Christ Jesus, the Most Thankful Man
11/23 Reading Portions: 1 Chronicles 18; James 5; Jonah 2; Luke 7
Online Bible Audio/Readings Links (ESV)
11/23 Reading Portions: 1 Chronicles 18; James 5; Jonah 2; Luke 7
Jonah 2:9
“But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to You; what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the LORD!”
THANKSGIVING
Today, Jonah’s prophetic utterances give us another insight for growth in grace and strengthening in faith… with great thanksgiving.
As the Good Shepherd, Jesus laid down His life willingly to redeem His sheep (Jn 10:18). Have you ever considered that Jesus also gave Himself over as the perfect sacrifice with the voice of thanksgiving? —that after He earnestly contended in prayer in the garden as a holy Man about to face the wrath of God through the shame of the cross (Luke 22:44; Heb 12:2), and that afterward He arose from prayer saying, “Your will be done” (Matt 26:42); and thus, Jesus did so with the voice of thanksgiving!
Consider this— no person ever lived who was more thankful than Jesus Christ. In the gospels we find the Lord Jesus giving thanks continually: breaking bread to feed the multitudes (John 6:11); in His prayer before raising Lazarus from the dead (John 11:41); and when He instituted the communion (Luke 18:11). Jesus is not only the thrice holy Son of God, but He is also the thrice thankful Son of Man.
Are we thankful for such a perfect Christ? The best of our appreciation is still stained with enough corruptions of the sinful flesh we were born with that we need Christ’s perfect thankfulness to be imputed to us; that is, we need the righteousness of perfect thanksgiving, which was fulfilled only in Christ’s life, to be placed upon our account by God’s grace, since our gratitude to God falls short of God’s glory. Don’t be condemned by it. Instead, thank God, in Christ, for it.
Rejoice with great thanksgiving and exalt the Lord Jesus Christ, for the wonderful details God provides in His holy Word to encourage us all because of Christ’s amazing truth! Hallelujah! What a Savior!
O, Father, Christ was thankful and
His praise was pure and whole;
Shape me for glory in Your hand,
By Christ, my only goal.