Worship Flows Out Of Relationship

It appears that I am still studying the message of the Gospel of Grace, for this morning I felt lead to read from Romans 9:15, 30-32 NIV:

[15] "For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”

[30] What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; [31] but the people of Israel, who pursued the law as the way of righteousness, have not attained their goal. [32] Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone."

Once again, Paul is focused on the message of grace, and salvation and righteousness through faith. He is writing to the Romans helping them make sense of the way God has worked through history, and how He has chosen to extend salvation to the Gentiles. This is such an interesting topic, for one would think that the Jewish people would have recognized their savior, yet they stumbled over the very thing that was supposed to prepare them for His coming, namely the Law.

Rather than relationship with God, they embraced the rules and regulations. The whole of the Law was meant to lead them to relationship with God, but they settled for remote and unattached worship of God. We find this described in Isaiah 29:13: "The Lord says: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught."

The Lord desires our hearts to be moved by Him, in other words relationships of desire and emotion. The whole of scripture talks about God's emotions towards those that are His people, and His passionate desire for them. He desires that we would feel the same for Him, passionate desire for Him. Here are some verses from Deuteronomy 6:1-6 NIV, in which we find the first commandment, which speaks of love:

[1] "These are the commands, decrees and laws the Lord your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, [2] so that you, your children and their children after them may fear the Lord your God as long as you live by keeping all his decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy long life. [3] Hear, Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, promised you.

[4] Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. [5] Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. [6] These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts."

The reciprocal is true as well, that God promises to love the people in return, and bless them, as He describes in Deuteronomy 7:11-13 NIV:

[11] "Therefore, take care to follow the commands, decrees and laws I give you today.

[12] If you pay attention to these laws and are careful to follow them, then the Lord your God will keep his covenant of love with you, as he swore to your ancestors. [13] He will love you and bless you and increase your numbers. He will bless the fruit of your womb, the crops of your land---your grain, new wine and olive oil---the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks in the land he swore to your ancestors to give you."

This was all supposed to be about love and relationship. Some how over time, the people of the promise lost focus on the first commandment and focused on the rest of the commandments and the other laws. They passed down the rules and regulations and the desire for righteousness, but chose it pursue this through simply following the rules and remaining detached and unaffected.

We Gentiles, on the other hand knew nothing of these laws and regulations yet were invited into relationship. It is as if we were starting over with the covenant of love that God established with Israel. In Christ, He was establishing a relationship of love with the Gentiles. Once again, as I reflect back over the history of the church, I see that many of us, and many churches have slid away from the focus on relationship and instead have embraced rules and regulations. Our worship of God has become strict liturgical expressions that often fail to elicit any emotion or passion for God. We go to church and worship Him with our presence, but remain unmoved and unchanged in our hearts.

This is not what the Lord is after, rather He desires that we revel in Him, and His wonders. He desires that we see and experience His deep passion for us. He wants us to dance in the freedom that He has purchased for us, and desires that we explore the depths of His passion for us. As Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus, [16] "I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, [17] so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, [18] may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, [19] and to know this love that surpasses knowledge---that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God." Eph 3:16-19

So let us examine our relationship with God, and see the great gift of salvation, this free gift that God has extended to us out of His immeasurable love for us. Let us pursue relationship with Him in ways that stir our hearts and uncover that which He has given us. Let us pursue deep and intimate relationship as the foundation of our worship, and let us cease from trying to earn that which has already been given freely. For the Gospel of Grace is exactly this - salvation has been given us, and we can attain this through faith expressing itself through love (Gal 5:5).