Worship in Spirit

by Sammy Tippit

No worship is wholly pleasing to God until there is nothing in me displeasing to God.
A.W. Tozer

Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord? who may stand in His holy place? he who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood, and has not sworn deceitfully. Psalm 24:3-4 I've met people from many of the great world religions. It's been interesting to note the difference in the principles of Christian worship of other religious groups. At first glance their worship appears to be very similar. But upon examination, it's clear that it's quite different.

The foundation of the worship of the great world religions is performance. Christian worship begins with God. Religion begins with the efforts of man. Christianity is God reaching down to man. Religion is man's attempt to reach up to God.

Islam, for example, is an Arabic word that can be translated to mean "submission" or "surrender." For a Muslim, the means of achieving a relationship with God is through surrender to the will of God. That sounds very good. Surrender and submission are words very dear to the Christian. But there's a gap between Islamic worship and Christian worship that is as great as the difference between light and darkness.

Contrast of Christian worship to other religions
In order to understand that difference, we must understand the nature of man. God created man in His own image. There are three aspects of the nature of God, but there is only one God. Even though we acknowledge the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the three are one. The trinity is a difficult concept to comprehend, but it has helped me realize that man is very similar to God, because he was created in God's image.

There are three dimensions to our lives - the spiritual, the personality, and the physical. The spiritual dimension is the area where real worship originates. It's in the innermost part of our being. The dimension of the personality includes the will, mind, and emotions. The physical dimension is the outward part of our lives, and it functions primarily through our five senses.

The deepest dimension is the spiritual. This is the place where we commune with God. However, the spirit of man is dead because of sin. The Scripture says that "the wages of sin is death" (Rom. 6:23). Death does not mean annihilation; it means separation. The Greek scholar W. E. Vines says death is "the separation of man from God. Adam died on the day he disobeyed God and hence all mankind are born in the same spiritual condition. Death is the opposite of life; it never denotes non-existence. As spiritual life is conscious existence in communication with God; so spiritual death is 'conscious existence in separation from God.'"

Thus, man is separated from God in the deepest part of his being. There's a God-shaped vacuum deep within him. He was created to know, love, and worship God; but sin created a great gulf between himself and God. The question remains, "How then can we love and worship God when we're separated from Him?"

The spirit of man is dead because of sin's effect on the human heart: man is separated from God. The key to restoring our relationship with God is the will. We don't "fall into sin." We choose to sin. With the exception of Jesus, every person since Adam has chosen to go his own way, to live apart from God. Jesus is the only man whose entire life could be described by His prayer, "Not My will, but Thine be done" (Luke 22:42). Jesus is the only man who lived a life in which His will was surrendered 100 percent to the will of God.

The best efforts of all the rest of mankind fall pitifully short of the mark of God's holiness and purity. The will of every human is in bondage. Many of our best efforts to do right are not for the glory of God, but for our own selfish motives. Before I became a Christian, I was involved in civic affairs and attempts to build a moral society. However, at the center of all my efforts was a desire for recognition. It wasn't for the glorification of God that I served others. It was for the gratification of my own ego. Yet this is true of all people in all times. The will is in bondage to ego gratification.

Religion recognizes this problem. It tells people they must be submissive to a holy God, or they can't really love and worship Him. In that, religion is partially correct -- it has diagnosed the problem of humanity, the need for submission to God. But religion is powerless to produce a will that submits to the will of God solely for the purpose of glorifying God.

Instead, religion is built upon human performance. It attempts to make people right with God from the outside. It establishes a system of outward works designed to lead to true worship. It tells men they must observe outward rituals and perform acts of goodness. If they do the right things, religion tells men, ultimately the mind and the emotions will achieve a state of tranquillity - and thus, they'll be able to worship God.

But man can't live up to the outward standards of religion. The will remains a slave to sin, and the spiritual dimension of man is void of the Spirit of God. When man realizes his inability to meet standards, religion leaves him frustrated, empty, and judgmental. He has not achieved the fulfillment he had sought.