As Thanksgiving draws near, there really is so much Christians can be thankful for. The first and foremost reason we have to be thankful is because of His salvation.

Before the creation of the world, God knew what He would need to do for His creatures. He knew we would rebel against His law. He owed us nothing, but in love for us, He devised a plan to redeem “whosoever will.”

God’s plan involved one solution. Because He tells us that the “wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23) and all of us are sinners (Romans 3:23), a righteous forgiveness would necessarily involve death. The problem was that the person who would die would have to be sinless, or He could only die for his own sins.

John 3:16 reveals God’s answer to the problem of sin: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Because Jesus was God, He was without sin and could not yield to it – even when tempted.

God then chose to make salvation as easy as possible – simply by believing what Christ did for them. Anyone (“whosoever”) who was sorry for their sins and would believe that Jesus died for them, would be saved. It could not be any easier than that, but it would have to be their choice.

The final part of salvation is that it is all up to God to accomplish it. There is no middle ground and no exceptions. God said if you believe then you would have eternal life. He does all the keeping us saved.

If you are saved, have you thanked God today for it?