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Christianity is unique not only in the fact that believers
worship a living God but also that he is a triune God. Furthermore, he is a
triune God who works among his people in a triune manner (i.e. three distinct
persons in three distinct roles). God’s people then respond to his triune work
in both Christian life and Christian worship. “Before religion can be known as
a sweet communion, it must be known as an answered summons.”[1]
Worship is a call (by God) and a response (by his people). Still, such call and
response are carried by triune work. The triune God, both as object and
subject, is the essence of Christian worship. Worship both declares and
embodies the triune love relationship between the members of the Godhead.
Moreover, worship must realize the balance that exists in Christian life: the
workings of the Trinity.
Worship Declares Triune
Love
Worship is triune. As such, the act of worship must
declare triune love. What is meant by such love is the love that exists between
the three members of the Godhead: Father, Son, and Spirit. In covenant
theology, the covenant of grace between God and his people is subsequent only
to the covenant of redemption (the covenant that persisted from eternity past
between the three members of the Godhead as to how the chosen people would be
redeemed). While nothing in Scripture is explicit to reveal such a covenant,
the concept arises from a plurality of texts that give it sufficient evidence
(the entirety of the book of John, for example, that discusses the work the
Father sent Jesus to accomplish). Such commitment to that work indicates a
covenant and love that exists between the Father, Son, and Spirit.
As great as the love is that God possesses for his
people, the love relationship between the Father, Son, and Spirit is even
greater. When Jesus endured the cross for the joy set before him (Heb 12:2),
such joy was not the thought of people. While Jesus’ love for his people is
exceedingly marvelous, the joy set before him was his own glory, which was
accomplished through his death on the cross. Worship recognizes God’s glory
above all. Worship should rightly celebrate the great love of Christ for his people,
but that recognition should follow an understanding of the love God has for
himself.
Without God’s triune work and the involvement of
every member of the Godhead, redemption is not possible. Moreover, without
God’s triune work, worship is not possible. To the glory of the Father and
through the mediator Jesus Christ, God the Spirit helps God’s people approach
the throne boldly and worship rightly (Rom 8:26), for such an approach is
impossible without God’s intervention. In fact, the Apostle Paul insists that
Christians alone possess the sole rite and ability to worship God based upon
the fact that Christians alone worship by the Spirit of God (Phil 3:3).[2] God
the Spirit, the helper for believers on earth, is the subject of worship. In
other words, for human efforts fall short of God-honoring worship, the Spirit
helps and intercedes on his people’s behalf so that what is presented to God is
transformed from human inadequacy into a God-honoring gift.
God’s love for his people is marvelous and should
be praised and remembered. Nonetheless, it is the love between the Father, Son,
and Spirit that spurs God’s love for his people. The Father has bequeathed a
people to the Son and the Son displays such a great love that he died for his
people. The death of Christ, however, would not have happened without his
overarching love for his Father. Worship, in declaring the story of God, should
declare (also) the character of God. As such, the character of God includes his
love for himself, which surpasses any other love. All glory belongs to God, and
he surely will not allow anyone else to share it (Is 42:8). Even in believers’
position as recipients of being glorified with Christ (Rom 8:17-18), the glory
is not shared except for positionally as those found in Christ. Worship then is
triune, for one who worships in spirit and truth realizes the vitality of God’s
triune glory as God’s people worship him.
Triune love is an aspect of the Christian faith
from which everything else proceeds. God is triune so worship is also triune.
The Trinity is difficult to accurately define. Nevertheless, God offers his
triune nature in Scripture to make sufficient a trust in such character.
God is triune and eternally exists as the
Godhead, three in one: no hierarchy and no division but three distinct persons,
coequal and co-eternal with each other. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one
with each other and equally worthy of worship. Neither is created, and all are
equal in power and glory yet function in disparate manners in a specific
Godhead order. The Father is not the Son; the Son is not the Spirit; the Spirit
is not the Father. Yet, the Father is God; the Son is God; the Spirit is God;
and all three persons eternally exist as one with each other. All three persons
of the Trinity operate in a love relationship with one another yet as one God.
