EA Article
There is something particularly ugly about ingratitude. We have all seen the proverbial spoiled child take a gift and run off without the slightest expression of appreciation. Could we say that it is tantamount to theft – keeping back from someone the thanksgiving which is rightfully theirs. I am sure we have been on the receiving end; our efforts were taken for granted and it left a bitter taste. Jesus experienced it in Luke 17. He healed ten people of leprosy only one of which returned to say thank you.
This strikes us as ingratitude beyond measure. Having been delivered from the most debilitating of diseases the least you would expect them to do was acknowledge the kindness of Christ. Does righteous indignation compel us to wish that the leprosy had returned?
But perhaps we need to ask the question – are we guilty of the same thing? Do we enjoy blessings from God and rarely express the thanksgiving consummate to the kindness received. Take for example leprosy, when reading Luke 17 has it ever prompted you to go to Christ with thanksgiving? But He hasn’t healed me of this condition you say. That’s the point. He hasn’t had to heal you; He has kept you from it. And He has kept you from an innumerable amount of other evils. His blessing is not only seen in what He doesfor you, but in what He keepsfrom you.
Let’s take a few moments to consider some thoughts on the significance and practicalities of thanksgiving.
1. The primacy of thanksgiving
The degree to which we are thankful to God reflects the health of our spirituality. Paul indicates that the unconverted are characterised by thanklessness (Rom 1:21). The reason why – they are dead in trespasses and sins. C.S. Lewis drew a parallel between a God who deserves praise and a beautiful work of art which deserves praise. Concerning the work of art he wrote “admiration is the correct, adequate or appropriate response to it……if we do not admire it we shall be stupid, insensible, and great losers, we shall have missed something. [It is] the humblest, most balanced, and capricious minds which praise most, while the cranks, misfits and malcontents praise least. I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment………the delight is incomplete until it is expressed” [1]
What kind of person eats a sumptuous meal, or views an intricately detailed painting, or listens to a delightful piece of music and says nothing in appreciation? According to Lewis “cranks, misfits, and malcontents”. In the same vein, who can experience the birth of a child, a colourful sunset, the scent of a flower, the daily provisions which make life comfortable and say nothing in appreciation? Cranks, misfits, and malcontents – those who are spiritually dead to the One who is behind these blessings.
If beautiful art demands appreciation, how much more so the God who is beautiful in character; the God who showers us continually with good things. All people should give thanks to God but especially believers. We have the most cause to be thankful. Scripture reminds us that thanksgiving is not just appropriate but rightly expected on the part of God. Psalm 103:1-5, “Bless the Lord, O my soul; And all that is within me, bless His holy name! 2 Bless the Lord, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits: 3 Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases, 4 Who redeems your life from destruction, Who crowns you with loving-kindness and tender mercies, 5 Who satisfies your mouth with good things, So that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”
Thanksgiving is natural, yet we must also be told to do it. The psalmist indicates that we become forgetful. The cause of this amnesia is probably due to the fact that God blesses us with so much, in so many ways, that we simply take it for granted. We forget how comprehensive and continual His blessings are. We forget that every single thing we have has come from Him. There is nothing that we have which has not been received; nothing that has not come to us as a gift. Pause to think about this for a moment: your faculties are a gift – eyesight, hearing, strength, mind. Your possessions are a gift – money, home, car, clothing. Your relationships are a gift – parents, children, siblings, friends, colleagues. Your opportunities are a gift – employment, recreation, holidays, etc. To this we must add of course that salvation is a gift – regeneration, justification, adoption, redemption, sanctification, glorification.
Furthermore think of what you have been kept from. Have you like Job witnessed the death of all your children or been covered from head to toe in festering sores? Have you like David been hunted down like a wild animal? Have you like Paul been stoned because of your faith, spent nights in the deep, been hungry, cold, naked, forsaken, nowhere to sleep? We can still thank God in the midst of such tribulations, He is always outworking His purposes, but surely we should be thankful when He spares us from these dilemmas.
When we encounter those who are ill, those whose faculties are failing or gone, those who live with disabilities, those who are facing harsh providences, does it prompt us to thank God for what He has persevered us from (as well as to pray for those who are suffering in these ways). There is no such thing as good luck!
It seems that the psalmist is imposing upon us an impossible task – “forget not all His benefits”. How can we remember them all when there are so many! The problem we have however is not that we struggle to remember, but rather we are content to forget.
Because God is so abundantly gracious we take His blessings for granted; we become accustomed to them; we even expect them. This exhortation in Psalm 103 informs us that our praise to God must be comprehensive and continual. In other words the praise given should correspond in some measure to the blessings received. It is not sufficient to offer to God thanksgiving that is occasional and general. He has lavished upon us an abundance of blessing, it is therefore right that we should lavish upon Him an abundance of praise.
