Gospel-Centered Congregational Worship (Part Two)
August 24th, 2006*Part one in this series raised some comments / questions that I intend to address in parts 3 or 4.
Central to this perspective on congregational worship is the doctrine of the Hypostatic Union. In the Person of Christ we find the objective movement of God-to-man and the objective and vicarious responding movement of man-to-God. This double movement is united in the one Person of the Incarnate Son. Therefore, from the first moment of Christ’s earthly existence we have in the one Person of Christ the objective saving activity of God and the objective and vicarious responding activity of man. We must not look at the Hypostatic Union as merely the means of our salvation. Rather, we must recognize that it is actually the place where salvation was accomplished. T. F. Torrance writes:
The vicarious humanity of Jesus Christ…fulfills a representative and substitutionary role in all our relations with God…such as trusting and obeying, understanding and knowing, loving and worshipping…Jesus Christ…in and through His humanity took our place, acting in our name and on our behalf before God, freely offering in Himself what we could not offer and offering it in our stead, the perfect response of man to God in a holy life of faith and prayer and praise, the self-offering of the Beloved Son with whom the Father is well pleased” (God and Rationality, 145).
Moreover, the Epistle to the Hebrews makes it clear that Christ continues to be the place where God’s movement to man and man’s responding movement to God resides. It is because of this double movement that was brought to its climax in the death and resurrection of Christ and that continues as Christ ministers in the Holy Place (Hebrews 8:1-2) that we now have objective confidence to enter the Holy Place, to draw near to God with a true heart in full assurance of faith (Hebrews 10:19-22). This is why the writer of Hebrews closes his epistle by exhorting us to continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God through our High Priest, Jesus (Hebrews 13:15). T.F. Torrance writes:
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 faith filled with no other offering but that which he has made on our behalf and in our place once and for all (T.F. Torrance, The Mediation of Christ, 87).
If my understanding of the Hypostatic Union and its implications is correct, thinking of congregational worship, as I argued in my last post, simply in terms of what we are offering to God is worship that is not as gospel-centered as we might think. It is worship, it seems to me, that has lost sight of Christ’s vicarious life and continued priestly ministry. Therefore, I believe, pastors would do well not only to teach the congregation about these things but also to lead it in corporate worship in such a way that those present are consciously aware of the fact that “all our worship of the Father takes place properly within the circle of the life of Jesus Christ which he lived in our human nature in such a way that his whole life formed itself into worship, prayer and praise which he offered to the Father on our behalf” (T.F. Torrance, Theology in Reconciliation, 210-211).
September 13th, 2006 at 6:48 am
great stuff here! also the gospel centered resources look great
Question: Are you aware of Chapell and Dalby’s lectures on gospel worship at covenantseminary.edu ?
thanks for these posts… I’m preaching on worshipping God this fall and this helps!
October 17th, 2006 at 3:31 pm
You don’t hear hypostatic union and congregational worship too often in the same sentence. Your posts have encouarged me to put into practice and to model for my congregation some precious truths that I’ve been reflecting since seminary.
November 4th, 2006 at 3:25 am
[…] Finally, Bixby chimes in again (we are still waiting for his “alternative” springing from the post linked to of his below) stressing a need to remember a Gospel Centered approach to worship. Worship is not primarily us giving back to God, but rather us experiencing the benefits of Christ’s vicarious humanity (and his death). Bixby helpfully points us to Parts One and Two of Dan Cruver’s Gospel-Centered Worship series. Do go check those posts out! Ken Fields will have to forgive me for using a line from his recent post for my title. There has been quite the blog storm recently, and those words were the best description I have found.Last Sunday, my church had Curtis Allen (a Christian rapper aka “Voice”) come to perform for our Aeropagus—a culture club of sorts—after the Saturday evening service at our downtown site. Since Curtis was present for the worship service, Pastor John Piper invited him to sing for the service, and he sang one song as a special number—a testimonial song that was quite tame as far as rap songs go. Well, as Ken said, “the people clapped, he sat down…and the fundamentalists went wild!”Justin Taylor posted a video-clip of that service, and Sharper Iron linked to it. One of the most heated (non KJV only) discussions in SI’s history followed (it grew to over 30 pages in near record time). Other fundamentalist blogs joined the many SI posters in a loud disgust over Piper and any fundamentalists which would condone the use of rap music in worship (see here and here). More discussions were held on SI (here and here), and an incredibly harsh post was given by Scott Aniol. Other fundamentalist bloggers joined SI posters in expressing surprise at the mean attitude apparent in some who were so vocal in their bashing of rap or CCM type music, see here and here and here. There was even an apology and a retraction. Lastly, Bob Bixby offered a really good analogy regarding the future “movement” of some fundamentalists which stresses a “high view” of music. I really recommend reading his post, even if you skip all the other links above. [Note my listing of these links is not necessarily in chronological order–they all were from 10/31 through 11/2, however.]I linked to all of these discussions on purpose. Some of my readers may not be privy to all the “young fundamentalist” blogs out there (and I am sure I missed some posts, too) and may have missed this whole discussion. But beyond that, I think this whole discussion is instructive. It reveals the sometimes shameful attitudes of some fundamentalists—I particularly was shocked by the willingness for many to just write off Piper completely because of this “wrong” decision. It also shows how so many refuse to let music be a matter of personal conviction. They prefer to make judgments on those who do not agree with their position, or worse to mandate a certain musical style—all this and yet no Scripture directly bears on musical style. Yes, we can apply Scriptural principles and we should, but such application is not equivalent to a direct command. Our interpretation and application of them is important for us but is not universally binding. And lastly, this discussion informs us concerning the musical debate. There were interesting arguments on both sides, and they may prove enlightening to some of my readers.I would like to shift the discussion now from the recent brouhaha to the music debate. And I would like to make three points. [Just in case you were interested, you can see my comments in the initial SI thread about this whole thing here.] […]