Gospel-Centered Worship

In his book, Living the Cross Centered Life, C.J. Mahaney says, “Never let the cross slide into second or third place in your life. Never lay it aside. Never move on.” He says if you want to understand more about the Old Testament, never move on from the basic gospel message. If you want to understand more about the return of Christ, never move on from the gospel. If you want to grow in your prayer, personal holiness, or relationships, keep the gospel at the center of your life. Keeping the gospel central in your life means being committed in your response of repentance and love for Christ.

When the gospel becomes the focus of our worship, we keep the cross from becoming peripheral in our Christian life. When the cross becomes our theme each and every week in corporate worship, and each and every day in our lives, we never stop proclaiming the gospel to the lost and we never cease to take for granted the fact that each of us the vilest of sinners, completely devoid of good, and completely helpless to seek after or know God were it not for his matchless grace, mercy, and love that he called us each by name unto himself. This level of humility spurs us on in love for one another and for each and every individual we encounter, loving them with the love of Christ, desiring to see them come to know him and yearning for them to grow in discipleship. In this kind of living we bring glory and honor to God through Christ and we fulfill his Great Commission.

It is my prayer that we see a return to worship in the church in which we put on the blinders of the gospel in such a way that peripheral issues like furniture, service order, music preferences, or decorations take their rightful place as meaningless in the grand scope of eternity. God doesn’t care what color our walls are. There are people in Central America standing barefoot on dirt floors in a church building that they thank God for and praise His name for providing them. God doesn’t care what genre of music we use to sing praises to his name. If we become so careless in our worship as to take our eye off the target of the gospel of Jesus Christ, we will have much more to answer for before the throne. As we leave a worship service, we should be asking ourselves, “Was the gospel proclaimed boldly, clearly, and passionately?” I contend that as long as the cross is held high and the gospel is proclaimed fervently, we can be united in our worship together with the assurance that we are bringing glory to God and being faithful to his calling to glory in the Redeemer.

The center of our worship should be the gospel of Jesus Christ. We should worship by praising God for his holiness, for his greatness, for his unattainable majesty and timeless reign over the universe, for his triune nature as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We should worship in such a way that glorifies God in the gospel of Christ. We should worship by confessing and repenting from sin because we have offended the righteousness of Christ. We should worship by thanking God for the gift of Christ and his gospel to save. We should worship in the power of the gospel to vanquish the powers of sin and strengthen us daily. We should worship by committing our lives to Christ because it is the only response to the gift of the cross.