Thanksgiving 2025 - Thankful for the Gospel

Thanksgiving 2025

Thankful for the Gospel

 We are going to take a break from 2 Thessalonians this morning. I have a tendency to live in my own little world, not paying much attention to the calendar, so I didn’t realize Thanksgiving was upon us. It actually dawned on me about 4:30 Tuesday morning that this coming Sunday was the Sunday before Thanksgiving. I thought it might be good to take a break from 2 Thessalonians and do a message that sets our minds on the theme of Thanksgiving. This holiday, as well as Christmas and Resurrection Day, are about the only holidays I break from whatever we are studying.

As I laid there at 4:30 Tuesday morning my next thought was, “Ok, what will I preach?” As I considered this I naturally thought about what it is that we as Christians have to be most thankful for. I immediately thought of Romans 8:1. I thought, “That would be a great Thanksgiving message.” By that time I’m too engaged in these considerations to ever be able to go back to sleep, so I got up and made a cup of coffee and got my Bible. After my own personal time in the word and with the Lord I went to my office and looked back at sermon files of the Thanksgiving messages of the past and saw that I had just preached a Thanksgiving message on Romans 8:1-4 back in 2022. I figured if I didn’t remember preaching it there was little chance any of you would remember it, but still I decided not to re-preach the same message.

While I’m not reproaching the same message, I can’t get far from this important blessing. Of all the things for which we could and should give thanks this week, as well as every day of our lives, it is the promise that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. The secular emphasis on this holiday tells us to be thankful for family, friends, and our material abundance. I am thankful for those things. But I always believe that as Christians our thanksgiving celebration should focus much more on the spiritual blessings than the material. The material things are temporal. The spiritual blessings are eternal. And among our spiritual blessings I have a hard time putting my finger on a greater blessing than my no condemnation standing before a holy and just Judge.

So I thought, if I am not going to preach on that blessing, then maybe I should preach a message on what makes Romans 8:1 true. A simple reading of Romans 8:1 reveals that this is a statement of a result. If this no condemnation standing belongs to those who are “in Christ Jesus” then the most important question to be answered then is “How then does a person come to be found in Christ Jesus?” This is a question of no insignificant importance. There isn’t a more important question. The answer to that question, at the most basic level, is the gospel. We come to our no condemnation standing in Christ Jesus because the gospel is true. When the gospel is heard and believed we are placed in Christ. By grace we are save through faith.

The gospel is the good news whereby guilty sinners, who deserve nothing less than eternal condemnation, are transferred to this no condemnation standing. The word “therefore” in Romans 8:1 points us back to the truth explained in the first seven chapters. Those chapters contain the most comprehensive and detailed explanation of the gospel to be found in the Bible. Romans 8:1 is true because the gospel is true. It is the truth of the gospel, when understood and believed, results in our being placed “in Christ Jesus.”

 I want to challenge you to be thankful during this Thanksgiving celebration, as well as during every day of the rest of your life, because the gospel is true. I am thankful for the gospel. I am thankful for the good news of salvation freely given by God’s grace to those who repent and place faith in Jesus Christ. I want to help you deepen your appreciation for the good news of the gospel.

You might be thinking, “Brad, isn’t the gospel for the lost?” I think it is a mistake to think that the gospel is something you hear once and believe, resulting in salvation, and then you move on to the issues related to living the Christian life. If there is one thing that 40 years as a Christian, and 35 plus years of teaching the Scriptures has taught me, it is that I need the gospel as much today as I did the first time I heard and considered its truth. I live with the reality of my need for the gospel, not just every day, but constantly throughout each and every day.

What is it that has convinced me of this? It is the fact that I have yet to live a single day of the Christian life in perfect sinlessness. I start out every day doing really good – then I wake up. It is never very long after I wake up that I am confronted with an ugly truth. I am still a sinner. I was hoping when I went to sleep the night before that I might wake up the next morning and find a new reality, but it hasn’t happened yet. The sinner who laid his head on the pillow to go to sleep, wakes up with the same plague. He awakens as a sinner. So I ask you, “Who needs the gospel?” The answer is “sinners need the gospel.”

