Object of Worship

 •  12 min. read  •  grade level: 9
by F. Lavington
God our Father is the One who has been revealed to us as the Object of worship, the One to whom our worship is presented. This is very important, because it shows the truth that we have been fitted to take our place before Him. The place God has given us is not "some lone place within the doors." The precious blood of Christ has given us the confidence, not only to take our place before Him now, but to know that our fitness for the inheritance is in the light of His holy presence (Col. 1:1212Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: (Colossians 1:12)). You and I, as purged by the precious blood of Christ, are as fitted to take our place now in God's own presence as we ever shall be.
God Himself is revealed to us as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the One who sustained Him in all His perfect walk of grace, love, patience and lowliness. All the beauties God desired, and ever longed to see in man, were found in His Own beloved Son. The Father of our Lord Jesus Christ was the Object and worship of this ever blessed One in the perfection in His pathway here. He was the God of our Lord Jesus Christ also, and the God whom He served. He was the God on whom, as a man, His faith was set. God was daily His delight. He was always in the bosom of the Father.
In Christ In process of time, when the way was cleared by our sins being removed, redemption having been accomplished, and the Holy Spirit being given at Pentecost, the sinner was for the first time enabled to take his place before God as fully blessed, and "in Christ." The Church was formed here by the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Everyone who was Christ's by grace was united to Him by the Holy Spirit, and there was a new unity constituted on the earth. Henceforth, all believers are linked with each other and united to our Lord Jesus Christ.
As to our relationship with the Father, the Apostle John says, "Truly our fellowship is with the Father." We need as much direction from the Lord to be in communion with Him in thanksgiving and praise as we do to minister His Word. We cannot dwell too often on the truth that true worship is the soul's being brought to God in all the liberty that Christ gives by the Holy Spirit in our hearts. Then we can bring the Lord Jesus Christ before God our Father in whom we find common joy with Himself. Communion comes from our appropriation of Christ, not merely according to man's thought of the word, but by the things that the Holy Spirit has made good to us and in us, and which He enables us to present to God our Father.
"These things write I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly: but if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.”
We see that the Apostle was longing that Timothy might have fullness of joy in the place where he was. He was parted from him, but he was coming again. The Apostle writes with the voice of Christ for His servant, and he writes with the voice and heart of Christ for His Church. As the Apostle was coming again to his son Timothy, so our blessed Lord is coming for us. It may seem to be a long time that the Lord Jesus has remained at the right hand of God.
House of God
Here the Apostle is writing that we might know how to behave ourselves in the house of God in the Lord's absence. God has brought us to Himself as members of the body of Christ, to take our place in the house of God—the habitation of God by the Spirit—in which the saints are builded together (Eph. 2). God has a habitation on the earth, and the Lord's portion is His people. We have the privileges of the house on the one hand, and we are subject to the discipline of the house of God on the other. God by His Spirit dwells in the house of God. The Apostle explains it further in this blessed way: the house of God is the Church—the assembly of the living God. We approach to the living God.
No longer will dead formality meet His heart and His thoughts. The assembly, of which we form part through grace if we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and have been sealed by the Holy Spirit, is the house of God. We are brought into that unity, which composes the assembly of the living God.
It is as true today as it was then that where two or three are gathered in the name of the Lord Jesus, they are taking their place as part of "the assembly of the living God." It may be a feeble expression of it, perhaps, but in its complete unity it comprises all the saints on earth who by the Spirit of the living God believe in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is a living Person who desires to engage our affections with Himself, in order that we might in our turn present Him in His loveliness to our Father. That is worship.
Mystery of Godliness
What we have here expressed to us is this priceless heritage of the Church, "the assembly of the living God"—the "mystery of godliness." It is this knowledge which makes the "house of God" to enjoy, through grace, the revelation by the Father of the Son. We have this in the case of Simon Peter in Matt. 16, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God," or the revelation of Himself to Saul of Tarsus on the way to Damascus: "I am Jesus whom thou persecutest." To the Church of God today is committed the mystery of piety. So we are faced with the fact that the mystery of piety is nothing else than the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, in all the mystery of His divine and, in one sense, unapproachable glory. He is a divine Person, and yet with that intimacy of a Christ made known in humility and love which distinguished Him as a man.
