Salvation is Free, Worship is Costly
2 Samuel 24:24 Then the king said to Araunah, “No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price; nor will I offer burnt offerings to the LORD my God with that which costs me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.
The Value of the Sacrifice
I am so glad that salvation from the penalty that I deserve because of my sin is free. Isaiah 55:1 encourages us to buy wine and milk without money and without price. I suspect that means we should be willing to pay (buy), but we can’t because the Lord is not setting a price on the value of that sacrifice that saves. The value of the sacrifice would be diminished if a price was set. The only way to put a proper value on something of infinite worth is to just say “thank you.”
The Cost of Worship
If we really love the Lord, we will worship Him. It will be our way of saying “thank you.” Worship is hard to define but it is easy to recognize when we see it. It involves prayer, praise, singing, obedience, giving, evangelizing and serving. It doesn’t occur just in an hour on Sunday morning. It is the full-time occupation of a Christian and is really the means of fulfilling the great commission. We may have other jobs, but they are all just means that support our full-time worship of the Lord.
True worship costs us something. We may not always be honest about that when we are preaching the Gospel. In the United States today, many claim to be Christians, but their worship does not seem to be costing them anything. They have become passive participants with emotional responses to others who are trying to “lead” them in worship. That leaves the congregation with very little need to prepare and personally offer their own heartfelt sacrifices. Their personal lives are often moral but very self-centered. Maybe that is why Christianity in the US has become a shallow Churchianity for many.
Romans 12:1 begs us to present our bodies as living sacrifices which is a service or worship that is only reasonable. Matthew 6:33 admonishes us to put the Lord first if we want our needs met. These principles are costly. I question the concept of worship if it is reduced to an emotional response to highly talented musicians at assembly meetings and at concerts. I personally enjoy going to a good concert, but except for the price of the ticket to get into the concert it really costs us nothing. Christian music that I like makes me feel good much like some kinds of secular music makes me feel. I do not really feel that my response to that kind of Christian entertainment is worship in the Biblical sense.
I think every aspect of our congregational gatherings should be viewed as worship. I think every aspect of our daily lives should reflect personal worship. We need to be concerned with how our assembly meetings and daily lives glorify the Lord.
Measuring Up
Do any of us truly measure up to the standard of true worship? I know I don’t, but I am concerned about it. Can a person be saved without offering sacrifices that cost something to the Lord? I am not going to give a definitive answer to that question because I really don’t know. But what I do know is that we, like King David, should be willing to give sacrifices that cost us something. Maybe we need to get back to making “joyful noises” to the Lord even if we can’t carry a tune. Maybe we need to write some of our own songs. Maybe we need to let the Lord hear us praising Him in prayer or in a public meditation. If the Lord has spoken to us, that message should speak to others. We certainly need to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit’s leading in all of our worship.
It will Cost
We need to be worshipping in spirit in contrast to the lifeless rituals of the Jews when the Lord was on this earth. We need to be worshipping in truth in contrast to the man-made system of the Samaritans when the Lord was here. But to do that we will have to spend some time in our Bibles so that we will know what pleases the Lord. We will have to quit trying to please the flesh. We will have to take personal responsibility for our individual and corporate worship. We will have to sacrifice time to the things of the Lord. And when we make arrangements in our lives and in our meetings, we need to be open to letting the Holy Spirit who is truly our worship leader rearrange.
It will cost us something.
Bruce Collins
Meditation for the week of May 3, 2015