostitute."
When he walks away, she mutters under her breath: "You just did."
I think it's understood, that in our natural state (without "God" according to the bible) that we "deserve nothing."
But Jesus has never once talked to us like that. He calls us friends. He calls us his brother. He washed our feet. Not once did he ever treat us like the scum that we can be without him.
And until we accept that, and stop talking like we are "prostitutes", I don't think we can ever appreciate it. You ever notice in that movie how the moment Vivian stops thinking of herself as a prosititute and becomes something more, is the moment her and Edwards relationship gained depth?
My point is that so many christians like to beat up on themselves, say things like they don't deserve it, etc. But God has went out of his way to show his love for you and I think it's kind of spitting on that to say "well I'm just a hooker" to the man who never saw you as a hooker to begin with.
If that makes sense. (and I hope that analogy is ok for this forum)