What Does the Bible Say about Worship? part 3

What is man, that you make so much of him, and that you set your heart on him?

Job 7:17 ESV

Last month, laying a theological foundation for worship, I addressed the base question of “Who Is God?”  Continuing in our pursuit this month, it’s important that we now ask, “Who Is Man?”

Mankind is God’s crowning creation (Genesis 2).  We were made for perfect relationship with our Creator.  By the sin of the garden and the sinful acts of man, we have fallen out of relationship with God (Genesis 3).  As much as He loves us, He cannot be in the presence of our sin (Psalm 5).  Christ’s death and resurrection have made possible, however, a relationship between man and God.  This relationship is lived out in the thoughts and actions of each person who responds to Christ in faith (James 2).  It is also lived out in the collective of believers together, which is the Body, the Church.  God’s desire is for all of mankind to come to know Him through the Church (Matthew 28), which is His spiritual nation and people.  Unlike the people of God in the Old Testament (Israel) who could at best only visit God in a tent or temple, the Church is filled with God in the person of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2; Ephesians 5).

At this season of the year, Christmastime, we are reminded more vividly than any other of God’s profound love for mankind.  John reminds us that God’s love is such that He sent His only Son to die so that we could all live.  And so it is that the incarnation of Christ indicates how valuable we are to God, and inspires us in a response of worship.

Looking ahead… Worship is the music, but not just the music.  Worship is a lifestyle, but not just a lifestyle.  Worship is responding to all that God is and all that He has done (a loving Creator who has saved mankind through the person of Jesus Christ) with all that I am (my expressions of worship, my participation in the corporate gathering, and my living in the Light amidst a darkened world).  I’ll conclude this series of articles next month looking at actions of corporate worship.

I am posting these articles, not only on this blog, but in the New Spirit (Greenwood Christian's print newsletter) as well.  Please follow along, subscribe to the blog, then share your pertinent and well though-out comments, questions, and responses as we go.