The climax of this covenant renewal worship is communion around the Lord’s Table. Throughout Scripture (and, indeed, history), the ultimate expression of free and open access is being invited to sit at the table. This is illustrated throughout the Old Testament, it is pictured with the Table of Showbread in the Temple, and it is one of the beautiful images depicted by the Lord’s Supper. A Christian worship service pictures that believers are brought near through Christ, and now sitting around his table both commemorates the sacrifice that made that possible and expresses our unity with him and with other Christians as the body of Christ. It does not accomplish peace with God; rather, it is a beautiful expression of peace already achieved through the sacrifice of Christ and a renewal of our fellowship with him.

The understanding of the purpose of corporate worship that I have been exploring for the past couple of weeks is this: Corporate worship is communion with God in his temple, or better yet as his temple, the church, which is made possible only through Christ by the Spirit. This understanding has important implications for what we do when we gather for corporate worship.

First, corporate worship is for believers. Only those who have access to God, those are brought near through Christ, are members of the household of God and part of the temple. Only believers can commune with God. Therefore the primary purpose of the corporate worship gathering is for believers to meet with God. Now, this does not mean that we forbid unbelievers from being here; as Paul mentioned in 1 Corinthians 14, believers gathering to meet with God is profoundly evangelistic. But when unbelievers come, they come as observers, not as participants, and never do we design what takes place in the corporate church gatherings based on what unbelievers want any more than what took place in Israel’s temple was based on what uncircumcised pagans wanted. Corporate worship is for believers to meet with God.

Second, corporate worship is relational. We don’t simply go through a series of rituals as a duty. What we do when we gather is for the purpose of fostering our relationship with God. This is the emphasis of Ephesians 2; this whole passage that leads up to a description of God building a temple by his Spirit expresses those realities in relational terms. The gospel that results in this temple is not simply a legal transaction or ticket to heaven, it is a reconciliation of our relationship with God. We have access to God through Christ, we are welcome in his presence, and so we gather to develop that relationship.

This leads to a third point: corporate worship is formational. Even as believers who have access to God through Christ, who are members of God’s household, our relationship with God is not perfect, it is still growing and deepening. We must continually work to nurture a right relationship with God, allow his Word to correct us, and work toward sanctifying our responses toward him. We certainly do this through personal Bible study and prayer, but one significant and necessary purpose of corporate worship is to help mature our relationship with God. This point is another reason we must make sure that the content and forms of our worship are derived from Scripture, because we know that it is inspired Scripture that is profitable for teaching, for reproving, for correcting, and for training in righteousness.

But also, more specifically, it is the gospel itself that continues to sanctify us. Paul says in Titus 2:12, “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people,”—so he’s talking about the gospel that brings salvation, but then notice what else he says the gospel does: “training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age.” In other words, the gospel that saved us is also the gospel that sanctifies us—the gospel that reconciled us to God, that brought us near to him, is the gospel that will continue to grow our relationship with him. We don’t just believe the gospel for salvation and then leave it behind; even as believers, we must continually renew ourselves in the gospel so that it continues to train us and cultivate our relationship with God.

This is the fourth point: corporate worship renews us in the gospel. Historically Christians have often referred to corporate worship as covenant renewal: it is a way that as believers, we can weekly renew our covenant relationship with God.

Really, the image of a marriage perfectly depicts this (and, of course, the NT also uses marriage as a fitting metaphor for the relationship between Christ and his church). A man and a woman commit to one another in a wedding; this is akin to our salvation when God makes a commitment to save us out of his great love, and we make a commitment to love and serve him. Baptism is like our wedding vows, where we formalize the covenant relationship. So now the man and woman are married; that doesn’t change until death do them part. But the relationship between husband and wife rises and falls over time, does it not? Many things can harm the relationship, and many things can rekindle the relationship. Your personal devotional life is like a husband and wife having conversations with each other; that’s really important to nurture the relationship. But another thing that some married couples do to rekindle their relationship is to renew their wedding vows; sometimes they even dress up again like the did when they first wed, and they repeat those same vows again to each other. They’re already married; those vows don’t “get them married again.” But by repeating their vows again, they renew their love for each other and rekindle the relationship.

Corporate worship is like renewing your gospel vows to Christ. Just like when we were first converted, God calls us to draw near to him. Just like at our conversion, we respond with confession of sin and acknowledgement that we have broken God’s laws. Just like when we were first saved, we hear words of pardon from God because of the sacrifice of Christ. Just like when we began our relationship with God, we eagerly listen to his instructions and commit to obey. We are not getting “re-saved” each week, but we are renewing our covenant vows to the Lord, and in so doing, we are rekindling our relationship with him and our commitment to him, and he with us.

A few weeks ago I outlined the historic order of worship that derives from Scripture, but that particular order was modeled for us in Scripture specifically because it rehearses the gospel—it allows us, week in and week out, to renew our vows to Christ and rekindle our communion with him. The order of Revelation, Adoration, Confession, Propitiation, Proclamation, and Dedication is the order of the gospel, it is a weekly covenant renewal that will help to continually grow our fellowship with God.

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