Everything you and I enjoy as followers of Jesus Christ is owing to His death and resurrection. That's right--everything. Not only salvation, but everything we enjoy either in this life or throughout eternity is a benefit of the Cross of Christ. In Romans 8:31-32, Paul says, What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He did not even spare His own Son, but offered Him up for us all; how will He not also with Him grant us EVERYTHING (HCSB, emphasis added). He goes on to say Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavens, in Christ (Ephesians 1:3, HCSB, emphasis added).
To elaborate on this further, consider the words of John Piper...
Everything that we enjoy, as people who trust Christ, is owing to His death. His suffering absorbed all the judgment guilty sinners deserved and purchased all the good that forgiven sinners enjoy. Therefore all our boasting in these things should be a boasting in the cross of Christ. We are not as Christ-centered and cross-cherishing as we should be, because we do not ponder the truth that everything good, and everything bad that God turns for the good, was purchased by the sufferings of Christ. (Don't Waste Your Life).
Therefore, in our prayers of thanksgiving--whether during the Thanksgiving season or on any given day of the year--we can pray, Thank You, God, Who gives me forgiveness so that I may be in right relationship with You. For that, I am most thankful. Thank You, Jesus, for dying so that I might have every spiritual blessing on earth and throughout eternity. Thank You, God, for Your indescribable Gift--JESUS CHRIST--from whom all blessings flow.
