Thanksgiving Day

Rev. J. Van Haaren (1933-1983)

It is a very searching question which the Lord here places . before us. It is very necessary for us to pause and to take notice of it. We are people who have been created for the never-ending eternity, but we so seldom think of this fact. We are so busy with the things of this time state as if nothing else mattered. Doesn’t all which is perishable fill our hearts and our minds? Who is yet concerned regarding his eternal welfare? Who asks himself, “How can I be saved? How can I meet a gracious God?” Aren’t these questions of the greatest importance? “What will it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” The Lord calls us to reflect upon this fact. He asks us, “Of what profit has it been to you?” You have toiled and labored, and you have reached your desired goal. Have you found the satisfaction which you expected to find in the completion of your work? Are you really happy? Has your contentment become greater?

Aren’t these the questions which we may ask each other on Thanksgiving Day? Soon you must leave the world, and what will it then profit you even if you had acquired the entire world? Then you will lose everything: your money, your goods, your soul, and—soul lost, all is lost. Then your soul will be eternally lost. That is what the Lord means with the words of our text. We must meet God, and then of what profit will all the goods of the world be? We cannot buy our release from the sentence of death with it, and we cannot bribe God with it. Oh, that you may consider what belongs to your eternal peace! What will it profit you if you would gain the whole world? What is now the proper answer to this question? That answer is “Nothing.” What a terrible answer. That answer contains our misfortune; yea, it contains our condemnation. The Lord places this question before you so that you will consider your misfortune and begin to ask, “What must I do to be saved?”

That is the question which occupied God’s people when the Lord began His work in their heart. They became wretched even though they had everything which their heart desired. The world became empty and worthless for them. How frightful it was for them when they came to the realization that they could give nothing toward the saving of their soul. The cry was born in them, “Oh Lord, that my soul might be saved by Thee.” What a wonder it became when the Lord began to declare the secret of salvation to their soul. Then they could say, “Lord, Thou art worth more to me than the entire world.” So that this choice may be renewed, the Lord also places the question before His people, “What will it profit a man if he should gain the entire world?” There the opposite is experienced: what shall it profit a man if he loses the entire world and if his soul would be saved?

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