True & False Worship: The Cross & The Mass
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By Richard Bennett of the Berean Beacon Ministries
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I. Introduction
Worshipping God is the communion that exists between the Creator and the creature man.
A. Before the Fall,
1. There were no restraints on relationship between God and Adam. God spoke to Adam, laying out for him his duties, instructing him concerning his environment (Genesis 1:28-30), created a help meet for him (Genesis 2:21-22).
2. Adam had only external restraint, "Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die" (Genesis 2:17).
B. At the Fall, the relationship between God and Adam was severed by Adam's sin (Genesis 3:6-8).
II. The Biblical Pattern for True Worship
The Lord God took the initiative in restoring the Creator-creature relationship severed by Adam's single act of rebellion. God's initiative involves both the negative, by showing man what is unacceptable, and the positive, by giving mankind a promise which He will fulfill by means of His grace through faith.
A. In demonstrating how restoration between God and man will take place, God first addresses the sin, next He metes out the punishment, He then promises restoration of the relationship between Himself and man, and finally initiates action which thousands of years later will result in the fulfillment of the promise.
1. The promise of restoration, or salvation, is given in Genesis 3:15, "And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel."
2. Having made the promise, God initiated the action which continued through until the time of the resurrection of Jesus Christ in whom the promise is perfectly fufilled, which is the restoration of the relationship between the Creator and His creatures. God's first action after the promise was made was the slaying of animals to make coverings for Adam and Eve, "Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them" (Genesis 3:21). In so doing, God set the pattern for how the restoration was to be accomplished, for this action on God's part foreshadows the blood sacrifice of Jesus Christ. "Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us" (Hebrews 9:12).
B. In taking the initiative, the Lord shows that one cannot approach God in his own way; in contrast to Adam with his fig leaf, Cain with his grain offering, and Nadab and Abihu offering strange fire.
C. God set the pattern for how He was to fulfill His Promise of Salvation. Evident throughout Scripture, is the revealing by God of worship that is acceptable by him from His people. Since the thoughts of man are soley evil from his youth (Genesis 6:5, 8:21), God always approaches man by His grace through the gift of faith. In each step, God who takes the initiative.
III. The Basis for True Worship
A. Throughout the Old and New Testaments, no communion between God and man is possible except on the basis of conformity to God's specific requirements. He is the perfect All Holy God, for man to have fellowship with the Lord, man must be perfect in His sight, this is achieved by God credited to man the Lord's own perfection. "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect" (Matthew 5:48).
B. God's imperative Word is that we are to worship Him "in the beauty of holiness", "Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name...worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness" (I Chronicles 16:29).
1. This command is impossible for the believer because our own holiness is always imperfect, because of our corrupt nature. The constant theme of the Old Testament and the New Testament is that God has provided His perfect One, Jesus Christ, whose righteousness is credited to the believer. Therefore, Isaiah could declare, "Surely, shall one say, in the LORD have I righteousness and strength...(Isaiah 45:24), and "...He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness" (Isaiah 61:10).
2. The praise of the Old Testament saints is God's own righteousness on which they counted for their salvation and strength.
a. Psalm 71:15-17 "My mouth shall shew forth thy righteousness and thy salvation all the day;....I will go in the strength of the Lord GOD: I will make mention of thy righteousness, even of Thine only."
b. "The beauty of holiness" in which we approach God is best summarized by the prophet Jeremiah, "And this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS" (Jeremiah 23:6).
3. This basis of the relationship whereby we communicate with the All Holy God, while understood and applied under the Law and the prophets, is made manifest in the New Testament.
"But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus" (Romans 3:21, 22, 24).
4. Once we stand before the All Holy God accepted in the beloved (Ephesians 1:6), clothed with the righteousness of Christ, we have the basis of fellowship with God. In sanctification God writes His law on our hearts as believers, we strive to be holy as He is. He is then our God and we are His people, and we are privileged to call Him Abba Father.
"I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people" (Jeremiah 31:33).
IV. The Restrictions of True Worship
The law is summarised in the Ten Commandments, the first two of which deal explicitly with worship. Continued fellowship with God includes the keeping of His restrictions in our worship of Him.
A. Most importantly, in the First Commandment of the Decalogue, the Lord sanctions Himself as the only object of true worship. All religious veneration of other beings is forbidden because they are not God. "I am the LORD thy God...Thou shalt have no other gods before me" (Exodus 20:2-3).
B. The Second Commandment is also of uttermost importance, for it forbids practices, which negate one's worshipping God by faith. What is excluded from our communion with the true God, sanctioned in the First Commandment, is the making and bowing down to any graven images of Him, which includes any likeness or art form of God.
1. Thus, all divination is forbidden. This includes all looking to material things (and the rituals by which they must be attended) as if they were able to convey God's favor (or disfavor) to us, and conversely all looking to material things and rituals as instruments able to convey our praise and worship to Him.
2. Even in the Old Testament the worship of God was by faith, resting on Him and His promise and His righteousness. The ceremonial law was merely a sign to remind the believer of the promise; the Passover meal was a memorial alone and a shadow of what was to come in Christ. And so the continual focus of worship, in the midst of the ceremonial details of the Old Testament, was God Himself and not the paraphernalia. "The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower" (Psalm 18:2).
