Q.-Will you kindly give me a reply, in the next number of the B.T., to the following question:-
Is it a correct assumption that the Father is the object we worship, while the Lord Jesus Christ is the subject of our worship? And should we therefore only worship the Father, and not the Lord Jesus? E.R.W.
A.-Not only does such a conclusion offend every spiritual feeling of the renewed nature, but scripture is plain that the Father will have all men to " honor the Son as they honor the Father." And so if we trace but even a few instances in the N.T. there is the clearest evidence of what is the mind of the Holy Spirit.
Take Matt. 2:2, 112Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him. (Matthew 2:2)
11And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh. (Matthew 2:11), when the Magi " fell down and worshipped Him," presenting " unto Him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh." Was not this a foreshadowing of what will be, when in the language of Psa. 7211Yea, all kings shall fall down before him: all nations shall serve him. (Psalm 72:11) " all kings shall fall down before him " (προσκυνήσουσιν αὺτῶ " shall worship him"), confirmed again as this is by Heb. 2:66But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that thou visitest him? (Hebrews 2:6), " When He bringeth in the First begotten into the world, He saith, And let all God's angels worship Him? ' "
Now take another scene, not on earth but in heaven. " A door is opened in heaven " (Rev. 4:11After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will show thee things which must be hereafter. (Revelation 4:1)), and in the next chapter we read " Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, AND unto the Lamb forever and ever. And the four living creatures said, Amen. And the elders fell down and worshipped " (v. 11-14). To add but one more scripture-how can one in thought even withhold the homage and worship of adoring hearts from Him who is supreme God-the Christ " who is over all (ὁ ὥν ἐπὶ πάωτων) God blessed forever, Amen " (Rom. 9:55Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen. (Romans 9:5))? And so much the more as we think of the wondrous stoop of grace as revealed in His poverty, humiliation, and death!
Whilst John 4:21-2421Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. 22Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. 23But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. 24God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. (John 4:21‑24) blessedly makes known the Father as now seeking worshippers who shall worship Him in spirit and truth, one may nevertheless ask, Can there be this worship of the Father, independently of equal homage to the Son? And the more deeply we enter into what is thus due to the Lord Jesus (and no honor that we render to Him can derogate from the Father's glory), so do our hearts rise to the worship that the Father seeks from those who know His unspeakable gift. Only thus, as would appear, when a soul knows peace and relationship with, and access to, the Father through Him (the Lord Jesus) in [the power of] one Spirit, can we rightly answer to the Father's desire as here made known to us by the Son.
This we should seek by the Spirit to know and enter into more and more, but all is surely consistent with the adoration and homage due no less to the Son.