Romans 8:1 says that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. It doesn’t say that there is now no condemnation for those who have achieved sinless perfection, or who have successfully memorized the New Testament, or who have managed to get victory over their worst sinful inclination. It doesn’t say that there is now no condemnation for those who have figured out a way to keep from deserving the condemnation that sinners deserve. Listen, we don’t stand in this status of those not condemned because we deserve to be there. We stand there because of the grace of a merciful and loving God who chose us from before the foundation of the world and set His affection on us and called us according to His purpose. We stand there because we have been given the righteousness of Christ. That is the truth of the gospel.

I stand as much in need of the gospel today as I did the day before I believed. In fact, in many ways the gospel has a sweeter aroma today than it did when I first believed. The longer I live the Christian life the more I experience victory over sin. I am more sensitive to the conviction of the Holy Spirit. There are some things that I do not struggle with as fiercely as I once did. I’m not claiming perfection because there is still a lot of garbage to deal with. But what has also happened is an intensification of the awareness of the corruption that still resides. Not only am I more aware, I am also more and more disgusted with my sin.

Paul wrote in Romans 7:22-25, “For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.” If I understand correctly what Paul describes in Romans 7, he describes the same struggle I think we all experience. We know that Christ is our Savior and Lord. He has delivered us from the penalty of sin. But we long to be set free from the power and presence of sin. Since we still live with the power of sin and in the presence of sin, I submit to you that this is why I need the gospel every day.

So this morning I want to prepare your hearts for the giving of thanks to God for the gospel, the good news for sinners. The gospel is good news for sinners who are still lost in sin. The gospel is good news even for saints who still struggle with sin. So to help prepare our hearts, and to encourage us to give thanks for the gospel, I want to invite you to turn to 1 Timothy 1. Let’s begin reading in verse 12. I should take the time to set the context. The short version is that Timothy has been left in Ephesus to be the pastor and to correct false doctrines. False doctrine always takes aim at the gospel. It seeks to change and corrupt the truth concerning how a person comes to salvation. Paul is using his own testimony as an example of gospel truth. 

Read verses 12-14. Paul describes the transformation of his life. Christ had redeemed Paul and put him in to service. This service is described in verse 11. Paul had been entrusted with the gospel of the blessed God. Christ had put him into this service even though he had been a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor. If you are unfamiliar with that part of Paul’s life go back and read the book of Acts. He was leading the assault on Christians when he was converted to Christ on the road to Damascus. You find that in Acts 9.

Verse 14 explains more of this miraculous transformation of Paul’s life. The grace of our Lord was more than abundant. It was the product of the faith and love Paul found in Christ Jesus. The work of salvation had brought about a radical transformation of Paul. So tremendous was the transformation that his name didn’t even seem to fit anymore. He went from Saul to Paul. He went from being a persecutor and violent aggressor trying to stamp out the church to the most effective missionary the church has ever had.

It was this transformation that became the reason Paul says what he says next in verse 15. Verse 15 says, “It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all.” There is a lot to unpack from this verse but this is a declaration of the gospel that you can let absorb into your heart and mind, and be ready to glorify God as you give thanks. This is rich. This is fuel for the thanksgiving fire.

Let’s begin at the end of verse 15. Based on the transformation of Paul from the blasphemer and persecutor and violent aggressor to the preeminent missionary of the early church, we might expect Paul to say that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of which I was the foremost. Paul says “I am foremost.” The KJV translates it “chief.” The word is “protos.” It literally means “the first.” Paul is saying that if we were to rank all sinners he would be in first place. I am the greatest, the most prominent. And the tense and mood of the verb is a present tense, indicative mood. The present tense verb in the Greek indicates continuous action happening at the present time. The indicative mood is the mood of certainty or reality.

