Reminder to Remember

Experience can only inform us of the past. It tells what has been—but we need another informant besides memory to assure us of what is to be. Experience tells us of the past constancy of nature—but experience alone or memory
alone can give no intimation of its future constancy. This irresistible persuasion comes to us from another quarter. It forms a distinct principle in the frame or workmanship of our intellectual system. It is a befitting theme of gratitude and wonder
that this instinctive faith from within, should be responded to by the unexpected fulfillment of Nature’s actual and abiding constancy from without. But the one is not a derivative from the other. The two are in harmony—but it is a contingent harmony.
Thomas Chalmers, Lectures on the Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Romans

Thanksgiving is the action, the practical application and outworking of remembrance. They go hand in hand as the manifestation of the gospel in the lives of God’s people. “Man is God’s agent for the glorification of the world" ( James Jordan, Through New Eyes). The hope of the gospel lies in the fact that the victory has already been won. Through the Incarnation, sacrifice, and resurrection of Christ Jesus, sin and death have indeed been swallowed up in victory. Because of His work we can proclaim with expectant joy: “Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." (I Corinthians 15:54-56)

By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
I John 5:2, 4-5

The victory has already been won. Over and over again through out Scripture we are reminded that the spiritual skirmishes still being fought on earth are simply that—skirmishes. Reminders that the transformation and restoration of both man and creation are still being worked out. But as we have seen truth requires a response, not just a remembrance. The application of the gospel must be practical and it must be deliberately practical. It is in nature, but all too often we are overcome by the simplicity of a faith that calls us to remember and rejoice that we either suppress or embellish. The day to day remembrance of the mercies of God and the giving of thanks for such a generous means of grace as memory affords is the chief end of man.

Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them night and day before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony….
Revelation 12:11