Deus Misereatur

If you are a Christian who has been faithfully engaging in the corporate worship of God, then hopefully, over the years, you have noticed that much of our religion, much of Christianity is external. The Spirit uses outside-of-us things to bring us into fellowship with Christ. Just think about the Gospel. It is a verbum ex auditu (an external word), that comes to us by another who is outside us, and it confronts and comforts us from the outside. As Paul says: “Faith comes by hearing; & hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10.17). Similarly, think of Baptism or the Lord’s Supper. They also are outside things that God pours out onto us as well. None of this is a mistake, meaningless, or useless ritualistic rigmarole. God intentionally, purposefully establishes creaturely things to aid and guide His human creatures. To disdain the physical, creaturely rites for some form of “superior spirituality” is to slide, whether subtly or seriously, into the anti-cosmic, anti-creation, anti-hi...

There is a shrewd, virile strain running in the blood stream of most North American Christians. It’s a very self-reliant bug, one that thinks worship is something that boils up from my own rugged individualism. “I worship how ever I want, and God has just gotta be mighty pleased I have even given Him the time of day. I’ve got the good old American know how, and I’ve got the power!” But the Bible is clear: It’s God who works in us both to will and to do for His good pleasure (Phil. 2.13); It’s the gift of the Spirit by which we can even cry out, “Abba, Father” and pray (Rom. 8.15, 26-27); It’s Christ Jesus who takes away the veil over our hearts so that we can finally hear and receive the Word of the Lord (2 Cor. 3.14-16); and even real Christian preaching is only accomplished by God working in the preacher, as the Apostle Paul says, “Christ we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. To this end I also labo...