As we get ready for Thanksgiving, our world begins to fill with calls to remember all the reasons we have to be thankful. All the blessings, all the gifts, all the treasures. From family, to friends, to health and happiness, all are reasons to rejoice in this holiday season.
But there is one thankfulness that trumps them all.
I am thankful that I have been saved from my sin.
The Bible is clear that I could not have saved myself. The debt of my sin was too great. I could not repay it with anything short of my life, my soul, my eternity in just judgment.
That's the sad reality that Psalm 49 begins with...
Psalms 49:7-9 - "Truly no man can ransom another,
or give to God the price of his life,
8 for the ransom of their life is costly
and can never suffice,
9 that he should live on forever
and never see the pit."
What hope would you and I have if the pit is our only future? How could we ever be thankful in this world with that dark specter of death and hell looming over us? How could Thanksgiving be anything other than a great game of pretend? What temporal blessings could overtake the shadow of impending doom?
They would all seem small, fleeting, insufficient. And they would be.
Thanksgiving would be a fool's holiday.
I'm thankful though that my death is not the end of Psalm 49 and it
is not the end of my story. I'm thankful that God himself paid the price that I could not. That he redeemed me when I could not and would not redeem myself.
Psalms 49:15 - "But God will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol, for he will receive me. Selah"
I don't know what things you'll be thankful for this week. But our chief thanksgiving should always be that God sent his Son to die in our place. That he paid our debt, lifted our curse, and brought life from our body of death.
Don't let Thanksgiving be a day of pretend for you. No number of blessing posts can undo the fact that someone has to pay for your sin. No amount of laughter or glee around the family table can turn away that hellish reality. Your future is found either in the pit or the cross.
Let this hope, this praise, this blessing of God ransoming your soul be the great light that shines on all the other blessings of your life. May all your Thanksgiving blessings be bathed in the bright light of the gospel.