GETTING THE MESSAGE/Thanksgiving
When we think of Thanksgiving Day, our minds usually run to the temporal mercies of God: the blessings of family, home, job, country, and so on. And this is good, as not only every good gift comes from above, but every moment we depend upon God and hold all from him. But thanksgiving is hollow if we don’t have right thoughts about God.
The inexcusable sin charged to man by the Apostle Paul is “that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were they thankful” (Romans 1:21). The sole purpose of thanksgiving is to give glory unto God. The apostle teaches here that sin precludes thanksgiving from being sincere unto God. Therefore, the foundation of all right thanksgiving to God is through Christ Jesus.
Revelation 12:7-10 are not verses we would normally think of at Thanksgiving. But if we grasp (and believe) the substance of what they teach, we will have a foundation for thanksgiving that can never be shaken and is well pleasing to God.
In verses 7-9, there is recounted an invisible war in the heavens between Michael and his angels and the dragon and his angels. The result of the battle is that the dragon is defeated, and he and his angels are thrown down to the earth. There are two things made emphatic here.
The first is the terrible nature of the devil, indicated by the various names given to him in verse 9. He is “the great dragon.” Why would he be called a dragon, which seems like a mythological creature to us? One reason is that it is difficult for us to conceive of an evil such as this. He is extremely powerful and deadly.
His power is especially in deception as the next title reminds us. He is “the ancient serpent,” recalling his success in deceiving our first parents in the garden of Eden. He “is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world.” Devil means slanderer; he slanders God’s goodness and glory. Satan means adversary; he is against God and God’s people.
The second thing emphasized is that Satan has “been thrown down.” This indicates a significant loss of power. The expulsion from a high place of power is directly connected to Christ’s death and resurrection.
When the time came for Jesus to go to the cross, he said, “Now the ruler of the world is cast out… When I am lifted up, I will draw all men to myself.” The devil is the prince of darkness, but Christ is the light of the world. Satan is still a terrible foe, but he is exposed in the light of the cross as a liar and murderer. In Christ, we are given the love and grace of God.
In verse 10, there is an announcement from heaven: “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ has come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down.” As the triumphant Christ ascends, the devil is cast down.
The obligation of the sinner unto death was that which gave Satan all his power of accusation. The taking away of that obligation means the dissolution of his power. There is no condemnation for those in Christ and no one can bring a charge against God’s elect, not even principalities and powers (Romans 8).
This passage shows us how great salvation in Christ is. Men are under the guilt of sin, the power of the devil, and the certainty of death without Christ. The thing of utmost importance is to have our sins taken off and put away, to be set free from the captivity and guilt of it.
See how rich the grace of God is. He gave Christ to bear the stroke of justice in our stead and turn us away from the evil one. If you have Christ, you are destined to be free from all evil from within and without. You are free from condemnation now. The devil may still harass you, but you are his no longer. Christ will put an end to all that pertains to evil soon.
Thanksgiving reminds us that we are always debtors to the mercies of God. When we lift up our prayers of thanks for our meal, may we especially think of the manna from heaven, Christ Jesus our Lord, who crushed the head of the serpent for us.
The Rev. Chris Shelton is pastor of Union’s First Presbyterian Church.