We are told in 2 Timothy 3:1-4 that in the last days, the days between Jesus’ resurrection and second coming, men/mankind will become increasingly depraved and degenerate. We are provided with a list of how that depravity will be manifested and it includes being unthankful. I personally see this very clearly in our society today, especially with many young people who seem to feel entitled to the good things they receive from others, joining an ever- increasing number who reject God as the ultimate source of their good and thus unworthy of their praise and thanksgiving (Deuteronomy 8:17).
Ingratitude is a disease of the sin-corrupted human heart that denies, distrusts and disdains God as the source of all goodness (Jeremiah 17:9). In Romans 1:18-32, it is presented as a moral issue, resulting in the disordering of God’s good creation and the depravity of man’s nature and character, making us worthy of God’s wrath and judgement that is experienced in all of the afflictions and miseries of this life, culminating in death and eternal misery in the next (Psalm 9:17).
Evidence of a heart of ingratitude includes complaining, grumbling and murmuring, envy and jealousy, coveting and discontent, a sense of entitlement, a victim mentality, a critical spirit and inordinate anger. The devil, a fallen angel, discontent with his position as the anointed or most high cherub and envious of God’s, arouses in man the same envy and discontent that motivated him to challenge and covet God’s position in the beginning, resulting in his exclusion from the glorious presence of God, with Hell as his ultimate destiny (Ezekiel 28:14-15) (Isaiah 14:12-15) (Genesis 3:1-4) (Matthew 25:41).
In Genesis 3:1, this same devil, referred to here as the serpent (Revelation 12:9), begins to stir up in the first man and woman, Adam and Eve, discontent with God, beginning with the question “Did God really say, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” Then in verse 4 we read, “Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
Adam, the federal representative of the human race, had been warned by God that the day he ate of the forbidden fruit he would “surely die”– be cut off forever from all that God had created and called good (Genesis 1:31) (Genesis 2:15-17). He and Eve had been given dominion, rule over all of God’s good and harmonious creation to freely enjoy (1 Timothy 6:17). They were created in the image and likeness of God such that they and their offspring may enjoy the goodness of God, as God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit have enjoyed throughout eternity. They would live in intimate relationship with one another, but most gloriously with Him who was and would be the source of all of their good (Genesis 1:26- 28) (James 1:17). They were given the glorious privilege of procreation, as they would, with God, bring forth other beings in His image and likeness who would with them enjoy the goodness of God.
However, Adam would find the promise of being like God, free to determine for himself good and evil, free from God’s rule and any accountability to God, a proposition far too attractive to turn down. And in the ultimate expression of ingratitude, he foolishly partakes of the fruit. (This was after cowardly watching Eve partake and seeing nothing bad happen to her.)
Upon this one treacherous act of disobedience toward and distrust of the infinitely good God who in love created them to know and love Him as the source of all of their good, God’s promise of death, being cut off from the glorious life with God for which they were created, is fulfilled (Jeremiah 31:3) (Jeremiah 9:23-24) (Genesis 3:24). God allows them to keep their physical life on earth for a time, while assuring them that they will be cut off from that also in time, and that life on this earth, where everything that God created was to be a blessing, will now resist them (and us) and require great labor to overcome (Genesis 3:17-19).
Thankfully, in the midst of His judgement on Adam and all of his progeny (Romans 5:12), God in His judgement of the serpent/devil, who “enticed” Adam into this treacherous act of ingratitude, makes a cryptic promise of restoration of man and creation back to His ultimate purpose of displaying in them the glory of His goodness (Romans 8:18-25). God reveals that the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent and in the process “bruise his heel” (Genesis 3:15). That Seed will ultimately be identified as God the Son, Jesus Christ who we are told in 1 John 3:8, would come into this world to destroy the works of the devil (Galatians 3:16) (Galatians 4:4).
Throughout human history God would and has displayed the glory of His goodness in His mercy and grace toward undeserving, condemned sinners such as I – and you, as it is his nature and character to do so (Psalm 145:1-21) (Isaiah 30:18). The ultimate expression of the glory of God’s goodness though would be displayed in Him sending God the Son, Jesus Christ, into this world to reveal once and for all eternity the glory of His goodness and grace to those who will repent of their sin-generating ingratitude and embrace and be thankful to Him as their Saviour and the source of all of their good (John 1:10-16) (John 3:16) (Hebrews 13:15).
God, in the ultimate expression of His goodness would, through the redeeming work of Jeus, accomplish everything necessary to justly forgive men and women our sin, rescuing us from His judgment in Hell and restoring us to the glorious relationship with Him for which man was created – what the Bible refers to as eternal life (Romans 6:23) (John 17:1-3).
Jesus, God the Son, came into this world as a man, and as a man He lived the life of perfect obedience and unwavering trust in and thankfulness for the goodness and love of God the Father toward Him as a man (Luke 10:21). While in the world, Jesus is subjected to the same temptations we are subjected to and more but never sinned (Hebrews 4:15). He lived the perfectly holy and righteous life God requires for any man or woman to live in His glorious presence in Heaven (Psalm 24:3-6). He then credits or imputes His righteousness to all who repent of their sin and entrust their life to Him as both Savior and Lord (Acts 3:19) (Romans 10:9-10) (2 Corinthians 5:21).
Jesus then goes to the Cross, where He bears their guilt and shame; taking upon Himself the justice and judgment – the condemnation and wrath of God they deserve, wherein on the cross He suffers the full experience of an excruciating death and the torments of Hell in their place (Isaiah 53:5-8). He restores them to spiritual life and gives them a new heart (Jeremiah 24:6-7), a heart of gratitude such that they can now know, love and be loved by God as they were created for in the beginning and one day live with Him in a new world, a New Heavens and New Earth, where the amazing grace and inexhaustible goodness of God will be enjoyed and exalted in their never ending expressions of praise and thanksgiving to the one who loved them and gave His life for them (Romans 5:8-11) (Galatians 2:20) (Revelation 21:1-3).
This is the Gospel – the Good News of how God has proven once and for all eternity that He is truly good – and does good (Romans 1:16) (Psalm 119:68).
The present and eternal blessedness of this Good News is summarized for us in Ephesians 1:3-14 and Ephesians 2:1-10. God then reveals to us 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, how we are to live our lives in this world if we have been the beneficiaries of this Good News when the Apostle Paul writes, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”
I realize this is a long post, however I must conclude it with this wonderful exclamation from the writings of our friend Jonathan Edwards who writes, “The redeemed have all their objective good in God. God himself is the great good which they are brought to the possession and enjoyment of by redemption. He is the highest good, and the sum of all that good which Christ purchased. God is the inheritance of the saints; he is the portion of their souls. God is their wealth and treasure, their food, their life, their dwelling place, their ornament and diadem, and their everlasting honor and glory. They have none in heaven but God; he is the great good which the redeemed are received to at death, and which they are to rise to at the end of the world. The Lord God, he is the light of the heavenly Jerusalem; and is the ‘river of the water of life’ that runs, and the tree of life that grows, ‘in the midst of the paradise of God’. The glorious excellencies and beauty of God will be what will forever entertain the minds of the saints, and the love of God will be their everlasting feast. The redeemed will indeed enjoy other things; they will enjoy the angels and will enjoy one another: but that which they shall enjoy in the angels, or each other, or in anything else whatsoever, that will yield them delight and happiness, will be what will be seen of God in them.”
May we rejoice in and continuously give thanks for the Goodness of God.
Grace and Peace x
Seek HIM early
while HE may be found !
💛