Paul was no longer a blasphemer, or a persecutor of the church, or a violent aggressor. God’s grace had changed all that. He was a new creation in Christ. Old things had passed away, new things had come. Yet, Paul still saw himself as a sinner whom Christ Jesus came into the world to save. In fact, he saw himself as the foremost sinner. Paul did not say this because he didn’t understand the doctrines of grace. This is not a denial of the transforming work of God. He understood perfectly that he would stand before the Lord clothed in the righteousness of Christ. He feared no judgment and expected no condemnation. But he knew he was still a sinner and because of this the blessed and precious news of the gospel still sounded sweet to his ears. So it should for us.

Let’s look at a few more details of this verse. “It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance…” Paul’s experience convinced him that this was a trustworthy statement. He knew how he had changed. He knew that this change was because the grace of our Lord was more than abundant. He had found faith and love in Christ. He knew Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners because he was one of those sinners who had been saved.

This is not a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance because Paul had experienced the reality of it. The lives of those transformed by the gospel are a worthy testament to the truth of the gospel, but the gospel does not depend upon human attestation.  It was a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance because it was, as we see in verse 11, “the glorious gospel of the blessed God.” The gospel is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance because it is God’s gospel.

Jesus, who is God, proclaimed to Zaccheus in Luke 19:10, “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.” Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3:17, “For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.” This is a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance because this is what God has declared.

This is a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance. The word translated “full acceptance” means “ready and willing acknowledgment.” This is a trustworthy statement deserving of full acceptance by everyone. There are none who should reject this statement. There are none who should not believe it. There are those who would question the ability of God to save. Maybe they see themselves as beyond hope. Maybe they think they have sinned too much and rebelled and resisted God for too long. This is a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance by all who are ready and willing to acknowledge it as truth. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. He saves blasphemers and persecutors and violent aggressor. He saves criminals, one who was hanging on a cross next to his. He saves vile, heartless slave traders like John Newton. He saves fools. I am proof of that. He saves drug addicts and drunkards and prostitutes and the list goes on and on. 

This is a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance by everyone who hears it, regardless of their past, or their present, regardless of their gender, or age, or social status, or nationality, regardless of their religious past or level of intelligence.

If a mere man makes you an offer of something that sounds too good to be true, you better beware. It probably is too good to be true. There is a catch. If this were a statement from anyone other than the Holy Spirit of God, we might deem it too good to be true. But because it comes from the lips of Paul, who was writing under the direct inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and is delivering the very message of God to us, it must be believed as a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance. It is the truth of God and God is a God who cannot lie. This is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance.

What is this statement? This is perhaps the most succinct statement of the gospel found in the pages of Scripture. “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” The first words of this statement are important. Let this be lesson number one concerning the gospel. The gospel message begins with Christ Jesus. The saving work that delivers us from our sin is the work of Christ. Be careful that we do not in any way make the work of salvation the work of man. It is a supernatural work requiring a supernatural power source. It must be the work of God or it will not accomplish the eternal salvation of an eternal soul.

Let’s walk through this slowly. Christ Jesus came into the world. If you give just that statement the consideration it well deserves, you will likely have Thanksgiving come and go and you will have missed it. This involves the consideration of mysterious biblical realities like the Incarnation. Know this and ponder it deeply. The very One who spoke the world into existence came into the very world He created. The One who was eternally equal with God, possessing all the attributes of God and received glory as God, took upon Himself the bones of our bodies and the flesh of our material existence and became one of us. Christ, the anointed One, whose name was Jesus, came into the world.

You will never lack for thanks to give if you will but consider the truth that Christ Jesus came into the world. He existed in the form of God, but did not regard equality with God a thing to hold on to, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, a slave. Think carefully about that which He left, and that which He came to be. He left the glory of heaven and came to become the lowest of the low among us. How far would He go to seek and save that which is lost? His humiliation is incomprehensible. His love knows no limits. His grace is beyond measure. He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. If that isn’t the stuff that makes for a great Thanksgiving celebration, I don’t know what would be. It was the Christ, whose name is Jesus, who came into the world.

