20.3 Give Thanks
© 2015 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you (1 Thessalonians 5:18). – Giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ (Ephesians 5:20).
When we once lived as Christians, yes, but separated from Jesus in the imagination of our minds, we heard every word God speaks out from this imaginary way of thinking. Thus, the verses themselves seem to speak of such separation. But now as we hear all things through symmorphy, through our being braided together as one person with the Father by every word that is Jesus, then it’s as if the verses are now written in a new language.
Accusation Against God
Giving thanks comes out of the core of symmorphy, out of the source of our assurance.
In contrast, the greatest accusation against God coming out of the human experience is this. If God is all power and if God is all love, then how can such evil be committed continually against good people? If God has the power to prevent evil actions against innocent people and does not use that power, but just sits there observing without acting, then He cannot be love. And if God is all love, wanting the evil actions to stop, but nothing stops and the evil just keeps on happening, then God cannot be all power.
Christian Accusation
Christians develop this vast accusation more fully. If I am a child of God, if God orders all my steps, then why on earth does God allow all these terrible things to happen to me?
Both of these accusations, accusations we have voiced in our own hearts, come out of a very specific definition of “God.” The “all power versus all love” argument is just a smoke screen. All humans, including most Christians, define God by the serpent, believing that it is the serpent who is the image of God. And this accusation does not come only out of false intellectual knowledge about God, but rather out from a hatred and rejection of we humans being the ones who are God’s image.
Love Is Not Finished
Giving thanks is right at the core of the great story of God. – Let God be true but every man a liar. As it is written: “That You may be justified in Your words, and may overcome when You are accused” (Romans 3:4 – modified).
God CANNOT do everything that could be done. God cannot sin. God cannot violate the integrity of any created being. God is something entirely other than what they imagine. You see, this definition of God is childish, casting God as some “deity,” some “demigod,” and not the One, the thick water, in whom all things exist and who sustains all things good.
And Love is not finished until it has won all hearts to love.
The Power of Life
You see, God power is the power of an endless life. God carries everything inside Himself, bearing in His own Person the brunt and force of every evil action. Every evil action is committed against the very Person of the Father before it ever hits the created individual. God takes every blow that hits against me, utterly together with me.
And the power of life is that ability in God to cause every action intended for evil to turn into resulting goodness and life. The power of God is Gethsemane, a Man willing to become all that hurts and to carry all of it to life – for us and with us.
Synergy of Action
And that brings us back to Romans 8:28 – modified to fit it’s true meaning.
Because I know that I love God, because I know that God has called me forth as His revelation, I KNOW that God and I are working together in perfect synergy, penetrating ALL, everything that happens and every circumstance and person in our lives, with utter goodness. – Wow, I may now have to re-write Session 3!
And what is our part inside this synergy of action, two persons moving as one? We give thanks, and in giving thanks, all things become good.
All Times and All Things
Giving thanks in and for all things is how we live, every moment, out from the source of our assurance, out from the core of our substance.
Paul just loves that word “all,” pas, panta, a word that makes mincemeat out of all human theology. Notice also the root of the word for giving thanks: Eucharist!
- En – inside the sphere of everything, give thanks.
- Hyper - over, beyond; on behalf of, for the sake of, concerning. Hypér ("beyond") is usually best translated "for the betterment or advantage of," that is, focusing on benefit.
You see, it’s very simple. When we give thanks FOR (hyper) all things, we are focused entirely on the benefit, the blessings and advantages of goodness, that must flow out from God and us together making all things good. Isn’t this cool? Giving thanks is how we set creation free!
Now, in prior lessons, I have made two specific claims about this seventh most important verse in the Bible. I have claimed that by this verse we would live forever entirely in NOT-sin, that we would leave sin behind us forever. And I have claimed that by this verse, we would live now in practical terms in all the resurrection life of Christ, even while we do not yet see.
Sharing Pain Together
At the core of my claims is this one command. Give Thanks!
We must understand how giving thanks inside the sphere of and for the benefits coming from all things makes these two claims true and real in our lives right now. Let’s make it practical. (I am not referring to my own self, but as one of the worst things that could happen to an individual.)
“I give thanks inside the sphere of cancer and for all the benefits of goodness coming out from this horrific cancer in my body, even as I expect God to arise as healing in me. The Father and I together, sharing this pain together, are causing it to turn into unimaginable goodness and benefit for ourselves and for all whom we love.”
Gethsemane
Jesus, in going forth from Gethsemane, did not leave Gethsemane, the revelation of the Father’s heart, behind. On the Day of Pentecost, Jesus came again, now to become this same Gethsemane inside of us.
This is resurrection life, life laid down and love poured out. This is you and me. By giving thanks, we walk together as one person with the Father, sharing all things together with Him. By giving thanks, we walk in sinless perfection, transforming the outcome of everything, together with the Father, into unending goodness and blessing.
Alive Forevermore
By giving thanks inside the sphere of and for all the benefits flowing out from every circumstance of our lives. – Every stumble, every triumph, every fall, every arising, every hurt, every soothing balm, every tear, every joy, every laugh, every sorrow, every atrocity, every selfless act, every attack, every assistance, every encouragement, every discouragement, every sickness, every healing, every death and every life.
By giving thanks, we are walking every moment AS IF we are one with the Father, as if Jesus is our only life, as if the resurrection has already happened, as if we are alive forevermore. By giving thanks, we walk with God.
Let Us Give Thanks
Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength … Those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint (Isaiah 40:28-31).
Let us live, every moment, in the core of our substance, in the source of our assurance. Let us walk with the Father, as one person together. Let us give thanks.