2. The sacrifice of thanksgiving
Our thankfulness should be comprehensively and continually expressed to God. But this alone is insufficient. Sincere thanksgiving costs more than just words. In the Old Testament thanksgiving made with the mouth was to be accompanied with sacrifices of thanksgiving. There are numerous examples:
The “Minhah” or grain offering was the means through which the Israelites expressed thankfulness to God for His provision of physical sustenance (Lev 2; 6:14-23). The “Shelamim” or peace offering was the means through which the Israelites expressed thankfulness for their covenantal relationship with God. Within this context thanksgiving was also offered for personal blessings such as answered prayer. It was followed by a communal meal (Lev 3; 7:11-34). Both the Minhah and Shelamim offerings were accompanied by the “Olah” or burnt offering. This was an offering made for the atonement of sin. The problem of sin had to be first addressed before other offerings could take place. It was an expression of devotion, commitment and surrender to God, and as such can also be understood as an offering of thanksgiving.
Each one of these sacrifices touched on different but related aspects of the blessings that had been given to the children of Israel. For these sacrifices to be offered acceptably preparation was necessary. The best animal or produce was selected, this was then followed by slaughtering, butchering, baking, roasting, prayer, making vows and communal fellowship corresponding to the respective offering. The process involved forethought, time, money and effort. In other words it was costly.
God expected His people to praise Him with their mouths, but words alone were insufficient. Their thankfulness was also demonstrated through the sacrificial system. They had to give something of themselves. Note the comprehensive nature of the sacrifices in accordance with the comprehensive nature of God’s blessings. And there were many other occasions when the Israelites would offer thanks to God for specific blessings such as the Passover, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Esther / Purim. Each one was designed to remember God’s goodness and encourage renewed consecration.
We would have to say that thanksgiving which is not willing to extend itself beyond words is not genuine. Consider the child who thanks his mother for dinner and then balks at the idea of helping to clean up. His willingness to wash the dishes is just as much an expression of his appreciation as the words from his lips. Perhaps more so, as it’s often said, words can be cheap.
3. The life of thanksgiving
Since we no longer sacrifice to God grain, cakes, lambs, or goats, and it is insufficient to thank Him with our mouths alone, what do we offer to Him now? We offer ourselves; our lives; we are the thanksgiving offering.
Romans 12:1, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.” When Paul says “by the mercies of God” he means in light of God’s mercies. In light of the wonderful blessings which are ours in Christ Jesus, outlined in the previous 11 chapters, we are to offer ourselves to God in thanksgiving.
The language in Romans 12:1 is unmistakingly Jewish and corresponds to the thanksgiving sacrifices of the Old Testament. We see this in three ways:
a) Presentation
We are to present ourselves to God just as the priest presented an animal to Him upon the altar. Once the animal was consecrated to God in prayer, it belonged to Him. Sin was symbolically transferred to it, and its life was taken. We are to present ourselves to God as those who belong to Him – a conscious, deliberate, voluntary, purposeful, offering of thanksgiving.
How are we to make this presentation? It may seem to be an oxymoron. How can you be a living sacrifice? Sacrifices were put to death. Paul has already told us in a previous chapter.
Romans 6:1-11, “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? 2Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? 3Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 5For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. 7For he who has died has been freed from sin. 8Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. 10For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
When we were converted we were baptised into the death of Christ. We died to an old way of life; a sinful life that we were enslaved to. Through His resurrection we now have resurrection life. We are new creatures. Note what our response must be in v11, we are now to reckon (consider, regard, look upon, conclude, view) ourselves dead to sin (the old way of life) and alive to God (the new way of life). We are to embrace the work of Christ in our lives and walk with Him.
This is what Paul is saying in Romans 12:1, “present your bodies a living sacrifice”. We present ourselves to God as living sacrifices by reckoning ourselves dead to sin; dead to the world; dead to self, but alive to Him. We now make a determined, willing, thankful choice to live for God.
b) Presentation of our bodies
The use of the term “body” is probably addressing the Proto-Gnostic notion that the spirit is good and the body is wicked. This led to a false spirituality – the heart could be consecrated to God while with the body one was free to serve the flesh. Reference to the body speaks to us about the extent of the offering – our whole selves.
When the body of the animal was placed upon the altar its life was taken. The animal being dead could no longer run its own course, do its own thing; its life had expired. Likewise, we are to offer to God the entirety of our being. We live our lives through a body, when the life in the body ceases to exist, we cease to exist. Paul is saying that the life we live we now live for God, everything that makes us who we are belongs to Him. It must be presented to Him for His use. Our time, our gifts, our resources, our faculties, they are His.