It is having this committed to us, and keeping it enshrined in our hearts above all else, which makes the assembly of the living God "the pillar and ground of the truth." God makes us, aided by His Word and Spirit, to be those who know how to "withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand." We must withstand the wiles of the devil, and stand in this blessed truth that God has manifested in the Son. God in all His glory has made Himself known to us in that lowly guise.
The Word Made Flesh
In John 1:1414And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. (John 1:14), the blessed Lord Jesus is spoken of as the "Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us... full of grace and truth." The Apostle writing these words with his heart taken up in worship and thanksgiving says, "We beheld His glory." He did not mean with his physical eyes; he meant that by faith he had beheld the loveliness of that Man now at God's right hand. It was the expression not only of what God looked for in man, but the presentation to us of God in all the grace of His heart. God in all the righteousness of His nature, His holiness and His truth is made known to us in this blessed One. It all comes to us by revelation, God acting in the power of the Spirit of God. Only God Himself can give us to know this, but it is the cherished treasure of the souls of the saints collectively. It is the knowledge of this which makes for true godliness in us.
It is wonderful that God Himself should take this place of a man in His own world, and come as a lowly Stranger "manifest in the flesh." Elsewhere we are told more fully that Christ came "in the likeness of sinful flesh," known only to those whose eyes could see divinely. "His visage was so marred," yet He "is over all, God blessed forever.”
We find in succeeding verses that the Spirit of God presents these different pictures of the life of the Lord Jesus Christ, so that we can dwell on Him personally for adoration and praise.
Justified in the Spirit
“Great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit." In His unbroken communion with God His Father, He walked in obedience and lowliness. Everything He said and did was in the power of the Spirit of God. He always lived in the power of that Spirit, and the Spirit of holiness was manifested in all His life. At the close of His earthly pathway we find that God raised Him from the dead and set Him at His own right hand in glory according to the Spirit of holiness. "Justified in the Spirit." From this we may get something for worship in the Person of God's beloved Son.
Seen of Angels
We find, as time went on, He goes as a perfect Man to meet the enemy, having no advantages as the first man had. He perfectly met Satan in obedience and dependence on the Word of God. Then we are told how the angels ministered to Him there in the wilderness (Mark 1:1313And he was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted of Satan; and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered unto him. (Mark 1:13)).
At the close of His ministry when He was in the garden and the cross was approaching, He was in fullest communion with His Father, yet in that anguish of soul that none could ever know. His heart was taken up with all that was due to the holiness of God, but He would go on in obedience to the Father's will. In anguish His heart was torn. He was there in perfect weakness and trust in God, and an angel from heaven strengthened Him as He prayed earnestly (Luke 22:4343And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him. (Luke 22:43)).
Now, these angels are promised to those who are the heirs of salvation, and they are interested in us (Heb. 1:1414Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation? (Hebrews 1:14)). Then too, a remarkable scripture in the Epistle to the Ephesians, that the Apostle brings before us in his prayer, is that we might "know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge." His desire for the saints even now is that "unto principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God." Eph. 3:1010To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, (Ephesians 3:10). The angels contemplate the wisdom of God in the assembly.
God has given us the place of brethren before Him, of whom Christ is the firstborn and has the preeminence. If He is the object of our worship and our hearts are occupied with Him, we also shall be seen of angels; we also shall present a savor of Christ.
How blessed and full are these words, "seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles." Here is God in His grace going out to us who were far off, as well as to the Jews who were near, in order that both might have access to Him by one Spirit to the Father.
The Fullness of His Person
“Believed on in the world." On the simple ground of faith going out to sinners of the Gentiles, to us who were far off and through this blessed One, God has confided to our hearts the mystery of godliness and the mystery of the Church. We have Christ before us in all His preciousness, the One who has come from glory and was received up into glory.
This heavenly Stranger, our Lord Jesus Christ, appeared among us "full of grace and truth," in order to lead our hearts into the knowledge of His God as our God, and His Father as our Father. He has given His own Spirit to us, and our place is the house of God, the assembly of the living God, and the pillar and ground of the truth. We have the truth committed to us, "God manifest in the flesh," in all the blessedness of His own Person.
May the Lord have full worship from our hearts when we come together. While we are musing, may the fire of divine love burn, being touched, as it were, with a coal from the altar. May it burn that we might more fully worship the Father in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, in Spirit and in truth.