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JESUS, THE MEDIATOR IN WORSHIP
The centrality of Christ in worship has been discussed to this point, but
the mediation of Christ should be given special attention. Jesus’ mediation is
often considered in soteriological terms rather than in its necessity for
Christian worship. Nonetheless, as Christ’s mediation is necessary in Christian
life, it is also necessary in Christian worship, as worship is the overarching
purpose of life.
Christ mediates the practice of worship in his ever-present work. Jesus
mediates before the Father in that he exists as the arbitrator between his
people and the Father so that what the Father receives is transformed through
Jesus as a pleasing offering. Without such transformation, God’s people could
only offer filthy rags to God. In Christ, however, what is offered to triune
God is good and right.
Additionally, Jesus works with the Holy Spirit to radically transform the
lives of his people. Jesus’ sending of the Holy Spirit is meant to testify to
his own works and glory as God. Further, Jesus’ work testifies to the glory of
the Father so that God’s work in the lives of his people is trinitarian in
nature. Through the Holy Spirit, God’s people rightly worship God as what they
offer to him is transfigured into the righteousness of Christ and the Father
receives it as a blessing to him.
Believers should realize the great need all people have for the mercy of
God, which is abundant in Jesus Christ. Mercy is the greatest need any person
has. In worship, God’s people exercise the copious grace given by God through
Jesus and return a pleasing offering to him. Christ, therefore, mediates not
only a new a better covenant but pleasing worship as the body of Christ
exhibits God’s glory.
Christ Mediates Before the Father
Worship is only possible because of the mediation of Jesus Christ before
the Father. A true adage says that God’s people are saved from God by God. The
Doctrine of Penal Substitutionary Atonement contends that the price or penalty
for sin had to be paid by someone and to something. The obvious answer for who
had to pay is humankind. Nonetheless, humankind faced an impossible task, for
no person was capable of paying such a price. There are disagreements over to
whom the penalty for sin had to be paid (e.g. God himself, death, Hades, etc.), but
Penal Substitutionary Atonement argues that God himself had to receive the
payment. As God received the payment for the sin of his people through animal
sacrifice in the Old Testament, under the New Covenant, the propitiation was
paid by and through Jesus Christ on behalf of his people, for only a perfect
man not born in sin could make such a payment.
There subsist Old Testament typologies
of mediation (e.g. Job—Job 9:32-33—, the mediation of Moses and God’s angels
between God and the Israelites, and priestly mediation on behalf of God’s
people). It should not be surprising then that Jesus’ role is described as a
mediatorial one in “making God known” (Mark 6:15, 8:28).[1]
What this means for worshipers is that the church may now approach the Father
boldly because the Son has not only paid the price but currently mediates his
people’s offering of worship (Rom 8:34). Without such mediation, the Father
does not receive his people’s worship, for anything that humanity has to offer
God is exceedingly unworthy. Worship is only possible then through the
arbitration of Christ.
Lest God’s people, in arrogance,
consider their worship, by its own merit, to be pleasing to the Lord, worship
should be employed in humility, for God’s people were born in sin and may make
only sinful choices by nature. Apart from the call of Christ, all of humankind
would utterly and eternally reject God. By the call of the Holy Spirit and the
mediation of the Son, however, the church is comprised of radically new people.
Who they once were is no more. “…union with Christ not only gives you a new
identity; it gives you a new mindset, a new grid through which to filter
everything that happens to you.”[2]
In the power of the Holy Spirit and because of Christ’s atoning sacrifice,
God’s people now possess every tool necessary to live in the holiness of
Christ, not only positionally but in reality. When the Father looks upon his
chosen people now, he sees not the filth of sin but the righteousness of the
Son.
In Christ, the prayers of God’s people
are transformed into the prayers of Christ. Paul attests, “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do
not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes
for us with groanings too deep for words” (Rom 8:26). Even with the Spirit’s
help, because Christians’ prayers are heard in the righteousness of Christ, the
aspect of imperfection is irrelevant. When Paul says that the Son currently
sits at the righthand of the Father and intercedes on behalf of his people, it
is meant that he falls in with his people. The word is ἐντυγχάνω (entygchano).
More than a plea before the Father, Jesus is identified with his people so when
he presents supplication before the Father on behalf of his bride, the human
imperfections of his people are extraneous because Christ is the subject of such prayers.
