The Gospel and Worship - Part One
“Jesus Christ embodied in Himself in a vicarious form the response of human beings to God, so that all their worship and prayer to God henceforth became grounded and centered in Him. In short, Jesus Christ in His own self-oblation to the Father is our worship and prayer in an acutely personalized form, so that it is only through Him and with Him and in Him that we may draw near to God with the hands of our faith filled with no other offering but that which He has made on our behalf and in our place once and for all” (Thomas F. Torrance, The Mediation of Christ, p. 87).
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The central importance of Jesus' substitutionary sacrifice is becoming more and more clear to me the longer I minister in a pagan culture. If all we needed was more advice from God, God could've sent us another prophet. The religions of the world could be true, in that case, because their founders claimed to be prophets from God.
But our condition is far worse than we imagine, if we think we only needed a word from God. We needed THE Word from God (John 1:1-5, 14). We didn't need more advice or more to obey. We needed God to stand in our place and obey on our behalf. We needed a sacrifice who would cleanse us from our impurity. We needed a payment that would cancel our debt to God. We needed a warrior who would champion over the evil that controlled us. We needed a mediator who could make God accept us without compromise. In short, we needed a legal substitute so that God could be "just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus" (Romans 3:26).
The reason Torrance can say, "It is only through Him and with Him and in Him that we may draw near to God," is because there is no other god who offered an acceptable sacrifice to God.
"No other offering" Music to my ears!
Just what I needed.
Dan,
Thanks for the kind comments on my blog. We have so many of the same interests and passions, its scarry!! I came across your blog when I was checking to see if the domain of "eucatastrophe" was already taken. Sorry for some of the overlap, but I had this all planned out before. I've only just begun, and can't wait to start more purposeful posts. I will be graduating from seminary this May and will most likely assume a teaching position at a Bible College. Crazy, huh?
I'm very interested in dialoguing about "Worship". Have you read James Torrance's "Worship, Community and the Triune God of Grace"? Excellent work that builds on T.F.
I'll be sure to visit your blog in the future and join the discussion.
Josh O.
Dan,
Thanks for the kind comments on my blog. We have so many of the same interests and passions, its scarry!! I came across your blog when I was checking to see if the domain of "eucatastrophe" was already taken. Sorry for some of the overlap, but I had this all planned out before. I've only just begun, and can't wait to start more purposeful posts. I will be graduating from seminary this May and will most likely assume a teaching position at a Bible College. Crazy, huh?
I'm very interested in dialoguing about "Worship". Have you read James Torrance's "Worship, Community and the Triune God of Grace"? Excellent work that builds on T.F.
I'll be sure to visit your blog in the future and join the discussion.
Josh O.