Through Him

In John 4:24, Jesus, speaking to the Samaritan woman at the well, said, “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” Here, Jesus spoke about what was fundamental to worship and what would not change. Before this, Jesus was presented with a statement of division, “Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” Jesus’ response to this statement is what has changed about worship, the location, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.” Something about how worship was acceptably offered was going to change; it was not the fundamentals but the location.

As we near the end of the book of Hebrews, an interesting encouragement is made in 13:15, “Through Him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge His name.” This change occurred in acceptable worship; the location has shifted from Jerusalem to Christ. Hebrews is written to Christians who are apostatizing back to their heritage religion of Judaism. The author argues that in Judaism, you cannot offer the proper worship, not because of a lack of temple, which was present during the authorship, but because of a lack of covenant. The change in covenant resulted in a shift in law and even a change in worship.

In the New Covenant, all worship must be offered through Jesus; Jesus is the access point to the Father, just as He told Philip (John 14:6). The only way proper worship can be offered is under the New Covenant; any other covenant, though once respected, has passed as lost its binding power by the death of Christ (Heb 9:15-17).

One interesting phrase is “through Him…” how is praise offered through Him? By a communal relationship, I dwell in Him, and He dwells in me. How might I achieve this? Please familiarize yourself with John 15:5-7; it will do us all well. As always, this is for you and An encouragement we can all benefit from.