Salvation through thanksgiving
Nov 15th, 2008 by Zigfred Diaz
Several Sundays ago, I was asked to speak on the subject of thanksgiving. The Holy Spirit, led me to Luke 17 verses 11 to 19. This is quite a familiar story among Christians. The text tells the short story of ten lepers who begged Jesus for mercy. They were then instructed by Jesus to show themselves to the priests. While they were going there, they discovered that they were healed. Sadly, only one of them returned to thanks Jesus, and he was a Samaritan.
As a firm believer in the full exposition of Scripture, I dug deeper into the words used in the text. Among the words that interest me was the Greek word for “Thanks.” The Greek word used is the word “eucharisteo” where we get our word for “Eucharist.” This word is the same word used by Christ, whenever the Gospel tells us that Christ gave thanks for a meal. This is almost always the same word used by the Apostle Paul when writes his opening statements in his epistles.
The word eucharisteo literally means eu = good, well + a form of charis = to favor or thank; to respond to a good favor. The word “Eucharisteo” is also used as the verb form of the word “Charis” which is often translated as “Grace.”
While I studied the Greek words and the Gospel story, I realized that that the Lepers were asking for mercy, however only one of them got to realize that he was given grace and he responded properly to it.
Sometimes we interchange “Mercy” for “Grace” or we think that they mean the same thing. But they are different. Mercy is not getting what you deserve. On the other hand, Grace is getting what you don’t deserve. As sinners we deserve to go to Hell. But by God’s mercy we are spared from that punishment. But receiving eternal life is only through grace. We do not deserve that our sins but forgiven, forgotten and that we receive eternal life , but we received it because of GRACE.
Ephesians chapter 2 verse 8 and 9 says that “For by Grace are you saved through faith, it is the gift of God, not works lest any man should boast” The gift spoken of here is “Saving faith.” In other words even the faith to believe is given to us by God because by ourselves alone we do not have the ability to believe God by Faith. All we have is natural faith. What we need in order to know Christ is “supernatural faith.”
What a joy to know that God gave us “Supernatural faith” in order to truly believe. We should respond to Him in thanksgiving. Certainly, it is not because we have the natural ability to believe in Christ that we received the gift of salvation. We received the gift of salvation because of Him alone and Him alone.
Now let me continue with the story of the Ten Lepers. The Samaritan Leper was so thankful to Jesus Christ that he “turned back and with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks”
Jesus said then said to him “”Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? There are none found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger.”
And I love this last part, Jesus continues and tells him “Arise; go thy way. Thy faith hath made thee whole.” Literally he is saying to this Samaritan Leper “Your faith has saved you.”
The Samaritan Leper got more than healing from his leprosy, he received the gift of Salvation in Christ. What a joy it is to be truly thankful !
