Part 4 - The Application of Faith

Prayer, Fellowship, and Worship to God

Love to God

The love which is the fruit of abiding in Christ has its primary expression in love to God. God's primary purpose for mankind is a personal relationship with Him based on love. This relationship is established through Jesus Christ and His sanctifying work. Jesus has separated His people from the darkness of not knowing God and has brought them into new life in the spiritual realm, the "heavenly places." Correspondingly, the believer is consecrated to a relationship of prayer, fellowship, praise, and worship to God (see Part 2, Consecrated to a Relationship with God). This calling of God is reflected in the greatest commandment, "And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength" (Mark 12:30).

Love however cannot be generated by a commandment. The commandment may be good and right, but a commandment is not the power to do the right thing. Regarding love, Scripture says it is the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22). To this the Scripture adds, "Against such there is no law" (verse 23). The law shows what is right, but the doing of what is right comes through Christ in a Spirit-led life.

A legalistic relationship

Through the law many are trying to serve and love God. This is a bottom-up approach to seeking God and His blessing. This approach to God first requires an effort and output on the part of the seeker, then a response and output on the part of God. Those seeking God must use their own strength and resources to gain approval from God and to prove their love for God. This method of serving and loving God is legalism. The flaw in this approach to God is that the seeker has insufficient strength and resources to please a perfect, and perfection-demanding, God. It is God's perfect holiness that requires perfect holiness on the part of those He communes with. Scripture says of mankind, "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:23). Jesus said, "The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak" (Matt. 46:21). Paul the Apostle wrote, "I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good" (Rom. 7:21).

The problem in trying to establish a right relationship with God through self-effort is the weakness of the flesh. The result is frustration, doubt, unrest, no peace, and even anger toward God. This also results in a distancing from God and the silence of not hearing from Him. Those seeking God in a legalistic manner find themselves alone and distant from God. They can only blindly hope that one day they will be accepted into heaven where they will then be able to fellowship with God. Others may give up, thinking that God is either unknowable, too angry, or uncaring about a personal relationship with mankind.

A love-based relationship

The good news of the gospel is that a personal relationship with God is possible because of the top-down outreach of God's love toward mankind. This is stated by the Apostle John: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved" (John 3:16-17). A love-based relationship with God is possible because God first loved the world. There is no need to earn God's love; it existed before any sinner ever repented and turned to Him. There is no need to work to create a path to God; God has already created a path to Himself through His Son, Jesus Christ. The top-down approach of a relationship with God involves God first reaching out to a sinful and rebellious world with His love and opening up a way to Him through His mercy and grace. His only requirement of those who would come to Him is repentance and faith in Him.

The love that God first has for the world is spoken of by Scripture: "For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Rom. 5:6-8). God did not wait until He found a person who loved Him before He loved that person. He loved the world while all were still sinners, and this to the extent that He gave His Son to die on the cross in their place.

John wrote of this again: "In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins" (1 John 4:9-10). It is because of the love that God first had toward the world, and the work of redemption that God has wrought because of that love, that one can love God in return. John says, "We love Him because He first loved us" (1 John 4:19).

Worshipping God in love

Love to God is the response of one who sees himself for who he is and yet believes upon God for who He is and what He has done for the believer. Jesus taught this to one of the Pharisees: "And Jesus answered and said to him, 'Simon, I have something to say to you.' So he said, 'Teacher, say it.' 'There was a certain creditor who had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. And when they had nothing with which to repay, he freely forgave them both. Tell Me, therefore, which of them will love him more?' Simon answered and said, 'I suppose the one whom he forgave more.' And He said to him, 'You have rightly judged.' " (Luke 7:40-43).

Love on the part of the believer comes proportionately to the realization by the believer of the extent to which God's love has brought forgiveness and grace. This realization comes through the work of the Holy Spirit who uses the law to reveal the depths of sin. The Spirit reveals the rebelliousness of man's heart, soul, mind, and strength against God. The Spirit reveals the desire for self-centeredness and glory on the part of man. Against the darkness of man's sin and failure is shown the love, mercy, and grace of God towards mankind. Those responding to God's love and forgiveness in the light of their own failure will do so in thankfulness, love, and worship to God.