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V. The Wonder and Essence of True Worship
A. Our worship and service to God as believers is as a spiritual house, offering spiritual sacrifices to God, which are only acceptable in the person of Jesus Christ. "Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 2:5). This is in fact how the believers lived, "And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers" (Acts 2:42). The Gospel is always the spiritual message of repentance and faith, the fellowship in the breaking of bread and prayers. The continued theme is communion with the Father in the Holy Spirit because the believer is accepted in Christ.
B. No hint is ever given that we should trust material signs to give life. The stress is always on the blessings in Christ in the heavenly places. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ" (Ephesians 1:3).
VI. The distinctive of New Testament worship
A. In the New Testament, the Lord Himself teaches that the worship of God must continue to be in spirit and in truth. Christ Jesus' teaching on true worship is in the imperative form:
"true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth" John 4:23.
"they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth" John 4:24.
B. Christ indicated to the woman at the well that a great change in the form of worship was soon to happen. When Christ died on the cross, He exclaimed, "It is finished" (John 19:30) and the veil of the temple was torn from top to bottom (Matthew 27:51). The Old Testament ceremonial rituals were fulfilled and finished. The distinctive is that the fulfillment of the promise of redemption has been accomplished. There are now no rituals to signify what is to come.
1. The truth has come in perfection, and is now manifest to us in the person of Christ, in Whom we worship by faith alone. In the words of the Apostle Paul, the ceremonies of the Old Testament were "a shadow of things to come" (Colossians 2:17). These ceremonies and rituals were fulfilled in Christ and His perfect sacrifice. The ornate symbolism of the Old Testament was no longer needed, as all that these things pointed to and were realized in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. In the words of the apostle Paul "But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster". (Gal 3:25) We no longer require the shadows as we have the reality in Christ Jesus the Lord.
2. We do indeed have two signs in the New Testament that testify to what the Lord has done for us. The truth is, "ye are complete in him" (Colossians 2:10), "For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father" (Ephesians 2:18).
VII. The One Sacrifice, Once Offered
Christ's sacrifice marked the fulfillment and end of the priestly ordinances of the Old Testament, "there is no more offering for sin" (Hebrews 10:18). Through His priestly offering on the cross, Christ "by Himself purged our sins" and "sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high" (Hebrews 1:3).
A. The Holy Spirit clearly instructs us that Christ's sacrifice was one, in contrast to the many sacrifices of the Old Testament.
1. "But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God" (Hebrews 10:12).
2. "For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified" (Hebrews 10:14).
B. The unique oneness of Christ's sacrifice is in this very fact that it was one offering once made. The concept "once" is deemed so important that it is asserted seven times by the Holy Spirit in the New Testament. The perfection of Christ's sacrifice is contrasted to the daily repeated sacrifices of the Old Testament. The truth of the excellence of Christ's sacrifice is highlighted by the word "once".
1. "For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God." Romans 6:10
2. "Who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people's: for this he did once, when he offered up himself." Hebrews 7:27
3. "Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us." Hebrews 9:12
4. "For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself." Hebrews 9:26
5. "So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation." Hebrews 9:28
6. "By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all" Hebrews 10:10
7. "For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit." 1 Peter 3:18
VIII. The One Sacrificial Priest
A. Clearly the Holy Spirit presents to us the contrast of Christ's priesthood compared to the Old Testament priesthood. The Levitical priests were mortal and therefore needed successors. Christ is an eternal priest and His priesthood is untransferable, needing no successor.
"And they truly were many priests, because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death: But this man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood" (Hebrews 7:23-24).
B. Most important is the fact that Christ Jesus, having nothing more precious than Himself, offered Himself.
"Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father" (John 10:17-18).
C. Christ alone had the absolutely unique qualifications to offer Himself.
"For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens" (Hebrews 7:26).
D. Christ is the sole sacrificial Priest of the New Testament. He finished the work of our salvation by one sole offering. The Scriptures repeatedly establish this truth. The substance of this is found in the Lord's declaration from the Cross-, "It is finished" (John 19:30).
1. For anyone to deem himself fit to offer immortal Christ Jesus in His perfect sacrifice is blasphemous pride. Were such a human offering of Christ possible, Christ would have suffered so cruel a torment in vain, in His own oblation of Himself, "when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high" (Hebrews 1:3).
2. Measured by the biblical terms of worship given to us by God, the idea that Christ ought to offer Himself often is equally blasphemous. Such a concept attempts to reduce Christ's sacrifice to imperfection, since it assumes that His one offering made once was not good enough to make complete atonement. What is absolutely perfect and consummated cannot be repeated since repetition is a proof of imperfection.
Who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people's: for this he did once, when he offered up himself (Hebrews 7:27).
E. In summary the Scriptural truth regarding communion with God is:
The Lord alone initiates the pattern of worship.
God's own righteousness credited to the believer by grace through faith alone is the only basis of true worship.
The Lord God's restrictions are to be taken most seriously so that worship of Him remains spiritual, as He is Spirit.
The greatest comfort we have in true worship is Jesus Christ, our Lord and Master in Whom we are accepted, He is our intercessor. He is our High Priest, "Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens" (Hebrews 8:1). This is the presence of God that we now have, and the fulfillment of which we look forward to in celestial glory, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God" (Revelation 21:3).
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