It is as if the prayers of Christians travel through a filter in Christ and are
transformed into prayers as if they are his.
Participation with Christ in worship is
deeper than merely praising Jesus. Participation with Christ yields a complete
endeavor that otherwise would be impossible for any human apart from Jesus,
which is why believers may approach the Father with boldness. God’s people are
inseparable from Christ, for they are found in union with him. The reality of
being found in Christ is perpetual. Paul writes, “For
our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might
become the righteousness of God” (1 Cor 5:21). No figure of speech,
Christ’s righteousness is now and eternally the position in which the church is
found. When the Father receives the worship of his people, therefore, it is
good and pleasing to him. Apart from Christ, however, worship would eternally
be an impossible task, as much as the people of God may try.
Worship is employed in Christ.
Life is lived in Christ. Not only is the love that the Son has for his people
astonishingly great, the love between the Father and the Son is beyond anything
a human mind could comprehend. Thus, the Father is pleased to receive his
people’s worship because it is accomplished in Christ.
For worship to have its full
effect in believers’ lives, God’s people must see themselves through the eyes
of Christ. In other words, their sin is forgiven, their hearts changed, their
minds transformed, and their past irrelevant to the people they are now. How
much baggage is brought into worship because people will not let go of the
past? Union with Christ means complete forgiveness and, therefore, ability to
worship God in an uninhibited manner. Living in the reality of being in Christ
encompasses all of life. When a believer clinches to a past that is detached
from their changed life, he or she dismisses the work of Christ in their life
and effectively (and pridefully) claims that it is not sufficient. How dare
God’s people belittle God by rendering his work ineffective. Since worship is
employed in Christ, the Father sees not the sin of his people but the
righteousness of his Son.
The mediation of Jesus before
the Father is vital to Christian worship. The church needs the mediation of the
Son. Without Jesus’ mediation, worship is not possible. The privilege and right
that the church holds to worship the living God is unique to them. No one else
possesses such a right. Nonetheless, this right does not come from Christians
themselves but only from a loving God and the mediation of God the Son. Since
worship and indeed life itself are employed through the mediation of Christ,
worship is central to his person and work. Christians should comprehend the
vital aspect of Christ’s mediation in worship, for without such mediation,
worship could not happen.
Christ Arbitrates the Work of the Holy Spirit
The mediation of Jesus is also significant in that Christ arbitrates the
work of the Holy Spirit. Not to neglect the work of God the Spirit (often the
most overlooked person of the Godhead), Christian worship should be careful to
ensure that gatherings are both christocentric and triune. The Son and the
Spirit work together simultaneously to accomplish the worship of the church.
Worship is accomplished in the power of
the Spirit through the Son. In John’s Gospel Jesus teaches:
If you love me, you
will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you
another helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom
the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know
him, for he dwells with you and will be in you (John 14:15-17).
Since life
is lived in the power of the Spirit, through Christ the Son, and to the glory
of the Father, Jesus explains the evidence of loving him and how it may be
accomplished. The helper of whom Jesus speaks is the Holy Spirit.[3]
God the Spirit proceeds from both the Father and the Son (Acts 2:33).[4]
Jesus said sent the Holy Spirit as the Godhead guide for his body on earth, the
church (John 15:26). Therefore, the person and work of the Holy Spirit testify
to Jesus (1 John 5:6), and Jesus testifies to the Father. In a trinitarian
manner then, Jesus is the mediator between the people of God, but in the power
of the Spirit, the Father is glorified through Jesus.
The work of the Holy Spirit exists for
the benefit of God’s people and the mission of Christ in their lives. Believers
might consider the mission of Christ as subsequent to the life-changing power
of the Holy Spirit. Once the Spirit calls the people of God to salvation, their
life’s mission shifts to that of revealing Christ to all people. Without such
spiritual change, worship is not possible, for the Father must receive worship
from the redeemed. Christ is the only person worthy to stand before holy God so
in Jesus, God’s people also stand righteous before a perfect God.
Worship is accomplished only in the
power of the Spirit and through the Son. In a transformational way, the sacred
actions of worship are received by God as pleasing because of trinitarian work.