The Father, out of love for the Son, has bequeathed a people to his Son; the
Son, begotten of the Father as incarnate word and out of love for the Father
has redeemed the people given to him through his death, burial, resurrection,
and eventual return; the Spirit, eternally proceeding from both the Father and
the Son (John 14:16, 16:7) and out of love for the Father and the Son, calls,
guides, and convicts the redeemed people of God; through the distinct work of
all three persons then, triune God is glorified. The church worships and lives
in the power of the Holy Spirit, through Christ the mediator, to the glory of
God the Father. One in love, glory, and power, a specific Godhead order is
designed for the overarching and governing purpose of worship, namely the glory
of God. One God, three distinct persons, God ordains all things, and in all
things, the three persons of the Trinity, in love for one another, function to
the glory of the triune God.[3]
To properly declare the story of God, worship must
declare God’s triune nature.
Worship Embodies Triune
Love
God’s people are found in Christ (Rom 8:17), for
indeed, they are collectively one body: the body of Christ. As it is so, the
church is to not only declare triune love in worship, she is to participate in
triune love. In a mystical fashion, worship is participatory. A common term
utilized in discussions of worship is vertical. In such measures, worship is
solely between individuals and God. This type of thought would be partially
incorrect, however, for worship is also horizontal (i.e. worship is participatory
between members of the same body). Christians must not lose the horizontal
aspect of worship. Certainly, worship is a dialogue between God and his people,
but the aspect of a singular body comprised of many members must not be
neglected.
The love relationship between the Father, Son, and
Spirit is not negated among the saints of God. There is perhaps no greater
display of unity in the church than the corporate gathering of God’s people,
for not only do God’s people respond to who God is by telling his story, they
also respond to one another in a singular corporate dialogue. The greatest
display of such a union with one another and with Christ is the sacrament of
Communion. Too often neglected is the fact that God is not only the object of worship
but also the subject (i.e. the one who is working). A common tendency is to
view the worship gathering or service as believers working for God or striving
to honor him. Surely, the church honors God with their offerings of worship,
but to accurately display the union the church possesses in Christ, especially
during the Eucharist, local churches should “put more stress on what God is
doing through Communion and less emphasis on the unworthy state of the
worshiper.”[4]
Truly, a radical issue in the worship of the modern
church is the focus on self. Human desires and devices, often disguised as
passion and mistaken for zeal, have seemingly caused churches to neglect the
vitality of union with Christ as a body. Robert Webber writes,”Bread and wine
reveal that creatures and creation find their completion and fulfillment in
union with the divine. Until we are united with the divine, we go at it alone
with the focus on self.”[5]
Communion, therefore, is not a mere mental act of remembrance but rather a
participatory act of factual communion with the Lord in a corporeal body: the
church, the body of Christ. Until worship returns to the early church’s
realization of the mystical sense of the faith in union with Christ, worship
will, at best, be a series of routines and actions with little life-changing
experience.
The greatest love known to humankind is the love of
Christ (John 15:13); the greatest love in the universe is the love between the
Father, Son, and Spirit, from which the astonishing love for God’s people is
derived. The people of God, however, may not only experience the great love of
God but may also participate in the triune love shared between the Godhead. As
the body of Christ, the Father loves the church as his Son, for truly, the
bride of Christ is found in union and one with him. Therefore, as the Father
beholds the bride of Christ, he beholds his Son and loves her the same.
Christian worship, in telling the story of God, should express such a real
union between God’s people and the Son, thus, embodying and participating in
triune love.
The Godhead Order of
the Christian Faith
The basis of Christian worship is not utilitarian
but theological.[6]
Consider the discrepancy between a realistic course of study in worship
(theological) and what is often thought about worship studies (music).
“Christian worship is first an experience, not an art.”[7] As
such, for practice to change, lingo must change. Worship leaders (for lack of a
singular title) must endeavor to change the culture by changing the teaching.
One way in which worship practice should change is
in its employment of trinitarian language. For this to happen, a proper
understanding and subsequently an accurate description of trinitarian work
should be present in Christian worship gatherings. Certainly, the Father, Son,
and Spirit are coequal. Nonetheless, there exists a Godhead order by way of
function (i.e. the distinct persons and workings of the members of the Godhead).
The triune order and indeed the order in which all Christian work occurs is by
the power of the Holy Spirit, through Christ the mediator, to the glory of God
the Father so that the entirety of the triune God is honored. The Christian
faith employs this Godhead order, as does Christian worship.
Of the word,
theos, Carpenter and Comfort attest:
The word first appears in the book of Acts, in Paul’s speech
to the Athenians, who had erected a monument to an unknown God. This God, whom
Paul called “deity,” is not far from any of us, human beings. Paul proclaimed
that God has placed within each one of us the sense to worship and seek him. We
grope for him by creating images to worship—whether it be a piece of stone or
personal pleasures.[8]
Without God’s revelation, we would always worship an
unknown God. Paul’s point is that God is close. As such, Christian worship and
indeed Christian living occurs in a triune manner: in the power of the Spirit,
through the Son, and to the glory of the Father. Prayer is employed in the
Spirit, through the Son, to the Father; worship is conducted in the Spirit,
through the Son, to the Father.
