Trinitarian Worship

We've been talking about the Trinity lately at Grace and I've been musing on the subject. I've been reading, "Worship in Spirit and in Truth," by John Frame. The title of the book comes from John 4:23 where Jesus is talking with the Samarian woman at the well.  Jesus says that, "a hour is coming, and is now, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers." I see something going on here that's awesome.

Frame says that we often see this passage as Jesus saying that worship will be more sincere and heartfelt. We've missed the point here a little bit. So often we measure our worship by how we are feeling so naturally when we read this passage, we tend read it with a, "worship experience," perspective. So many times we think what would make my worship experience better? How can I feel that I'm connecting with God even more? We crave that feeling of God's presence as we worship. We naturally look at this passage and think, "Yes! There is is! Jesus is himself saying that there is a going to be a time where we can worship with all our being! In fact, it's here now! Where can I find this? How can I do this?"

But Jesus is talking about something so much more profound, something that I think will fuel our worship even more than the search for that even elusive feeling of, "better worship":

"He was referring to the new things that God was preparing to do for our salvation. The, "truth," is the truth of the gospel, the good news of our salvation in Jesus. The, "spirit," is the, "Spirit of truth," who comes to bear powerful witness to that gospel. Worship "in Spirit and truth," then is, Trinitarian worship- worship that is aware of the distinctive work of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit for our salvation."

Our worship is Christ-centered in that he is the reason we are even able to approach the throne of God. We are saved by Christ only because of the work of the Spirit and all of this is for God's glory! Therefore, "worship is always IN the name of Christ and BY the Holy Spirit."

How cool is that? We actually get a glimpse of how worship looks when it comes to the Trinity. Our worship needs to recognize the workings of all three. When we do see the different persons of the Trinity in our worship, and understand it, we see how significant Christ's death was. We have a direct channel to God! That fires me up and I hope it does for you too.