Worship of God is agape love in action. It is the giving of oneself to God to love and serve Him. This is God's highest calling for mankind, who, being lost in sin and death, have had God's love and grace poured out to them through Jesus Christ. Worship is not just praise. Praise is only a part of worship. Worship means prostrating oneself before another (person or thing) and paying homage to. It is the placing of one's life in subservience to another. Mankind's rightful place is to bow before and worship the Almighty God and Creator of the universe. This is a glad and joyful thing to do for those who realize the lovingkindness that God has shown to man. It is the response of those who realize and receive God's love, forgiveness, mercy, and grace.

Worshipping in spirit and in truth

Jesus said, "But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth" (John 4:23-24). The sanctifying work of Christ has fulfilled these two conditions necessary to truly worship God, to worship in spirit and truth. One, Christ has brought the believer into His light. This is the knowledge of God which comes through Christ, who is the Word of God. The light of His word brings truth. The light of Christ reveals not only the sinfulness of fallen mankind but also the love of God that has dealt with that sin. Jesus said, "the truth shall make you free." This is freedom from bondage to sin. This comes about when one is set free from legalism, for "the strength of sin is the law." The truth enables one to receive the gospel message and God's love. The truth enables the believer to have a relationship with God based on His love and grace, a top-down courtship with a bottom-up response of love and worship.

The second condition necessary to truly worship God is to worship Him in spirit. Again, the sanctifying work of Christ brings a fulfillment of this. Christ gives life to man's spirit. Jesus said to Nicodemus, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." (John 3:5-6). Redemption and justification in Christ enable sanctification in Christ. Because Christ has purchased the believer with His own blood and has justified the believer through His substitutionary atonement, Christ is able to give life to the believer's spirit and raise him up with Himself into the Father's presence. The born-again believer has life in the spiritual realm. The truth brings about the knowledge of God, but spiritual life in Christ brings about knowing God personally.

To be made alive in the spirit is to be able to actually know God, not just know about God, and communicate with Him. Jesus said that "God is Spirit" and so therefore those who worship Him must worship in spirit. Paul writes of the accomplishment of this by Christ: "But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Eph. 2:4-6).

Two complementary necessities

To worship God in spirit and to worship God in truth are two complementary necessities. One needs the other. Attempting to worship God in spirit alone can lead to error. If one is born-again but doesn't abide in the light of Christ, worship can become distorted. One can sense the presence of God and desire to worship Him, but the lack of truth will lead to unbiblical worship. The basis of worship will be lost. True worship is the response of one who has come to know the loving character of the Almighty God and His wonderful and gracious works toward mankind. The necessary complement of worshipping God in spirit is worshipping Him in truth.

Likewise, worshipping God in truth only also leads to error. Without the personal knowledge of God's holy presence, one can begin to worship the truth rather than the God of truth. Worship can become mechanical and lifeless. God will seem distant while one only ponders about Him. One must walk in the Spirit in order to worship God as He desires. Together, life in the Spirit and truth in the Spirit bring about true worship of God. This is the work of Christ, who has separated His people from darkness into His light, and has separated His people out of the world and into the spiritual realm through life in Him.

Kings and priests to God

Having been delivered into the spiritual realm by new life in Christ, the believer is consecrated to live in this realm in worship to God. The Apostle Peter wrote, "But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light" (1 Pet. 2:9). In a similar way, John wrote, "To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen" (Rev. 1:5-6). God's people are called to live before His throne in service and worship. This realm is one of communion with God. This involves fellowship, prayer, and praise. John also wrote, "and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ" (1 John 1:3).

Paul wrote to the Ephesians, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ" (Eph. 1:3). "Every spiritual blessing" is given to those who are "in the heavenly places in Christ." Christ has brought his people to this place and consecrated them to love and serve God. He has given His Spirit through whom they can prosper in the spiritual realm under His blessing and so bear fruit. This is the sanctifying work of Christ.