The style of music you use on Sunday mornings is incredibly unimportant.

That may seem like an odd way to begin a chapter on “blended worship,” but it may be the most important thing we say on the topic of worship. You may be, or your church may employ, a “worship leader,” someone who plans, facilitates, and leads the corporate gatherings of your church. You may be accustomed to calling that time each week a “worship service.” You may even think of particular parts of your weekly service (such as the singing) as being “worship,” as opposed to other things that happen during that time (such as preaching or taking up an offering). Yet while none of those uses of the word are, strictly speaking, incorrect, neither do they even come close to the heart of what the Bible means by worship. According to the Bible, worship is not fundamentally what we do on Sunday mornings when we gather with other Christians. It certainly includes that, but it is much more. Worship is our service to God. It is acting and thinking and speaking as if He really is who He says He is and we are really who He says we are. Worship is the creature (you and me) serving the Creator (God).

This book is specifically concerned with one of the ways we most frequently talk about worship–our times together in church, and specifically the style that characterizes that gathering. This is a great thing to talk about, and obviously important, given the amount of conflict this topic generates in many local churches. However, we want to be clear at the outset that this is not the heart of what the Bible means by worship. Furthermore, if worship does not refer merely to our corporate times together, it MOST certainly does not mean merely our music.

–Michael Lawrence and Mark Dever.  From “Blended Worship,” chapter 7 in Perspectives on Christian Worship: Five Views. Edited by J. Matthew Pinson; other contributors are Timothy C. J. Quill, Dan Wilt, Ligon Duncan, and Dan Kimball. Nashville: B&W Academic, 2009, p. 218-19.

Today is Reformation Day. 490 years ago, on October 31, 1517, a monk named Martin Luther nailed the 95 Theses to the door of Wittenberg Castle Church — the catalyst event which soon led to the Protestant Reformation, a movement which was an attempt to reform the Roman Catholic Church back to the foundation of God’s Word alone as the authoritative rule of all life and faith, and to the foundation of faith in God’s grace alone as the source of man’s salvation. As we all know, this led to the tremendous fracture of the church as it was at the time — something completely unintended by Luther, but albeit a necessary change in order to bring about the Spiritual transformation that God so desired.

Tonight, at my church here in Louisville, we went through Romans 4 and 5 briefly during the prayer meeting, so as to set the stage for what we would be praying about during the service. Interestingly, it is also today’s ESV Verse of the Day, and my small group back at my home church in Toronto is also studying Romans 4 tonight.

1 What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh? 2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. 3 For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” 4 Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. 5 And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness

Romans 4:1-5

The question that has plagued humanity for centuries is simply this: how can us, a sinful people, be right with a holy? The Apostle Paul argues that it is only by faith alone that any person could be made right before God. We must trust Him who justifies us by exchanging the righteousness of His Son, Christ Jesus death and resurrection for the unrighteousness of our sins. Traditionally, this is known as the “Great Exchange”.

Paul uses the model of Abraham to prove justification by faith alone because the Jews held him up as the supreme example of a righteous man, and because it clearly showed that Judaism with its works-righteousness had deviated from the faith of the Jews’ patriarchal ancestors. In a spiritual sense, Abraham was the forerunner of the primarily Gentile church in Rome as well.

So if Abraham’s own works had been the basis of his justification, he would have had every right to boast in God’s presence. But such would make the hypothetical premise of verse 2 unthinkable. Be that as it may, faith is not a meritorious work. It is simply the channel through which it is received and it too, is a gift. Abraham did nothing to accumulate it; God simply took His own righteousness and credited it to Abraham as if it were actually his (traditionally known as “imputation” or “imputed righteousness”). This God did so because Abraham believed in Him.

Broadening his argument from Abraham to all people, the apostle thus makes it clear that the forensic act of declaring a person righteous is completely apart from any kind of human work (contrary to what the apostate Roman Catholic Church believes). If salvation were on the basis of one’s own effort, God would owe salvation as a debt — but salvation is always a sovereignly given gift of God’s grace to those who believe. And since faith is contrasted with work, faith must mean the end of any attempt to earn God’s favor through personal merit.

