For some reason, the biblical authors in the New Testament seemed to have a preoccupation with thanking God in, through, for, and by Jesus! Look back upon those verses again. Imagine if all the phrases containing "Jesus Christ" were missing. From one point of view, has anything changed? 1 Cor 1:4 would just read "I always thank God for you because of his grace given you". Eph 5:20 would just read "...always giving thanks to God the Father for everything". The essence of the verse hasn't changed, right? Well, I reckon that if you asked those authors that question - they would say that everything changes! If not for Jesus, those thanksgivings would be empty, almost meaningless!

So what should we be thanking God the most for? I reckon it's an answer every kid in sunday school knows - Jesus.

Well if it's such an easy answer, why am I bothering writing about it? And why is Jesus top of the thanksgiving list? How about God's love, or our lives, or all of creation, or even the bible? By the end of this article, I hope to address all those questions, and help you see why Jesus should really be the centre of all our thanksgivings. I reckon that most of us (myself definitely included) don't thank God enough for Jesus, and it stems from one problem - not fully understanding who Jesus is. Let's turn to God's word once more and do some rediscovery together!

1. Jesus is God Himself, and through Him all things were made.

He [Jesus] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
Colossians 1:15-17

According to the bible, Jesus wasn't simply a good man who showed us the right way to live. He wasn't even just a special powerful being that God created, who suffered on earth to somehow bring us to God. When the bible says that Jesus was God's son, we must not mistake Him as being in some way inferior to God, like a lesser being. Philippians 2:6 tells us clearly that Jesus is in very nature God! Not at all inferior to God the Father, or God the Spirit! Jesus is God through and through, and as we read in Col 1:15-17, it was by Jesus that all things were created. Imagine that! All things were created by him and for him, and in him all things hold together! Quite a thought, hey. God made the world through Jesus, and in a profound sense that we may never fully understand, Jesus is sustaining all of creation still, even at this very second. Jesus is truly great.

When we thank God for Jesus, we're really thanking Him for Himself! And we're thanking Him for His beautiful creation that captivates us and speaks of His greatness.

2. Jesus, God's only son, is the ultimate expression of God's love.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
John 3:16

A sad thing about this verse is that we can become so familiar with it that we gloss over what it's really saying. Why did John mention that Jesus was God's one and only Son? Not to get our sympathy vote, but to emphasise that this was no ordinary gift. Out of love, God chose to redeem our fallen world, and it cost Him nothing less than the life of His very own son. Jesus would later say in John 15:13 that "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends."

When we thank God for Jesus, we're thanking God for His surpassing love for us all, and for the gift which cost Him the most.

3. Jesus willingly took the death we deserved.

But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
Isaiah 53:5

The death of Jesus becomes easily forgotten as soon as we forget that we were the ones who deserved to die on the cross that day. It's something our world is increasingly unwilling to accept, but the bible makes it explicitly clear that all have sinned and deserve nothing but death (Romans 3:23, 6:23). It's not just that I told a lie here and there and made God upset, or that sin makes us 95% and we need Jesus to top us up to 100% to get into heaven. We are hopelessly and helplessly stuck in our sin, and left to our own, would still choose to remain in it. Our sin makes us 0%, and we cannot do a single thing to save ourselves. Death and eternal separation from God is exactly what we deserve - God can only be a perfect and holy God if He fully punishes sin. In fact, there is no reason why God should decide to save us - other than because of His great love.

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:8

We did nothing to deserve God's love, but He gave it freely. And God didn't just snap His fingers and make all our sin disappear - He chose to take the punishment we deserved on Himself, in the person of Jesus, His only son. Anyone who's heard the easter story knows exactly the immense pain and suffering that Jesus went through, all because of our sin.

Why is it that God has forgiven us, and does not hold our sin against us any longer?
Because Jesus died for us.
How can God see us as pure and completely acceptable in His sight?
Because Jesus died for us.
How is it that we have new life, one that will last into eternity with God in heaven?
Because Jesus died for us.

When we thank God for Jesus, we are thanking Him for paying the price we could never pay, and taking the punishment that should have been ours.

No wonder the New Testament authors were obsessed with Jesus in their thanksgivings! Every thanksgiving is so much richer when made in Jesus - indeed, it's only through Jesus that we even have access to God to thank Him in the first place (Heb 4:16)! In Christ, God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing (Eph 1:3) - how can we ever thank Him enough for all this? In Jesus, we have complete forgiveness of sin, pure love, the acceptance of God, true freedom, and a new life that will last forever!

So let's make Jesus the centre of all our thanksgivings. Let's colour all our gratitude to God with Jesus and His love for us. Let's never stop thanking our Father for sending His only Son, who through the power of His Spirit suffered and died in our place to restore us back to God. Let's thank God for Jesus, without whom our sinful hearts would never even be inclined to thank God.

Let's thank God the most for Jesus.