One of the most clear teachings in all the Bible is that the people of God are set free to worship Him. “Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh and say to him, ‘This is what the LORD says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me.” (Exodus 8:1) God set Israel free from Pharaoh and the land of Egypt by a mighty hand for the purpose of worship to the One true God.
So it is in the New Testament that God sets the Christian free so that he may worship. However, in Deuteronomy 5:29 we read these words, “Oh that they had such a heart in them, that they would fear me and keep all my commandments always, that it may be well with them and with their sons forever!”
The context of verse 29 from verse 28 is that they had done well in what they had spoken, then the statement in 29, “‘Oh’ that they had a heart…” The main focus of the New testament is that God’s people are given a new heart. The writer to the Hebrews in chapters 8 and 10 makes it clear that the new covenant is God placing a new heart in His people so that they might obey Him from the heart.
Jesus taught that a man must be born again. Why? Because as part of Adam’s seed all men are sinners, who live in open disobedience to God. The Bible could not be clearer that a new heart is needed for men to worship or obey Him.
Furthermore, it is necessary for God’s people to be set free so that they can and will worship Him. We are told that Moses was to declare to Pharaoh from Exodus 8″1, “Let my people go, so that they may worship Me.”
THE MAIN POINT: The New Testament, as it is written, is a correction for the church to amend their ways so that they may worship God correctly. The book of Romans sets forth correction doctrine from the Apostle Paul, as the rest of his writings are sent to churches for correction.
The general epistles from the Apostles are not sweet sounding words with a fragrant aroma of praise to God’s people for their perfect obedience. They are resounding praise to God for His faithfulness, but also rebukes to God’s people for persistently going astray, as found in James 3:10, “My brethren, these things ought not to be this way.”
The hardest thing for sinful people, who are bound by their own self-centeredness, is to believe that God is all-in-all. It is God who made us, and God sustains us, and it is God that we should worship and not we ourselves. Apart from God we can do nothing, and for Him we should live in every thought we have, every word we speak, every action and reaction we make.
Because perfection is not a constant in this present life, it behooves the Christian to live at the foot of the cross, so that he may find forgiveness and restoration as a regular part of life. A new heart of worship from God always includes honesty about out sin.
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