Trinitarian Worship
Rob Price, writing about Fred Sanders' book The Deep Things of God, says the following about prayer:
Praying isn’t merely talking to God. To pray is to address the Father as only the Son may. To pray is to be lifted by the Spirit into the position of the Son. Nobody else gets to talk to the Father like that. Amazing. Amazing grace!
Christian prayer is Trinitarian in shape: we address the Father as His Son, because in a sense, we are His Son. Obviously we aren't actually Jesus, but we are united to Him through the Spirit, so that the Father receives our prayers as if they came from Jesus Himself. This is why the Eucharist is the principal public form of Christian prayer: because in the Eucharist, we are united to Christ by faith, through His own sacrifice on the Cross.
Worship is a form of prayer- actually, the highest form of prayer. So given what Mr Price said, it should be clear that Christian worship is also Trinitarian. When we pray, we address the Father as the only Son does. When we worship, we adore the Father as only the Son can. Worship doesn't happen on earth, but in the throne-room of Heaven, where the Son loves and adores His Father, and we, through the blood of Jesus, have the privilege of joining in, lifted up by the power of the Spirit to the place of the Son in the presence of the Father.
At Communion, then (and elsewhere), we do not merely commemorate or receive Christ. We are united to Him by faith, and in Christ's offering up of Himself once and for all through the eternal Spirit (Heb 9:14) we worship the Father. Thanks be to God for His inexpressible gift! (2 Cor 9:15)
Praying isn’t merely talking to God. To pray is to address the Father as only the Son may. To pray is to be lifted by the Spirit into the position of the Son. Nobody else gets to talk to the Father like that. Amazing. Amazing grace!
Christian prayer is Trinitarian in shape: we address the Father as His Son, because in a sense, we are His Son. Obviously we aren't actually Jesus, but we are united to Him through the Spirit, so that the Father receives our prayers as if they came from Jesus Himself. This is why the Eucharist is the principal public form of Christian prayer: because in the Eucharist, we are united to Christ by faith, through His own sacrifice on the Cross.
Worship is a form of prayer- actually, the highest form of prayer. So given what Mr Price said, it should be clear that Christian worship is also Trinitarian. When we pray, we address the Father as the only Son does. When we worship, we adore the Father as only the Son can. Worship doesn't happen on earth, but in the throne-room of Heaven, where the Son loves and adores His Father, and we, through the blood of Jesus, have the privilege of joining in, lifted up by the power of the Spirit to the place of the Son in the presence of the Father.
At Communion, then (and elsewhere), we do not merely commemorate or receive Christ. We are united to Him by faith, and in Christ's offering up of Himself once and for all through the eternal Spirit (Heb 9:14) we worship the Father. Thanks be to God for His inexpressible gift! (2 Cor 9:15)