-MacArthur Bible Commentary

Only those who surrender all their own claims to righteousness by their own strength and acknowledge themselves to be sinners can be justified. The great news is that for those who are graciously justified by the Father, our direction in life is completely changed. Once we have trusted in His righteousness for our sins, our direction in life — not perfection — is transformed. We will never be perfect and may still slip and sin on occasion, but the enemy has been disarmed and ultimately been defeated! While God does allows our faith to be tested (cf. Job 1:6ff), by His Spirit He works through us to sanctification towards glorification, where one day we will have new bodies that are not corrupted.

And thus, while our justification is monergistic in nature, our sanctification is synergistic. Through the discipline of His grace, He calls us to press on and train ourselves for the purpose of godliness.

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Romans 5:1

On this Reformation Day, let us remember how important for us to keep Sola Fide at the forefront of our lives — His righteousness for our sins.

SDG

This is a review of

Frame, John. The Doctrine of God. Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed, 2002.
864 pp. $39.99

Copyright © 2007 by Alex S. Leung. All rights reserved.

Introduction

The popularity of J.I. Packer’s classic book, Knowing God (1973), is evidence to the widespread desire in today’s church to reclaim the center of Christianity in the knowledge of God. In recent times, the need to understand why major disasters and calamities have occurred underscores the yearning of the society at large to understand who God is and why He does what He does, why He would allow so much suffering to occur if He is truly good. More recently, in response to 9/11 or the bridge collapse in Minnesota, many Christians are even questioning whether or not God truly had control of the events. Some have argued that God allows and uses suffering in the world to amplify the dire need in people to repent of their sins, including unbelief, and to put their trust in the atoning work of Christ on the cross. In spite of this, many still are left dumbfounded by life’s circumstances about the will of God in all these things.

This pervasive rejection of the God of Scripture in secularism and alternative spirituality and religions compels us as Christ’s ambassadors to call unbelievers to be reconciled with God (2 Cor 5:20). What this undeniably implies is that we actually know this God of whom we confess, so that we would be ready in season and out of season, to give a biblical defense for the hope we have in Jesus Christ (2 Tim 4:2; 1Pet 3:15). While postmodern epistemology may be accurate to assert that we cannot exhaustively know everything about God, we can however know with certainty everything that God has explicitly revealed about himself in Scripture. In “The Doctrine of God”, John Frame, professor of systematic theology at Reformed Theological Seminary, provides a concise exposition of theology proper as defined in Scripture.

I can’t believe I found this on my portable hard-drive! Back in Toronto, I served 2 years as the Worship Coordinator for Ryerson University’s CCF (Chinese Christian Fellowship) for the school years 2003-2004 and 2004-2005.

May this be a blessing to you, as we think through how to live lives of worship — lifestyles that puts Christ at the highest place in our lives and gives the Father the greatest honor.

In holy and divine matters one must first hear rather than see,
first believe rather than understand,
first be grasped rather than grasp,
first be captured rather than capture,
first learn rather than teach,
first be a disciple rather than a teacher and master of his own.
We have an ear so that we may submit to others,
and eyes that we may take care of others.
Therefore, whoever in the church wants to become an eye and a leader and master of others,
let him become an ear and a disciple first.
This first.

-Martin Luther, First Lectures on the Psalms II, Works II.245-246.

I think that there’s a tendency in fellowship to build up the next generation of leaders, and in so doing, we neglect our first and foremost mission that is to make “disciples.” We puff ourselves up to be “leaders” as if we have something to teach and change others. If we do this long enough via trial-and-error, I’ve personally found myself to be a failure at leadership. People don’t listen for one, they don’t learn anything, and don’t even embrace the Spirit-sanctified truth that is in our words. I think what God requires of us is what Luther said so plainly–we need to become disciples ourselves first, before we even remotely consider our role in leading others.

3 John Piper - Passion conferences messages from the Desiring God DVD “One Day: One Passion” are now available free online:

• Boasting Only in the Cross (OneDay 2000)
• A Generation Passionate for God’s Holiness (OneDay 2003)
• How Our Suffering Glorifies the Greatness of the Grace of God (Passion06)

It’s such a blessing to the church that Desiring God can provide these videos free to the public! I’ve seen the first couple sermons from the original Passion DVDs and saw Piper preach live at Passion06 for the talk on suffering. I highly recommend these videos if you have not seen or heard the sermons before. Certainly, seeing Piper preach live is a spiritual feast — Pastor John is so biblical and passionate in his expositional preaching that many times I just want to shrink and hide myself from how he pierces the heart and mind through God’s Word!

(HT: Desiring God blog)