Worshiping the God Who Saved the World

We have come to worship Jesus Christ, Who came and died for the world.  He did not come to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.  We come to worship Jesus Christ Who accomplished all that the Father sent Him to do.

In Ephesians, Paul tells us that this victory was given in power to Jesus by the Father when He “…worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come.  And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.”  In Colossians, Paul tells us that Christ “…is the firstborn over all creation.  For by Him all things were created that were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers.  All things were created through Him and for Him.  And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.  And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.”

We are not to wait to see a world that is saved when our eyes tell us or the newspapers report to us that it is so.  We are to hear the Word of God and, like our father Abraham, we are to believe God.  To have faith is to hope in things which are not yet seen though they are declared to be by God.  And so, again, Paul says to the Corinthians, “Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh.  Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer.  Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.  Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.”

You have been summoned to come and worship this God, this Christ, the victor for His already accomplished victory over this world and this cosmos.  Who hopes for what he cannot see?  But what do we see?  We see Christ crucified and risen – and we come to celebrate, dedicate, and declare that glorious dominion and present reality to the world around – and to ourselves.