The Path to Gratitude

As a youth blessed to grow up in a Reformed church, I was schooled for several years in the lessons of the Heidelberg Catechism.

This Reformation confession superbly captures the central tenets of the Christian faith.

One of the catechism’s memorable features is its three-part structure, explaining in question 2, “all we need to know to live and die in the joy of our salvation” under the three themes of “Our Sin and Misery,” “Our Salvation,” and “Our Thankfulness.” We could affix in our memories three simple words as the core subjects of the catechism: guilt, grace, and gratitude.

What the catechism so succinctly states in its teaching reflects the same trajectory we see in the Scriptures. It is the movement from a sinner’s deserved condemnation, to God’s amazing grace through Christ, to the humble gratitude of the redeemed. For instance, some of Paul’s letters are built according to this pattern.

The example par excellence is his letter to the Romans. Paul’s systematic theology in this letter has been dubbed “the Romans Road.” Paul takes us on a journey from misery to hope, from guilt to gratitude.

Romans shows our need for salvation, how God provides salvation, and then the results of this salvation in our lives.

Along this road, the first signpost is Romans 3:23: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” In character and conduct, all humans are displeasing to God, and there is nobody who stands innocent before Him.

Following that is the second Roman signpost at 6:23, delivering more bad news: “The wages of sin is death.” Such is the punishment sinners have earned by their sins—not just temporal, but eternal death.

Even so, the Romans Road is not a dead end. The third signpost announces the wondrous words in the second half of 6:23: “But the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Here is the pathway leading to paradise, but only if we pass the checkpoint at Romans 10:9: “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” It is only by faith in Christ that you can pass through the gates of His kingdom.

And where does this leave a redeemed sinner today? This is the journey of thankfulness that Paul begins charting in Romans 12:1: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.”

The “therefore” of 12:1 looks back on the first eleven chapters: first guilt, then grace, now gratitude. The signposts of the Romans Road are inseparably linked.

If we are to live as sacrifices, we must know the reason for our sacrifice.

Throughout Scripture, this is the sure pattern for the conduct of God’s children: you have been shown amazing grace, so live in humble gratitude to the triune God! Centuries ago, Samuel exhorted the Israelites: “Only fear the LORD, and serve Him in truth with all your heart; for consider what great things He has done for you”(1 Sam. 12:24).

When we set our mind on the glories of Christ and consider the great things that He has done, God will surely work in us an increase in gratitude.