We Are Worshiping Beings

What we worship, we inevitably grow to resemble, and the object of our greatest affection will always exercise a transformative influence over our lives. This is both the curse of humanity and our blessed hope, for we were created as worshiping beings. With his very first breath, Adam inhaled in his identity-- the life giving breath of God-- and exhaled in worship to His Creator. But it was not long before this worship, this intimate affection, was given to another, before we fell from the unadulterated exaltation of the One, in Whose image we were fashioned, to groping in the dark in pursuit of whatever we believed could or would make us whole. In short we became idolaters, crafting and worshiping false gods.      

At the core of every human heart lies the broken image of God. We each seek to restore this shattered image, one way or another. Some try money, others success, and others pleasure- many even try religion. John Calvin, in his Institutes of the Christian Religion, wrote, "Man's nature, so to speak, is a perpetual factory of idols." While all these every day idols, and a myriad more, do serve to fashion an image, they can never satisfy the longing deep inside, they always leave us wanting.

All human life is worship. The question to be answered is; what are we worshiping? The only way to escape the gravitational pull of idolatry, of clinging to false images, is to throw ourselves upon the mercies of the True Image, Jesus Christ, to allow Him, by the power of the Gospel and through the ministry of His Spirit, to renew our minds and hearts- to transform us into His likeness, the very image of the Father in heaven. It is only at the foot of the Cross that we are freed from our idols to worship Him, Whose image we were created to bear. This is why the Apostle Paul wrote so emphatically to the church in Rome, "I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind..." (Rom 12: 1-2).