Word of Salvation – Vol. 24 No. 37 – June 1978

 

The Christian Life – A Life Of Thanksgiving

 

Sermon by Rev. P. Koster, B.D. on Colossians 2:6-7

Scripture reading: Psalm 73, Colossians 1:15-23, 2:1-7

Psalter Hymnal: 212; 139; 14; 440

 

Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ,

The last few words of our text today call us to be thankful. The Christian life, says Paul, is one where there ought to be an abundance, an overflowing of thanksgiving. But we must also be realists, don’t you think? After all, there are many circumstances in which we simply don’t feel thankful. When we are in financial difficulties, or when there is trouble in the home, or perhaps we have lost a loved one, then we don’t feel brimming over with thankfulness. Often, and even for much less reason than the ones just mentioned, our feelings are just the opposite. Sometimes we can’t even say why; we’re just ‘down’.

This is what had happened in the Psalm we read earlier. Asaph was ‘down’ and while he was down, he started looking at others who seemed as if everything was just fine with them. “Look at him, he doesn’t have my problem. “Boy, have they got it good.” “They never seem to have any troubles like we do. That is the natural inclination of the human heart. When we’re down, we like to take it out on someone, and this can be one way in which we subconsciously fulfil that desire. But it is a very dangerous thing to do.

In the first place, we ought to walk a mile in the other man’s shoes before we begin to envy him. Who knows what burdens he must silently bear, or what private griefs he must carry? Who can see into the depths of his heart but God alone, or who can enter into his thoughts but He who is Lord of all? Who then, would dare to be envious? The grass may not be as green as it looks.

But in the second place, and this is even more important, it is dangerous to our very salvation. It may hinder us from receiving the grace of God and from responding to that grace properly. This is what had happened to Asaph. In the first few verses of Psalm 73 he relates how he had almost fallen because of this problem. Asaph was down. We are not told what his sorrow was. We are only told that he suffered all the day long and that it happened every day. You find this in verse 14, where we read: “For all the day long I have been stricken, and chastened every morning.” Perhaps it was an illness or injury, perhaps it was the suffering caused by the loss of a loved one, perhaps it was poverty and destitution. We do not know. And it doesn’t matter.

What is important for us is that in his sorrow and affliction he was led to envy those whom he thought suffered less than he did. He noticed wicked people, perhaps contributing or even responsible for his sorrow, who had no sorrow themselves. And we will all understand that this bred bitterness and envy, perhaps even enmity and hatred in his heart.

We have already said that this would be dangerous to our very salvation, were we to allow the same situation to arise in our lives. Never may we harbour these sort of feelings in our hearts under the cover of excuses such as “I have every right to feel this way”, or “God has caused me much suffering, He will forgive my bitterness”.

We can see in Asaph’s Psalm the evidence of the eternal danger of this attitude. There are two things worth noting. First, it led Asaph to accuse God of being unfair, unjust. This in turn affected his relationship with God adversely. How can we love a God Whom we believe to be unjust? It is not possible! We will then fear God only for His power and majesty, and certainly not for His tender love and mercy. Thus Asaph wrote in verses 21 and 22: “When my soul was embittered, when I was pricked in heart, I was stupid and ignorant, I was like a beast toward thee.” A beast, who fears his master’s power and grovels before it. Is this the sort of relationship that God calls us into? Is this the reason for sending His Son Jesus to die on the cross for our sins?

No, if we allow our relationship with God to degenerate into something like that, then it is a denial of the cross of Christ. For Christ did not die that we might be as beasts towards God, but that we might be sons, and fellow-heirs with Him.

But the second thing that we notice is that Asaph lost the sense of meaning in his depressed life. “All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence” (vs.13). What is the good, he asks himself, of loving God and trying to please Him, when He repays me thus with misfortune? And thus he also loses his incentive to please God, as we might easily expect when we consider how his relationship with God had been affected. And so, with no true love for God in his heart, and no sense of meaning or value in his life, truly does he say, “my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had well-nigh slipped.”

We may also record however, that this was not Asaph’s final state. He solved his problem by turning again to look at the Lord. He stopped looking at others but looked to Him Who is the Author and Giver of life, Who sustains all things by His mighty word of power, Who is the shelter of the oppressed and the Comforter of those that mourn. He sees again how wonderfully the Lord has led him. “Thou dost hold my right hand, Thou dost guide me with Thy counsel, and afterward Thou wilt receive me to glory” (vss.23,24). In other words; Asaph was led by God’s Spirit to solve his problem and regain a sure footing by giving thanks.

And it is to this same duty and delight that the Apostle Paul draws our attention in this text with which we are dealing. Paul, in fact, lays great stress upon this concept. Five times in the four chapters of this letter Paul urges the Colossians to be thankful. As well as that, he himself expresses his gratitude for the Colossians (1.3). In fact Paul makes a similar expression of gratitude in all the letters that bear his name, except Galatians. He was concerned to show that gratitude is so essential to the Christian life that the two really are inseparable.

