The perfect human response.
A call to worship.
Themes
Included • Participation • Represented • Perfected • Communion • Worship • Praise • Sonship • Trinity • Body of Christ
God is not a solitary monarch demanding worship. He is a triune communion of love: Father, Son, and Spirit, who graciously draws us into this very same communion.
Scripture reading
John 17:21–23 1 Corinthians 1:30 Colossians 3:3–4 Hebrews 7:24–26 Hebrews 9:24 Revelation 5:9–13
This call to worship1 reminds us that it is Christ—in His perfect life, death, resurrection, and ongoing intercession—who alone is worthy and who brings us with Him into the Father’s presence by the Spirit.
In his Gospel, John records these words that Jesus prayed to the Father about us: That they may all be one, just as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be in Us… I in them and You in Me, that they may become perfectly one. And Paul wrote these words: It is because of God that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom, who has become for us our righteousness, who has become for us our sanctification, who has become for us our redemption. You have died, and your new, real life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, appears, then you also will appear with Him. And the writer of the Book of Hebrews wrote these words: Because Jesus lives forever, He has a permanent priesthood. Therefore, He is able to completely save those who come to God through Him, because He always lives to intercede for them. Christ has entered into heaven itself, to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. And finally, in the Book of Revelation, John writes: Worthy are You… for You were slain, and by Your blood You ransomed people for God… To Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!
Prayer
Father in Heaven, Your love for this world—for us— is why You have sent Your eternal—eternally begotten—Son. And in response, the Son has offered the perfect human response back to You on our behalf. He offered for us perfect obedience, perfect faith, perfect love, perfect holiness, perfect communion with You, perfect prayer, perfect humanity, perfect sacrifice, perfect worship. His action, His behavior, His thought, His emotion, all of it—comprehensively all of it— offered in our place, and on our behalf, in every aspect of what it means to be truly human before You. Every aspect! Every aspect, in every sphere of life, offered as our perfect human response to You, which we were unable to offer. So He has not only died for us, He has also lived for us. As the True Believer. As the True Son. As the True Israel. As the True Adam. As even as the True Worshiper. In Him, we are not merely forgiven, we are included, we are represented, we are perfected, and we are brought home to You. In Him, we have been redeemed, sanctified, and glorified. Absolutely everything He has offered to You, He has offered for us. And we get to participate in all of it as though it is ours. Through the Spirit of Christ who is in us, we get to participate in the Son’s perfect communion with You. And so He is worthy— worthy of all our praise. And isn’t it just fitting that even the perfect praise offered to You is the praise offered to You by the Son who offers it on our behalf? And so right now, as we worship together, You are not hoping for some projected, potent human emotion from us. No. You—not us—You are, even now, drawing us into Christ’s perfect worship— not conjured up in us on our own, but enabled and shaped by Your own self-revelation in Christ whose Spirit is now in us. He is perfectly praying. He is perfectly offering thanksgiving. He is perfectly praising. And He perfectly offered Himself on the cross and rose again and ascended and sat at Your right hand from where He sent His Spirit, who united us with Him, and allowed us to share in His sonship, that is: in the Son’s life of communion with You. You are not a solitary monarch demanding worship. You are a triune communion of love: Father, Son, and Spirit, who graciously draws us into this very same communion. We are not here offering our best to please You. We are not worship producers. We are participants in the life of Christ and in the worship He offers. And this church is not a spiritual club or association or service provider. We are a part of the very body of Christ, inserted into the Son’s relationship with You, not here to perform worship, but to be taken up into the worship of Christ. In the name of Jesus Christ, who alone is worthy, who has brought us, right now, into this cosmic event of ongoing worship, the earthly echo of the heavenly liturgy where Christ our High Priest intercedes on our behalf, Amen.
1
This call to worship was given to the small assembly of Christians that gathered in Pathway Church, Beaverdam, Michigan, on June 22, 2025.