The Gospel and Worship - Part Three
This is part three of Torrance's thoughts on the Gospel and worship. You may wish to review part two in order to follow his flow of thought into this section.
"We do not come before God, then, worshipping Him and praying to Him in our own name, or in our own significance, but in the name and significance of Jesus Christ alone, for worship and prayer are not ways in which we express ourselves but ways in which we hold up before the Father His beloved Son, take refuge in His atoning sacrifice, and make that our only plea. 'Nothing in my hands I bring; Simply to Thy Cross I c ling.' In worship and prayer Jesus Christ acts in our place and on our behalf in both a representative and a substitutionary way so that what He does in our stead is nevertheless effected as our very own, issuing freely and spontaneously out of ourselves. Through His incarnational and atoning union Jesus Christ has united Himself with us in such a reconciling and sanctifying way that He interpenetrates and gathers up all our faltering, unclean worship and prayer into Himself, assimilates them to His own self-oblation to God, so that when He presents Himself as the worship and prayer of all creation, our worship and prayer are presented there also. When the Father accepts us in Jesus Christ His beloved Son, who then can distinguish our worship and prayer from Jesus' worship and prayer, for they are one and the same, wholly His and wholly ours in Him?
"Thus in all our worship and prayer, private and public, informal or formal, we come before God in such a way as to let Jesus Christ take our place, replacing our offering with His own self-offering, for He is the vicarious worhip and prayer with which we respond to the love of the Father" (T.F. Torrance, The Mediation of Christ, p.88).
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My prayer and worship to God was transformed when I discovered this wonderful truth that Torrance speaks of. I first found it in Hebrews 13:15.
I'm curious to hear how other believers apply these truths to the way they pray and worship (music?). Does this free us from having to discover/create the "right" language of prayer, the "right" style of music, etc? Does it permit our focus in these things to be something far greater?
I'm interested to know the response to matt's questions. Even though believers should be focused on "something far greater," and worship can take many forms, isn't there a boundary as to the "right" style of prayer or worship (even music)? Hasn't God given us some boundaries? I would love to expand my thinking in this area and in the application of Christ's vicarious atonement to worship.
One thing that I think Hebrews 13:15 illustrates is the freedom found in Christ-centered worship. Many people that I have talked with seem to have the idea that the more you get to know God, the more restrictive your selection of music style will be in worship. However, I have found that the more I get to know God, the more free I feel to worship Him in different ways.
How does Hebrews 13 illustrate this? If you look at the larger context, the writer is talking about the perfect sacrifice of Christ on the cross. The restrictive guidelines in the OT were simply there to point our eyes to Christ (vs. 11-12). The result of Christ's sacrifice is not a new list of restrictions, but rather it is freedom.
Verse ten says we have freedom eat at the altar. Verse 13 says that we have freedom to bear His reproach. And verse 15 says that we have freedom to praise God.
When our motivation for praise is the sacrifice of Christ, we have great freedom to rejoice in His glory. Just look at the great variety of postures, attitudes, and instruments used in the Psalms. Unfortunately, many of our churches are limited to two postures (standing and sitting), one attitude (somber), and two instruments (an organ and a piano).
The key difference in Christ-centered freedom in worship and self-centered idolatry in worship is the cross. Some choose enjoyable styles of music simply because that's what they want to hear. Their motivation is their own lust. But Christ-centered freedom in worship is motivated by the cross. And it bursts forth in rejoicing through many different postures, attitudes, and instruments.