Series on Worship: No. 1

Over the next few weeks, I will blogging through a book entitled Created for Worship by Noel Due. Feel free to make comments and ask questions. Keep in mind that I am only presenting what I think the author is attempting to communicate to the reader. At times, I may give my thoughts, but for the most part I am only conveying his main points. Here is my summary of Chapter 1: The Battle for Worship.

In the first chapter of the book, Created for Worship, Noel Due is explaining the scope of worship throughout the whole of the Bible. Because worship takes place from the beginning to the end of the Bible, Due asserts that it is of tremendous importance to notice in relationship to the means of everyday living, the end of that living and the struggle entangled throughout the course of history for which he terms the ‘battle for worship’. To accomplish this, Due focuses on four selections of Scripture: the baptism and temptation of Jesus, Psalm 115, Romans 1:18-32, and finally, Revelation 4-5. In each text, Due mentions three elements (means, end and struggle) of understanding worship in its specific context but also in its general application.
Firstly, Due establishes the role of the three other texts in understanding worship by looking most intently at the baptism and temptation of Jesus. The reader will find the record in all three of the synoptic Gospels: Matt. 4:1-11, Luke 4:1-12 and Mark 1:12-13. Due says the purpose of the baptism was to make public the identity of Jesus Christ in relationship to God and to man. In the baptism itself, he sees the public proclamation from the Creator to the creatures that he sends his Son as the spotless lamb, the anointed one, to redeem the people of God. According to Due, the baptism of Jesus identifies him as Messianic King, Son of God, High Priest, Prophet, Second Person of the Trinity and the ultimate Sacrificial Lamb for all sinners. In addition to the proclamation of his identity, the event served as personal assurance of his identity in God with man while on earth. Jesus is fully God and fully man. Due makes note that Jesus has come in obedience to the Father for the sake of others. He is the second Adam and the true Israel of God. His is a story of obedience to the Father showcased before fallen man. So after the baptism of Jesus, Due pointing out that it is the commendation of the Father and the anointing of the Spirit, he is led into the wilderness by the Spirit to be tested. Again, he is fully man and fully God. Jesus is hungry. Jesus is in right relationship to the Father in every way. Due mentions the similarity of the temptation to being that of questioning Jesus’ identity as in the case with Adam in the garden and Israel in the wilderness. Here is where Jesus’ baptism/anointing is tested in the wilderness ultimately to take issue with who ought to be worshiped. The attack is centered on the core of Jesus’ identity. The battle is aimed at corruption of the original. Due emphasizes how Jesus did not quote Scripture as though it had some magical effect on defeating Satan, but rather to show his active obedience to God the Father, even his word. This is his obedient worship as the second Adam. Thus, because he knows who he is, how that defines his action and his awareness of a struggle, Due says of worship: “we are not speaking about an activity of one’s life, but speaking of the activity of one’s life, which gives that life its entire focus and direction. It is a core orientation rather than a peripheral action” (20).
Secondly, Psalm 115 pits Yahweh against the gods of the nations. The psalmist is taking issue with those nations who despise the glory of Yahweh. This text represents many others in the OT by unmasking the worthlessness of other nations’ gods and proclaiming the worthiness of Yahweh. In the psalm, Due brings out the liturgical significance (the covenant faithfulness of God) and the pastoral significance (He shepherds his people in the world), and then details its ideological significance in v.8: “Those who make them become like them; so do all who trust in them”. Commenting on the verse, Due says, “Their false trust leads them to reflect the character of the object in which they put their trust” (23). This is not just a theory; it is a well-tested experiment leading to evidence of detrimental effects on the participants. At this point, Due turns to the depravity of all men that is spoken of in Romans 1:18-32.
Thirdly, Due uses this first chapter of Romans to look at the role of worship in light of the gospel. In this text, Due sees the good of good news over and against the opposite. One does not really understand what is good if one does not know what is really bad. It is the wrath of God that makes the gospel, good news. And so, the wrath of God gives man over to his own demise. Man suppresses the truth and exchanges it for a lie. In doing this, man deliberately does not honor God nor give thanks to him. In stark contrast to this mindset, Due brings up the Shorter Catechism to show that man was created to worship: “This is both a defining feature of our nature, and the actual reality of our existence. To worship God is to serve him in love and in trustful obedience to his word” (26). The alternative to this is not the lack of worship in man, but to the contrary, it is the worship of something lesser, something that does not live up to its promise. It is not a neglect but an exchange of worship, and the exchange is for self-centeredness: idolatry-in-the-rough. Thus, Due states that the gospel is for “the redemption of true worship and the destruction of the false” (29).
Lastly, Due turns to the awe-inspiring worship in Revelation 4-5. In relief, Due notes the weight of glory felt when John sees the throne room: “the presence and action of the throne elicits continual worship from the heavenly creatures who surround it” (31). There is a direct correlation between worship and power and victory. Jesus, the second Adam, has gained victory over ‘false worship’, setting the faithful right with God Almighty. Man’s identity is found in God, his ability to live rightly by God and thus equipped to for every good work and armed against the forces of evil. Due asserts that in Revelation we may begin to understand how God’s demand for allegiance gives perspective to God’s story, precisely because he is the author.
Due closes the chapter with a brief mention of C.E.B. Cranfield’s four uses of the term worship, stating that the goal of this book is to show how these are threaded throughout the history of redemption, and in that, the battle is fought and won for the worship of the one, true God of all creation, seen and unseen.