Also, the actions of worship themselves are part of the transformation of God’s
people (i.e. as God’s people worship and declare the story of God, they live
within its reality and, in a cyclic manner, are transformed by that story). Without
the arbitration of Jesus Christ in worship, however, the Holy Spirit’s work is
futile. Christ’s atoning sacrifice makes it possible for the church to stand
redeemed before God and approach him in perfect worship. The worship of God’s
people is offered to the Father through the Son’s work of redemption as well as
his current work in converting the worship of imperfect people into an offering
of perfection. The Holy Spirit empowers the church to worship rightly; Jesus
arbitrates such spiritual work and metamorphoses it into an offering of
perfection before the Father since Jesus himself is perfect (i.e. what the
Father receives in worship comes directly from Christ himself).
The Son and the Spirit work in unison
with each other to empower God’s people for the purpose of worship. Mindful of
the fact that the Spirit testifies to the Son, the Spirit’s work realizes the
governing purpose of the church—worship—the result of which is sending. The
sending is a vital part of Christian worship because the sending is the link
between corporate and private worship. As God’s people worship communally, they
are successively sent to a world that is hopeless apart from Christ so
continues private worship. Christ’s work in Christian worship is mediatorial in
that he is central to worship and his arbitration is necessary for the people
of God to offer a pleasing gift of worship to the Father. Through the work of
the Holy Spirit, the mediation of the Son, and the love of the Father in
forgiving his people, the church may rightly honor God in her worship
gatherings. Christ’s mediation in worship as in life, therefore, is essential.
Christ Is Central to Worship Because
People Are Not Capable of Worshiping God Without Him
The necessity of Jesus Christ to the Christian life
cannot be overstated. Humankind is in desperate need of Jesus as a Savior
whether realized or not. This truth is most evident in great and unexpected
falls by people of God—people who are admired and viewed as people God-fearing
believers. When such people fall in a magnificent way, sadly, Christians are
often the first to criticize them. Perhaps rightly criticized, what many
believers fail to remember is that they also need mercy. Humanity’s greatest need
is the mercy is God. Without it, life is in vain, and certainly, worship is
null and void: it is impossible.
Christ is central to Christian worship because without
his mediation, all believers’ attempts to worship are impossible. The only
reason Christian prayers are heard by the Father is because of the mediation of
Jesus. The only reason the church may worship triune God is because of the
mediation of Jesus. The need for Jesus’ mediation is great, consummate, and
total.
The necessity of Jesus’ mediation subsists because human
nature is rebellious. Apart from Christ, God’s people would continue to choose
sin (because that is all humanity is capable of choosing) and rebel against the
cause of the Lord. Upon the premise of original sin, humankind is conceived in
sin (Ps 51:5) and incapable of any good. Even in lostness, the seemingly good
works exuded from such a person are fundamentally from God, for only God is
good and the source of good. Original sin is a “term referring to the universal defect in human nature
caused by the fall, entailing the loss of original righteousness and the
distortion of the image of God (imago Dei).”[5]
The doctrine contends that through the sin of Adam, all of humanity hence forth
is infected with sin in completeness and radically depraved by nature. The
issue is not that people have sinned but that all of humanity has never done
anything but sin (i.e. every choice a person makes is sinful and people live in
radical disobedience by nature). The need for Jesus’ mediation, therefore, is
consummate; yet, sadly, most people do not comprehend such a great need. Even
after salvation, a person could live most of their lives in oblivion to the
great need of Christ’s mediation.
Human
nature is rebellious and requires mediation to approach God in worship. Total
depravity is not only a Calvinistic soteriological thought—it is a
comprehension of believers’ need of Christ in every part of life including
worship. Without Christ, God’s people would continue to rebel and, therefore,
never truly worship God.
Because
of Christ, however, the church may faithfully worship God each Lord’s Day by
gathering together and presenting a pleasing offering to the Lord. Human nature
is rebellious, but the new nature in Christ is righteous. Such a new nature may
only exist by the calling of the Holy Spirit and the transformation by Jesus
Christ upon the lives of his people. Without the mediation of Jesus, the church
would attempt to worship God in futility, for such worship is impossible
without the mediation of the Son. Human nature is indeed utterly rebellious and
requires a drastic work—that work was accomplished by the Son’s sacrifice and
arbitration.
Further, apart from Christ, God’s people could not
worship. It is no exaggeration that it is impossible to worship God without the
mediation of Christ. Christian worship must pass through the person of Christ
to be converted into a pleasing offering to triune God. Otherwise, what is
offered is nothing but an unworthy and unacceptable offering. Christ is central
to worship because of his role as a conduit. With electricity, a conduit is a
tube or casing through which electricity travels to get from point to point. In
a similar manner, Christian worship travels through the righteousness of Christ
before the Father receives it so that it may be right and acceptable.
