JB Torrance’s Book
I’ve been reading James B. Torrance’s book entitled, Worship, Community and the Triune God of Grace and I’m fascinated by what this author has to say. Previous to this, I’ve heard his audio lectures on prayer countless of times over the years including the audio lectures of his brother, Thomas F. Torrance. Their audio lectures so inspire me each time. I can’t finish this book as yet. I keep on going back to the first few pages thinking about it, meditating about it and sharing it in my Facebook account. I still have to continue reading and hopefully finish the book. Here’s an excerpt from the book on page 15:
Christian Worship Defined
“Christian worship is…our participation through the Spirit in the Son’s communion with the Father, in his vicarious life of worship and intercession. It is our response to our Father for all that he has done for us in Christ. It is our self-offering in body, mind and spirit, in response to the one true offering made for us in Christ, our response of gratitude (eucharistia) to God’s grace (charis), our sharing by grace in the heavenly intercession of Christ. Therefore, anything we say about worship–the forms of worship, its practice and procedure–must be said in the light of him to whom it is a response. It must be said in the light of the gospel of grace.”
Incarnational, Trinitarian Worship
This is a very Christ-centered, incarnational and very trinitarian concept of worship. The author explains that in many Christian churches, their worship is more of unitarian instead of trinitarian. He also added that some are trinitarian in concept but unitarian in actual practice with Christ as High Priest, Mediator and Worship Leader being absent in their theology and practice. If I may add, some focus only on the Father, some only on Christ and some focus more on the Holy Spirit. Their worship maybe trinitarian in concept/theology but unitarian in practice. More on this later in his book.
In this excerpt I quoted above, the author defines and explains what true incarnational (Christ-centered) and trinitarian kind of worship is all about. In my next blog, I will quote him on the forms of worship as a response to what we know as true worship.