Worship As A Means Of Grace - Brad Anderson

Christian worship may be discussed both as the lifestyle of a Christian (Rom. 12:1-2) and as something observed on public and private occasions (Heb. 10:19-25). The latter is the focus of this discussion of worship as a means of grace. 

God calls us to worship him. In that call that we see how worship, an end in itself for the Christian, is also a means of grace. Just as God calls us to himself in salvation, he also calls believers to “come into his presence” (Ps. 100:2) to participate in central elements of worship: the Word, sacraments, and prayer. God initiates and we respond by the power of his work in us. Therefore, as we engage in worship, we are growing in the benefits of redemption communicated to us by the Holy Spirit through the mediation of Jesus Christ.  As Marva Dawn states, by him making “it possible for us to enter into his presence; God is the one who gives us himself in the Word, the water, the supper.” 

The observance of the Christian life is not one of independent spirituality, rather its end is worshiping God with God’s people alongside of you—glorifying God and enjoying him forever (WSC, Q1). The Lord has appointed one day in seven to be a holy resting from worldly engagements. It is a day set apart to rest in Him and engage in public and private exercises of worship (WCF, 21.8). God’s people must draw together in full assurance of faith and not neglect such opportunities to be God’s people together, worshiping the Lord and Savior (Heb. 10:19-25). In the Old Testament this drawing together as a people would result in being drawn into the presence of God (2 Chron. 5:13-14).  In the New Testament, as well, James explains that as God’s people draw near to him, he will in turn “draw near to you” (James 4:8). It is truly a means of grace if true worship draws God’s people close to him and his presence while giving him the praise he deserves. As Martin Luther noted, “At home in my own house there is no warmth or vigor in me, but in the church when the multitude is gathered together, a fire is kindled in my heart and it breaks its way through.” Worship is not a cold exchange of truth and praise to a distant and disinterested deity by a people simply attempting to guess at the desires of a persnickety god. Worship warms us to God by giving him the praise he is due because he has revealed himself to us in Scripture and given us Grace without merit in the person and work of his Son by the power of the Holy Spirit.

The means of grace are to be observed and exercised in the corporate worship of God’s covenant people (WCF, 21; DPW, III & V). In public worship we use those things which God has given us in his Word that reveal his justifying and sanctifying grace by the power of the Holy Spirit. His Word is to be read, preached, and accompanied by the sacraments. Prayers of thanksgiving, adoration, supplication, and confession are to be offered to God alone. Worship is what disciples of Jesus do, enriching the fellowship of the saints. 

Proper worship draws Christians closer to God and one another. The Directory of Public Worship states, “Christian worship is a work of God’s sanctifying grace by which He draws His people into communion with Himself and calls forth their active, grateful, obedient, loving, joyful, reverent, whole-hearted response to all He is and has done for them” (DPW, III.1). Also “public worship is a holy convocation in which the Triune God meets with and ministers to His assembled covenant people through Word and sacrament, and His people respond with praise, thanksgiving, repentance, confession of sin, supplication and confession of faith” (DPW, III.6).

Worship is also edifying. For as Paul states, let all things in worship “be done for building up” (1 Cor. 14:26) as he dwells with us (1 Cor. 3:16). As he dwells with and in us we are changed and formed by him. James K. A. Smith, speaking against the modern propensity to make worship solely an individual act of religious self-expression observed anywhere at any time reminds us, “Christian worship is also a formative practice precisely because worship is also a “downward” encounter in which God is the primary actor. Worship isn’t just something we do; it does something to us. Worship is a space where we are nourished by Word and sacrament—we eat the Word and eat the bread that is the Word of life.” In active worship of God with his people we engage the “specially charged conduits of the Spirit’s formative power” where “Christian worship around Word and table is a unique ‘hot spot’ of the Spirit’s wonder-working power . . . for it is in the sanctuary that we are made into a people of praise. In communal worship we receive the unique promise of the Spirit that is tethered to Word and sacrament.” It is here that we can see how the Psalmist proclaims that he was not able to discern his own turmoil and the Lord’s leading until he “went into the sanctuary of the Lord” held by God’s right hand, and from that place, could rest in the refuge of the Lord and tell of his mighty works (Ps. 73). Worship brings us into closer communion with God and one another as the congregation proclaims his mighty works. In this, God actively nourishes and builds-up his people by the power of the Holy Spirit. 

Practicing the means of grace helps us to know and be built-up into Christ, and also helps God’s people develop habits that identify us a citizens of God’s kingdom. In gathering together as God’s people in worship we are able to encourage and build one another (Heb. 10:25; 1 Cor. 14:26). Smith explains this unity in describing Colossians 3:15-16, “We clothe ourselves in Christ’s love (Col. 3:12-14) and ‘put on’ the virtue of love by letting the word of Christ dwell in us richly; by teaching and admonishing one another; by singing psalms, hymns, and songs of the Spirit.

Engaging the means of grace is a matter of Christian formation—the building up of God’s people. It is to understand that we are being made new (Rev. 21:5), being re-formed in the image of Christ (Rom. 8:29) for in him we live, move, and have our being (Acts 17:28), not merely informed as if sanctification is something solely for the mind. To be reformed in the image of Christ is to know that he is completing the work he started in us (Phil. 1:6). The goal of the practice of the means of grace is to say along with Paul that God’s people count all things “as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (Phil. 3:8). To know Christ is to be built up in him as he holds all things together (Col. 1:17). For from him and through him and to him are all things (Rom. 11:38). The means of grace are meant to form us into the likeness of our Savior for “we are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another” (2 Cor. 3:18). While it is the Holy Spirit who works in the believer, it is the duty of Christians to actively engage any channel by which they may access that work. All of the means of grace are meant for the building up of Christians corporately and individually, that when engaged properly is building the church up in love (Eph. 4:16). Learning to love God and one another takes practice. These means are the channels by which to do so.