“Giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 5:20). This blog is the first of a series based on topics which Rev. Dr. Alfonso Espinosa treats in his book series on faith and culture.
Defining Christian Thanksgiving
While God blesses every human being, regardless of his or her spiritual status, and all people owe thanks to the same God, there is a fundamental difference in thankfulness to God from His children and thankfulness of those who don’t yet know Him through Christ. This difference is faith—faith created by the Holy Spirit. Christians are grateful to the triune God through faith in Jesus Christ.
The Holy Spirit enables Christians to be thankful because through faith they know God. God has revealed Himself to the world through His Son, Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit introduces the Son to the lost through the Gospel found in God’s Word or Holy Baptism. In truth, Christians are thankful to God through the Gift for which they ought to be most thankful. Notice the verse from Ephesians which reflects this point. Unbelievers may possess a grateful heart, but without Christ, they are able only to offer bland thanksgiving to a false, unidentified god or to the “universe” or to “life.”
The Difference in Christian Thanksgiving
Christian thanksgiving is distinct in that God’s children are thankful even for the challenges of life. While the sinful world would define blessings only as those things from God which are pleasant and profitable in the worldly sense, Christians are thankful to the Lord even for the difficulties which come from being God’s child in earthly life. Because by them, as Dr. Espinosa writes, “we would remember our need to cry out to God, to be incessant in prayer and constant in receiving God’s means of grace” (Faith That Shines in the Culture, 65).
Dr. Espinosa discusses how Christians have received two calls: the vertical call and the horizontal call. He distinguishes the two in this way. The vertical call is how God changes the lost and condemned sinner into a redeemed and saved child of the heavenly Father. God calls the sinner to Himself by the work of His Holy Spirit in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Spirit does this calling through His Word and Holy Baptism, as explained above. The horizontal call is the Christian’s mandate to be consumed in the needs and well-being of his or her neighbor. As Christians have received Christ in His fullness, and therefore need for nothing, they are able to devote themselves to the needs of the neighbor without reservation.
Thanksgiving in the Vertical Call
The Christian is thankful to God for the vertical call, and this cannot be overemphasized, because it is fully the work of God. Espinosa writes, “this is the work of God requiring nothing—and nothing means nothing—from us. We don’t coax creation, facilitate it, prepare it, guarantee it, initiate it, help it, nor open it” (Faith That Shines, 19). Our gratitude is natural. If I am the creator of my own faith in God (as many errant Christian traditions believe and teach), either in part or fully, then I am due the commensurate credit. God explains to us in the Bible that before the work of the Holy Spirit, I am lost—spiritually blind, dead, and an enemy of God, totally unable to come to faith in the Lord or to even desire to do so.
While the Christian expresses thankfulness to God through speech, song, and prayer for the vertical call, he or she also does so through embracing it. This means embracing the means of grace through which the Holy Spirit worked this call. While God’s children can always be confident that God will never leave or forsake them, Christians should be constantly wary of the remaining sinful desire to neglect the means of grace. The Holy Spirit nurtures and develops our faith in God through the Word, Holy Baptism, and Holy Communion. Our Father desires His children to receive the Word and partake of Holy Communion regularly.
Thanksgiving in the Horizontal Call
Like the vertical call, expressing gratitude to God for the horizontal call involves embracing it. First, this means being aware of and concerned with the needs of the neighbor. Through the vertical call, the Christian can do this. We pray to our heavenly Father to give us awareness and concern for the needs of the neighbor. We ask God to give us a heart like Christ, willing to submit to God’s call and to have love for the neighbor. Second, the Christian puts this heart into action for the neighbor’s benefit.
As with all the aspects of Christianity, it is apparent that even as we serve the neighbor, God blesses His children. As we live out the horizontal call, “we are freed up to forget about our spiritual temperatures and holy box-checking. Christ has set us free from sinful self-absorption” (Faith That Shines, xvi). Serving the neighbor releases Christians from vexation which comes naturally because of preoccupation with their own needs, what they have, their own satisfaction in this life, and the like. In short, the children of God emulate the Son outwardly to the neighbor.
In mercy and love, God gives the sinner both the vertical and horizontal calls. His vertical call re-creates the sinner into a forgiven child of God. His horizontal call provides the opportunity to act out this new nature, to be what God has made the Christian. Having eternal needs met fully through Christ, the new creature is freed to care for this neighbor. This is indeed something for which to be thankful.
Scripture: ESV®.
Read more about how to give thanksgiving from Rev. Dr. Alfonso Espinosa’s book Faith That Shines in the Culture.
