Thanksgiving as Repentance

November 24, 2025

While not a church holiday, Thanksgiving is distinctly Christian. One could make an argument for this from the convictions of the Pilgrims or the worldview held by the founding fathers when Thanksgiving was formally recognized. But thanksgiving goes back further than the 17th century. It is a Christian virtue that defines our posture before God.

This does not mean that unbelievers can’t eat turkey, enjoy family, or be thankful. What a wonderful blessing that, despite sin, image bearers maintain goodness and revel in common grace. However, the Bible is abundantly clear that any thankfulness that excludes God is a second-rate thankfulness that actually demonstrates condemnation.

Although it may initially sound impolite and unfit for holiday celebrations, this scriptural truth underlines the call of the Gospel and the need for repentance.

Paul speaks plainly on the depravity of man, and how thankfulness plays a major part, in Romans:

For even though they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools… (1:21-22)

The apostle summarizes that men who reject God do so by a) not honoring Him for who He is, and b) not thanking Him for what He has done. The subsequent verses contain an illustrative list of sins’ consequences. But verse 22 puts it succinctly. The heart that is not thankful to God is the heart of a fool.

Paul works through sin and its wages over the next few chapters. But then he proclaims the glory of salvation, including this sentiment:

Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! (7:24-25)

We are saved because we need saving. Salvation comes by Christ alone and through Christ alone, which means there is no room for us to take credit. Knowing God now, we should glorify Him as God and give thanks. This is the positive side of repentance. This is a turning from who we were and what we did. We once denied Him what was due Him, now we joyfully give Him thanks.

There is a similar theme of repentance in the conclusion of the 50th Psalm:

Now consider this, you who forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there will be none to deliver.  He who offers a sacrifice of thanksgiving glorifies Me; and he who orders his way, I shall show the salvation of God. (50:22-23)

The Bible is clear, Old Testament and New, that “godly sorrow produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world brings about death.” (2nd Corinthians 7:10). The violent imagery in the Psalm is simply a stark image of what Paul communicates to the church in Corinth.

But lest we focus solely on the unpleasant “teat you in pieces” bit, we have to see the whole picture. The one who is thankful receives salvation. The one who repents of forgetting God will be delivered. The word of God gives sinful men a path to order and a right relationship with Him. The Old Covenant sacrifice given with thanksgiving is now a New Covenant sacrifice received with thanksgiving.

Once more, salvation comes by Christ alone and through Christ alone. He is the true sacrifice.  No one can receive Him without repentance. The one who has received Him can and should be thankful. In fact, thankfulness is an essential part of the daily repentance of sinners who remember they were bought with the price of the most precious sacrifice.

It is undeniably good that our culture stops, albeit ever so briefly, to say thank you. Deliberately thanking one another is the kind of thing at which no Christian should balk. This is genuinely wonderful, reflecting how rational and relational creatures were intended to interact.

Still, there is a ceiling to that kind of thankfulness. Thanking a friend or family member without implicitly acknowledging that any and all blessings come from God is sin. It elevates the gift over the gift-giver. This is a theological particular that may be hard to swallow. It is easy to say that “all have sinned” (Romans 3:23) and that “every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above” (James 1:17). The rubber meets the road, and the implications have faces when we synthesize these truths.

So, while not a church holiday Thanksgiving is distinctly Christian. It is an occasion for Christians to live out their repentant gratitude in a visible manner. We speak about all the temporal blessings we have been given. We shout about those which are eternal. Remembering where and who we were, we give thanks and honor our Savior.

It is also a tailor made opportunity to “let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16). The gospel, among many things, turns the ungrateful around 180 degrees and recreates them into thanks-givers. Christ died for sinners. All who believe and come to Him, He will not cast out. Repentance – turning from sin and towards righteousness – is a gift that accompanies salvation. From all this, true thanksgiving flows.

And when the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, to Him who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders will fall down before Him who sits on the throne, and will worship Him who lives forever and ever, and will cast their crowns before the throne, saying, “Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power, for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created.” (Revelation 4:9-11)