‘Confessional Worship’
“...I am writing these things to you so that, if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth. Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness; He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory (1 Timothy 3:14-16).”
We live in a particularly challenging time, one that’s going to become increasingly so as the years pass. Long-held Christian understandings are being challenged on multiple fronts in the forms of radical secularism, neo-paganism, Easter mysticism, and postmodern spirituality with its subjective, cafeteria approach to religious belief. The pressing question facing church leadership who have been entrusted with the pastoral task is: how do we best equip the people under our care to remain strong in their faith and faithful to the gospel when they’re confronted with ideas that are so hostile to the Christian message? What’s the best way to edify God’s people and help them develop a substantial understanding of their biblical faith? Given the fact that we’re part of a generation of Christians who have more sources of support available to us than any previous generation, why is this question even relevant? After all, we have churches catering to every personal taste and every demographic group. We have Christian radio, Christian television, Christian bookstores, Christian entertainers, Christian softball leagues, Christian cruises, Christian award shows, Christian therapists, Christian dating services, Christian schools and colleges, Christian celebrities, Christian conferences, Christian T-shirts, Christian romance novels, and even Christian rappers. These in and of themselves may not be bad, but what we’ve effectively done is create our own Christian ghetto. And yet, even with all of this Christian stuff a disturbingly large number of Christians don’t know what they believe beyond the most elementary set of Christian understandings. The crucial question is why? The answer’s quite complex, but one thing I’m absolutely sure of is that strong Christian conviction and stable Christian life is directly tied to knowing what we believe. Living Christianly in an increasingly antagonistic environment requires that we establish a strong biblical worldview to guide us.
This being the case, we need to think carefully about how we ‘do’ church. Does the hour and a half we spend worshiping together each Sunday morning contribute to making us more biblically literate? Does it deepen our understanding of the Christian call and how it’s to be lived out in the details of daily life? Does the Holy Spirit stir us in response to biblical truth and cause us to be more passionate about the things of God? This will only be accomplished if our worship services are Christ-centered, Christ-honoring, and saturated with Scripture and Christian affirmation. 1 Timothy 3:16 presents us with one element of worship that will help us achieve the kind of worship service I’ve just described; it’s ‘confessional’ worship.
Three Understandings About the Church
What confronts us first in verse 15, is the indispensable nature and place of the church in God’s purposes and plan. Notice how Paul describes the church - “...the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth.” Three things that should be understood about the church are stated here: first, the church is a family, not a static institution. It’s organic and dynamic in nature. The term ‘household’ speaks of family. The church is the family of God, its origin is grounded in God’s grace and it belongs exclusively to him. It’s a family with many members, each having assigned tasks and contributing responsibly to the strength and stability of the household. The church, as God’s family, is a place of refuge and safety; it’s where we find our self-identity through our relationship with Christ and other believers. Also, it’s indispensable to our spiritual growth and Christian development. We’re a ‘called-out’ people, separated from the pagan culture, having turned away from idolatry and embraced the true and living God. It’s also important to understand that this separated life is built on a revealed body of beliefs, and it’s shaped by an established set of ethical aspirations. The third thing we need to understand is that the church is ‘the pillar and buttress of the truth’. It is the ‘foundation’, the grounding-point of the truth. It’s the responsibility, then, of the church to guard and proclaim the content of the gospel as the absolute and universally binding truth. It’s the standard by which all other ‘truth-claims’ are to be measured. This body of beliefs is to order every aspect of our lives.
Verse 16 is clearly confessional - “Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness:
He was manifested in the flesh,
vindicated by the Spirit,
seen by angels,
proclaimed among the nations,
believed on in the world,
taken up in glory.”
This is either a fragment of an early Christian Creed or lines from a hymn. However, there’s no question that it’s confessional in nature. The confessional statements highlight the pivotal events in Christ’s earthly ministry, and the ongoing results of his ministry. What we have are six lines of text that form three contrasting couplets. The first couplet - “He (Christ) was manifested in the flesh [incarnation] vindicated by the Spirit [Christ was raised from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit].” The integrity of Christ’s ‘passion predictions’ that he’d die and be raised on the third day, and that he, in fact, was God in flesh, was true!
The second couplet - “...seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations,...”. Whenever the verb ‘seen’ is used with reference to Jesus it always refers to his resurrection appearances. So these lines underscore the cosmic and human dimensions of his saving work. Christ’s resurrection was given witness by angels; it was announced by them. And it was proclaimed (preached) to the nations by the Apostles. Christ’s resurrection was the major theme of Apostolic preaching - “For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified (1 Cor. 2:2).” Then lines 5 and 6 underscore the response to the resurrection of Christ, both in the world and in the heavenly realm - “...believed on in the world, taken up in glory.” The gospel was believed by people from every ethnic group, both Jews and Gentiles, and the resurrected Christ ascended into the splendor of the ‘heavenlies’.
Six Essential Understandings
What we have in six short lines of text are clear affirmations of six essential Christian understandings having to do with the revelation of Christ, the proclamation of Christ, and the reception of Christ. This simple creedal formulation served to remind the early church of what they believed and it gave them the opportunity to publicly confess their faith together. This has always been the purpose of Creeds: to affirm faith and facilitate the public confession of biblical truth. Creedal statements have always been part of the church’s worship because Christian faith is a ‘confessional faith’. The Apostle Paul makes this plain in his Roman letter - “...if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved (Rom. 10:9,10).” Jesus also said that he’d build his church on the Apostolic confession that he is the “...Christ, the Son of the living God (Matt.16:16).” Creeds are intended to affirm essential Christian understandings. The earliest Christian Creed was, ‘Jesus is Lord’ in opposition to ‘Caesar is Lord’.
The Apostles’ Creed, which is confessed universally in the church, is a profound and powerful summary of what we believe, and these understandings keep us faithful when confronted with the pervasive religious error of our day. They also facilitate ‘confessional worship’ and serve as a statement of solidarity with Christians around the world. These confessional expressions are essential to substantive, Christ-honoring worship. When we confess our faith together through the Apostles’ Creed it should be done with a strong voice, with conviction, and with great joy! It’s imperative that as decided Christians we confess these essential convictions to be true.