We are created to be worshipers of God. When sin entered in the world, man didn’t cease to be a worshiper as much as to be a man. But sin contaminated man and consequently his ability to worship . Everything we say and do in every moment of our lives is worship. So, the first question is not if we are worshipers or not, but what or whom do we worship? If we are not aware of the true God, our Creator, then we worship the creation. There is no other option. We can not be neutral. Every word and action of ours, gives glory and honor to something or someone. We can worship persons, humans, animals, sex, food, money, possessions, positions, ideologies, music, sports… and the list is going on. All these are not wrong by themselves, everything that God created is good, but are perverted in a idolatrous heart.
Man was created in God’s image with the capacity to worship Him and enjoy and rule over all the created things on earth in a healthy way. When sin entered the human heart, man became darkened and blind to the image of God, the image that was created and in which only should worship. Sin perverts the heart of man to idolatry. Idolatry is slavery to created things that are created for man’s service and not man to serve them. The way back to our freedom from every chain of idolatry begins in our awakening to our need to worship the true living God. The Samaritan woman after she met Jesus,she became awared of that need, so she asked Jesus: where should men worship God because our fathers worshipped in this mountain, you( the Jew)say in Jerusalem? Jesus said though we(the Jews) know what we worship and you don’t, it comes a time that not even in Jerusalem the true woshipers must worship. Actually this woman asked Jesus for us the second question which always arise when somebody becomes aware of his need to worship God. WHERE/HOW CAN I WORSHIP GOD?
Only when the light of the gospel of the glory of Jesus Christ,who is the image of God shines on a man’s heart and mind, then and only then is able to be a worshiper of God. B’ Corinthians 4:4
For the law was given through Moses, but grace(the ability) and truth(the reality) came through Jesus Christ. John 1:17
The law was a shadow (not the reality )of the things to come Hebrews 10:1 but through Christ we have all the TRUE/REAL thing. Jesus Christ’s coming was an invasion of truth. The Jews until that time they were worshiping God but not as the Father really wants. Before Jesus Christ’s coming there was not true worship only a shadow of it. The Hebrews/Jews knew whom they were worshiping but they couldn’t be true worshipers until the coming of God’s grace, Jesus Christ the Lord.
Jesus said to her, Woman, believe me, the hour comes, when you shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. You worship you know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour comes, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth: for the Father seeks such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. John 4:21-24
Because He came, His grace came, Jesus said the hour comes and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth. True worship of the Father is only in and through Jesus Christ. When He came, true worhip came. Jesus Christ is the true worship. Try as hard and sincerely as you want to worship the Father, unless is not through Christ is not true worship.
The subject of the letter to the Hebrews is that the old worship under the law of Moses was a shadow and of course an inferior way which was pointing to the superior, new, real and only way to worship God, which is by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, we have grace whereby we worship God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire. Hebrews 12:28
In Deuteronomy 4:23-24 the Hebrews are warned of idolatry because God is a consuming fire. In the letter of Hebrews again are warned to worship by grace because God is a consuming fire. Actually the consequences of not worshiping God by grace is more severe for them than the consequences they had under the law. They that fear God they don’t dare to worship Him but by His grace, through Christ.
This points to the fact that to worship God is to fear God and vise versa. Jesus said in Matthew 4:10 it is written, worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only. Jesus here refers to Deuteronomy 6:13 which says fear the Lord your God. For Jesus, to fear God is to worship God. We fear God and worship Him through Jesus Christ. By His grace, He has made us and enable us to be true worshipers in the spirit. In the spirit we are all we need to be and it’s not of us but of His grace. Whatever we are and whatever we might be able to do by the flesh is rubbish before God. Paul could had boasted of who he was and how much and sincerely worshiped God by the law but He discovered that all that were rubbish in order to be a true worshiper in spirit. In the spirit there is no boasting or confidence in the flesh but all boasting and confidence is in Christ Jesus. Under the law is the worship of the flesh. Under grace is the true worship, the worship in spirit and truth.
For we are the true circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh. Philippians 3:3
invasion of truth 