You cannot consider the gospel message that Christ Jesus came into the world without including in your thought the Cross of our Lord. He didn’t come into the world to usher in world peace. He didn’t come to set in order all social injustice. He didn’t come as a model of morality and virtue. He came as a substitute. He came as God’s perfect sacrificial Lamb who would be slain for the sin of man. He who knew no sin became sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. The infinite wrath of an infinitely holy God was poured out on the sinless God-Man who endured that wrath in our place.

How could one Man endure the infinite wrath of God for a multitude of guilty sinners? He could do that because He was an infinite being. Only God could bear that guilt. Only God could endure such sorrow and suffering. Only God, the Christ, could deliver us from the wrath of God that we deserved.

“This is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world… to save…” Ponder what this means. It is exceedingly praise worthy and cause for thanksgiving that Christ Jesus came into the world. It is even more so when we consider that Christ Jesus came into the world to save. As King of Kings and Lord of Lords would we not expect this to say that Christ Jesus came into the world to rule and reign as King. Being holy and perfect we would not be so surprised if this said that Christ Jesus came into the world to judge. Being infinitely wise and perfectly skilled as a Teacher we might expect this to say that Christ Jesus came into the world to teach us how to live. Because He was such a miracle worker and healer we would not be so surprised if it said that Christ Jesus came into the world to heal and restore.

His mission and purpose was to save. Christ Jesus came into the world to rescue hopeless and helpless people who could not save themselves. God sent His own Son into the world to save the lost from His own wrath. We have been rescued from the wrath of God. We have been delivered from the much deserved penalty of eternal hell. We have been set free from judgment. Christ Jesus has saved us from the wrath to come.

He did not come to save us from a life of meaninglessness. He did not come to simply fulfill what is missing in our life. I’ve heard the gospel shared in such a way that is designed to convince us that God created us with a “god-shaped hole” in our hearts and that the only thing that can fill that hole is Jesus. There are several problems with that but the biggest problem with it is that it deceives the hearer into believing that his biggest problem is the emptiness of his life. My friends, an empty life is not what condemns you to hell. Christ Jesus didn’t come to fill the void in your life. Christ Jesus came into the world to save. He came to deliver you from sin and the condemnation we deserve.

For me, and I think it probably should be for all of us, the sweetest sound is heard as we utter the ugliest word in this verse. “This is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save…sinners…” That includes me. I am guilty as charged. I am a sinner. 

It is not those who are well who need a physician, it is those who are sick. Jesus didn’t come to save those who are trying to earn their way to heaven by keeping the law of God. Jesus didn’t come to save those who are doing their best to please Him by doing good deeds. Jesus didn’t come to save those who are faithful to attend church, or who get baptized, or who give money, or help the poor. The gospel is not the message of salvation through human accomplishment. It is the message of salvation through divine accomplishment. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

Jesus Christ taught in the Sermon on the Mount, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” To be poor in spirit is to recognize just how spiritually bankrupt we really are. It is to see that we are guilty of breaking God’s law. We have nothing to offer God, no good deeds, no righteous acts, nothing that we can present that will gain acceptance. All we have are unrighteous, sinful, selfishly motivated actions. We are spiritually bankrupt sinners. These are those whom Jesus came to save.

Turn with me to Luke 18 for a moment. In verses 9-14 Jesus tells a parable about two men who went to the temple to pray. I know you are familiar with this parable, but we should look at it.

My Thanksgiving celebration will include thanks for my family, thanks for my church family, thanks for the material blessings of this life, thanks for my freedoms as an American, thanks for friends, and thanks for the multitude of blessings I cannot even begin to count. But my Thanksgiving celebration will focus primarily on the reality that I am a justified tax collector. I am a sinner. Now that Paul is in heaven and can no longer lay claim to the title “foremost” I think I can claim it for myself. I am thankful for the gospel. I am thankful that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all.

Let’s pray.