What he is saying in our text is that the Christian life is a life of thanksgiving. Nor is that thanksgiving due to God’s blessing us with health and wealth and happiness. As if we have the right to withhold thanksgiving if the Lord withdraws these earthly blessings. Of course we recognize, along with James, the brother of Jesus, that every good gift comes from God. So also we never cease to give Him thanks for these gifts of His grace.

But in doing all this we may never lose sight of the fact that the Christian life is a life-of-thanksgiving because it is rooted and built up in Christ, as Paul puts it in our text. Here is the chief cause of and reason for thanksgiving. Some people have difficulty in thanksgiving because they are not looking at this, but rather keep their eyes on earthly things. They need to take heed to the words of our Lord Jesus. “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” And to the words of the Apostle Paul, “Set your mind on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.”

Thanksgiving is not the result of searching for something for which we can give thanks, but of living in Christ. We are rooted and built up in Him, our text says. This indicates a very close and intimate relationship between Jesus and His followers. It reminds us somewhat of Asaph’s declaration: “I am continually with Thee.” Abounding in thanksgiving is the manifestation of living in Christ.

Living in Christ is a necessary result of our justification and redemption. It is no mere optional extra. Justification and salvation are not things which happened once long ago, and now it is our duty in life to be as good as we can in order to show our thanks. No, justification means new life, and its effects are ongoing. We are, as a result of justification by faith, living by that faith that justifies us. And thus living in Christ is not an alternative available to the Christian, it is the only way in which he can live.

When we are justified by faith, resulting in a new life in Christ, then we are truly rooted and built up in Him. The newness of our life consists of a new direction. We have new aims, goals and purposes. Before, it was all for self. Our motives would range from the most crass egotism and self-gratification to perhaps more gentle versions of the same ambitions. We ourselves were in the centre of life. We loved in order to be loved. We gave to get.

And although we still sometimes find these motives in us, as the result of still living in our mortal bodies, yet our basic ideals have radically changed in Christ and by His grace. Now it is He Who is the centre of our lives. It is for His glory that we now live. Now, living in Christ, we love because we have been loved. We give because we have received. Our life is now, from beginning to end, and in all aspects, in Christ. It is rooted in Him, by the Holy Spirit applying justification to us through faith. It is built up in Him as that same Spirit works sanctification in our hearts. And in this way we are to continue in Christ by faith.

Thus it becomes clear how the Christian life can be nothing else than a life of thanksgiving.

Paul adds to this concept by exhorting his fellow-believers to abound in thanksgiving. This word ‘abound’ could just as well be translated ‘overflow!. Thanksgiving is not merely a part of the Christian life, it is the Christian life, and to such an extent that we are to overflow with thanksgiving. It is as if our lives are too small a vessel for the thanksgiving that results from a knowledge of Christ as Saviour. The response to God’s grace cannot be contained within us because this grace is realized in us through Christ’s death and resurrection.

And it is no wonder that our mortal lives are too small for the new life in us. For we are yet in this world, still waiting for the return of our Lord and the absolute redemption of our lives. When that happens, then our thanksgiving will be able to find full and complete expression, no longer hampered by the sad results that sin works in our lives and in the world.

But even now, in our present situation, our lives may abound in thanksgiving. It is the only Christian life. When something overflows, it is seen; and so is our abounding thanksgiving something which will be seen. It cannot be hidden. Thanksgiving is not only for the depths of our hearts which no man can see, but it is for our whole life, and it will be seen, also by men.

If the Spirit has indeed justified us by faith in Christ, then we will surely be living a new life in Christ, rooted and built up in Him. And then we will also bear fruits that befit repentance; fruit that will be seen. Thanksgiving consists of love for God and for fellow man, especially those of the household of faith. Love is seen in our willingness to help and to encourage, our reluctance to criticize and break down. It is seen in our faithfulness to God and His Word. It is seen in obedience. It is seen in our zeal for God’s Kingdom.

In Psalm 116:12, we have a question which is echoed in the heart of every believer: “What shall I render to the Lord for all His benefits to me?” Our whole life in Christ will be a song, a song of thanksgiving:

Whole-hearted thanksgiving to Thee I will bring,
In praise of Thy marvellous deeds I will sing,
In Thee I will joy and exultingly cry,
Thy Name I will praise O Jehovah most High:

Prayer:

We thank You, Heavenly Father, for the wonderful love You have given us in Jesus Your Son. That He was willing to suffer and die for our sakes, despite our rebellion against You. Fill our hearts with un-utterable awe and joy. We pray that the gratitude we express with our lips might also be expressed in our lives, so that all men may see and know that we belong to Jesus. Help us to set our minds on things that are above. Lead us, guide us and strengthen us by Your Spirit so that we may truly abound in thanksgiving. Hear us for Jesus’ sake.

AMEN.