It may seem
that such a Godhead order is not important, but since worship is primarily
theological rather than utilitarian, the church must strive for accuracy.
Although, no one is absolutely correct, the Spirit gives what believers need so
that the foolishness of men is transformed into the wisdom of God (1 Cor 1:21).
As such, the Trinity should be discussed in terms of the proper Godhead order.
When the order is out of place (e.g. Father, Spirit, Son, etc.), a theological
error has taken place.
The order is
a flow from Spirit to Son to Father or downward from Father to Son to Spirit
without a hierarchy and without any inequality. Such is the order of the
Christian faith, of salvation, and indeed of worship. The church must strive to
accurately portray the Godhead order in Christian worship and in life
application.
The Godhead
order, however, does not imply inequality. The Father, Son, and Spirit are
coequal and surely are one God yet with three distinct persons and functions.
In workings of salvation, the Spirit draws humans while the Son’s redemptive
work on the cross saves them while the Fater’s wrath is satisfied through the
Son’s sacrifice. All three persons hold distinct functions in salvific work. In
worship, all three persons have a specific function as well, for the Father
receives the worship of the people he has gifted to the Son who mediates such
worship to become a pleasing offering while the Spirit works amongst the people
of God to produce God-pleasing worship. Trinitarian work is present, abundant,
and never-ceasing.
Christian
worship tells God’s story but also does God’s story in that the church
participates in union with trinitarian work. In three distinct manners, triune
God works among his people to the glory of the one triune God. Worship
glorifies the Father; worship glorifies the Son; and indeed, worship glorifies
the Spirit. Where the Spirit is honored, the Son is honored, and where the Son
is honored, the Father is honored in a holy love relationship with one another.
Christian life operates in the Godhead order; so also does Christian worship.
Balance Is Crucial
Even in
discussions of trinitarian worship, it is likely that an imbalance comes to
mind.[9]
Consider how often a balance of trinitarian work is evident in worship
gatherings. It is likely a rare occurrence. For it to be so, worship leaders
and liturgists must be intentional.
I am
reminded of a worship experience I once had in a large and well-attended
church. From the welcome to the closing of the gathering, I could not begin to
count the theological and practical errors. Nothing was intentional except an
attempt to look as much like the world as possible without (perhaps) the guilt
of doing so. The welcome included many jokes, futile announcements, and nothing
about the purpose of the gathering: worship of a holy God. What if, however, to
shift to an appropriate focus in the context of worship, the one welcoming
God’s people said something like this?
People of
God, today we enter into the presence of the blessed holy one, the one who
gives more than we could ask or desire, and the one who stands ready to meet
you as you bless his heart by your readiness in his presence. Our God pours
upon us the abundance of his mercy today as we approach him with absolution in
our hearts and resolve in our minds that he alone is worthy of our praise. Not
by merit and not by wisdom may we approach the throne of God but only in
thankfulness by the leading of the Holy Spirit, through the shed blood of Jesus
Christ, do we approach the throne in the grace and mercy of the Father to the
glory of our triune and eternal God. People and children of God, welcome. Let
us worship.
[1] Franklin M. Segler, Christian Worship:
Its Theology and Practice (Nashville, TN: Broadman Press, 1967), 61.
[2] David Peterson, Engaging with God: A
Biblical Theology of Worship (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1992),
186.
[3] Quoted from Jonathan Michael Jones’ personal
description of the Trinity.
[4] Webber, Worship Is a Verb, 97.
[5] Robert E.
Webber, Ancient-Future Worship (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2008),
142.
[6] Raymond Abba, Principles of Christian Worship (New York, NY:
Oxford University Press, 1957), 5.
[7] Segler, Christian
Worship, 57.
[8] Eugene
E. Carpenter and Philip W. Comfort. Holman Treasury of Key Bible Words:
200 Greek and 200 Hebrew Words Defined and Explained (Nashville, TN: Broadman and Holman
Publishers, 2000), 268.
[9] I suggest that the most evident imbalance
comes at the cost of God the Spirit, for perhaps, the least discussed person of
the Trinity is such. Moreover, when the Spirit is discussed, often, he is
discussed in improper theological terms.