When someone says that everyone needs the mercy of God,
they do not embellish the truth. Apart from Christ, not only are God’s people
incapable of worshiping, also, the wrath of the Father is certain. The only
reason God receives the worship of the church is because Christ has made it to
be so. It is seemingly unpopular to consider the wrath of God. Many people
would prefer to not only forget the truth of God’s wrath but ignore it. The
wrath of God, however, is replete in Scripture, especially in the Hebrew text.
Jim West writes:
At one level, the frequent reminder of the punishment of God
if his people transgress could simply be an attempt to hold sinful acts in
check. But more profoundly, the wrath of God serves to remind people that God
wishes their best and is willing to take physical action to inhibit the
self-destructiveness of human rebellion. Said another way, God’s wrath is the
twin of God’s mercy. Mercy without correction is mere permission, and mere
permission never has the best interests of the person in mind. God’s wrath,
then, is God’s mercy. And God’s mercy is, because of the nature of God’s love,
sometimes made known in God’s punishment of wrongdoing and wrongdoers.[6]
The good news of the gospel then is essential to salvation
from God’s wrath.
While
some dismiss the concept of God’s wrath as unbiblical (because it seems
unloving), people must understand that a price for sin had to be paid by
someone. Fortunately, for the people of God, the person who paid that price was
Jesus Christ, which displays the love of God in such an extreme manner that
there should be no doubting it. If God did not demand wrath as the price for
sin, he is not just, which is not true since God claims to be just in his word
(1 Thess 1:6-8). Even in Christ making the payment for sin, God is just, for
his wrath was still outpoured. Without that payment for sin, God’s people would
be utterly and hopelessly lost and certainly could not worship him rightly.
Christ
is the mediator in Christian worship because he is central to its theme and
subject. Through Jesus’ work, the worship of the church is received by triune
God in a right way. God is glorified and the church is edified only through the
work of Christ. The mediation of Jesus Christ, therefore, is not only a
soteriological issue but also an issue around which all of Christian living
revolves. Christ is central to worship because worship relies on the both the
story of Christ and the work of Christ (in the past and in the present).
Christ the Subject of Christian Worship
Christian
worship and indeed Christian living would not be possible without Christ’s
work, which is sufficient and complete in the lives of his people. As subject,
Christ is the one who works in the midst of the church. Said another way,
Jesus’ mediating work in the church not only enhances worship but is essential to
worship. Christ is the mediator in Christian worship as he arbitrates the
dialogue between God’s people and the Father. What the church presents to God
as worship Christ transforms into an offering from his own righteousness. The
Father then is pleased to receive such worship.
Moreover,
Christ works in unison with the Holy Spirit to work in the lives of his people.
The Holy Spirit testifies to the work of Christ, and Christ testifies to the Father’s
glory. Worship then is trinitarian in nature and in function. Additionally,
Christ’s mediation is repletely necessary for Christians to worship. In fact,
without the mediation of Jesus, Christians could not worship; nor, could God’s
people stand redeemed before him. Jesus has made it possible for his bride to
worship God in righteousness. Thus, Christ’s mediation is essential to
Christian worship and should be realized as a perpetual work in the body of
Christ.
[1]
R.E.O. White, “Mediation,
Mediator,” Baker Encyclopedia of
the Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1988), 1428.
[2] Rankin Wilbourne, Union with Christ: The Way to
Know and Enjoy God (Colorado Springs, CO: David C. Cook, 2016), 92.
[3] Some
refer to him as the Holy Ghost, but such a term is inaccurate, for the third
person of the Godhead is not a ghost but a person.
[4]
Debates exist surrounding the proceeding of the Holy Spirit. While this notion
is commonly held in Western Christianity, Eastern orthodoxy suggests that the
Spirit proceeds only from the Father, as the Father is the eternal source of
the Spirit as he is also the Son. Both contentions form a paradox that is only
explained in believing that both are true.
[5] Andrew Hay, “Original Sin,” ed. John D.
Barry et al., The Lexham Bible Dictionary
(Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016).
[6] Jim West, “Divine Wrath,” ed. Douglas Mangum et al., Lexham Theological Wordbook, Lexham Bible Reference Series (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2014).