Some people suppose that Christianity is purely an inward thing – they worship God from the heart but don’t have to go to church, or attend only when it suites. They compartmentalise their lives in an unbiblical dichotomy. They think Christianity is simply a question of being right with God “in heart”. In their eyes the expectation of church commitment, service, self-sacrifice, etc. is tantamount to legalism. Paul says no, we are to present ourselves in entirety upon the altar. Our clarion call is “I am not my own I belong to God. I have been bought at a price. Here I am Lord”. Christianity is inward, but that inward work of grace must be outworked.
c) Presentation of our bodies in holiness
The sacrifice of our lives to God is to be in holiness says Paul. Under the Old Covenant the sacrifices had to be without physical blemish. The best was given to God. It would hardly be an offering of sincere thanksgiving if leftovers were presented. This teaches us about the character of our offering. It is a physical picture that points to a spiritual reality.
We may tend to think of holiness only in terms of sinlessness. Holiness literally means to be set apart – consecrated to God. Vessels in the temple were described as holy, obviously not meaning sinless but consecrated for God’s use and His glory. When it comes to presenting our bodies to God as living sacrifices it’s not just a question of doing the right things, but having a heart that is consecrated to Him; a heart having been cleansed by the blood of Christ, seeks His honour and glory. Certainly our bodies are a holy offering as we put to death the desires of the flesh. But we need to go further.
When Paul speaks of this offering being presented to God, holy and acceptable, surely this touches on the issue of motivation. A sacrifice holy and acceptable is one that is made for Him; for His honour; for His satisfaction. The point being, we are not really presenting our bodies to God if through our actions we are serving ourselves. It is always possible to be busy with Christian duties, serving in all kinds of ways, but what is the motivation? To who is the sacrifice made? Are we seeking to gain the favour of others; seeking to be noticed; seeking to further our own cause, our own agenda, serving for the benefit of self; or are we doing what we are doing for the glory of God?
Consider for example the church at Ephesus in Revelation 2. The congregation was busy with the mechanics of church life yet Christ complains that they had “lost their first love”, in other words their devotion to Him.
He tells them to repent and “do the first works” meaning as Derek Thomas says “re-learning[ing] the joy of love to God” [2]. The Pharisees were also people who did the right things, such as prayer and giving alms but the motivation was wrong. They were concerned only to be noticed and to receive the accolades of men.
A holy sacrifice is one which has in view the glory of God.
4. The logic of thanksgiving
This idea of “living as a sacrifice”, may seem unrealistic because it is too demanding. Paul says however that this is “your reasonable service”.
The word reasonable in Greek is “logikos”, from which we get logical. To present yourself to God as a living sacrifice is the logical demonstration of thankfulness. It can also be translated as rational. The only rational response for those who have received the mercies of God is to wholeheartedly consecrate themselves to Him for His glory.
It is reasonable when we think of it in comparative terms. In giving Christ to us, God has given us His all. Bearing in mind of course that we were deserving only of damnation. God sent His beloved Son while we were His enemies; it was not for those who loved God that Christ came, but those who were living in wilful rebellion. Furthermore with Christ, God has also given to us every other thing necessary in this life. As Paul points out in Romans 8:31-32, “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?
If God was prepared to sacrifice His own Son in order to purchase eternal life for underserving sinners, is it unreasonable for us to yield up our lives as an offering of thankfulness. Far from it, it is the only logical response! God gave His all, how can we hold anything back? A few short years of self-sacrifice are but a drop in the ocean compared to the cost of our salvation and all of the many blessings which it involves. We should look upon this as a privilege not a chore.
To fail to yield up one’s life in thankfulness is to resemble the nine lepers who failed to acknowledge Christ, only worse. Believers have been delivered from a far worse leprosy than that which eats the flesh, a leprosy which destroys body and soul in hell. Thanklessness is unfitting for a Christian, in fact a thankless Christian is a misnomer. Thanklessness belongs to those who are strangers to grace.
Conclusion
How are we to live thankfully before God? By placing ourselves daily upon the altar. We must thank God with our mouths for His blessings, but words that are not at the same time accompanied with a consecrated life, is hypocrisy. Genuine thankfulness costs us something.
When there are needs in the church – Sunday school teachers, setting up and cleaning, providing lifts, meals, doing odd jobs, etc. we must reckon ourselves to be dead to self but alive to God.
When the priority of seeking first the kingdom of God is challenged, whether it is through work opportunities, the lure of hobbies, the expectations of family, etc. we must reckon ourselves to be dead to self but alive to God.
When we lack the courage to share the Gospel, lack the confidence or motivation to lead family worship, lack the discipline for Bible meditation and prayer, we must reckon ourselves to be dead to self but alive to God.
Let the greatest living sacrifice of all have the final say. Luke 9:23-24, “Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. 24For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it.”
[1] JI Packer & Carolyn Nystrom “Praying” pp. 99-100
[2] Derek Thomas “Let’s study Revelation” pg.21