Worthy of Our Worship

Then they . . . came and worshipped him, saying, of a truth thou art the Son of God.

Matthew 14:33

Jesus Christ is who He said He is: God in human form. And that is a crucial truth that undergirds the reality of our salvation. Only the divine Savior could die as the perfect and complete sacrifice for our sins. Only the divine Lord could tell us how we should live. Only the risen and ascended Son of God is worthy of our worship and our service. “We confess Jesus Christ as God, our Lord and Savior.”

During His time here on earth, He was God in the flesh, true God and true man. He is from eternity to eternity. Jesus Christ, by His death and resurrection, became the Gospel. As His ambassadors we must represent Him in all His fullness totally and truthfully. Anything less disqualifies us from our high and holy calling.

The Nicene Creed that came out of the Council of Nicea in AD 325 affirmed that He is “very God of very God, . . . being of one substance with the Father.”

By faith Jesus becomes our Lord and Savior. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Him (Matthew 28:18). The present evil world system does not yet acknowledge His lordship; it is still under the deceiving power of the prince of this world, Satan (Ephesians 2:2). But those whom Jesus indwells have authority over the evil one and all his demons. The apostle John declares, “Greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world” (1 John 4:4).

Therefore, in spite of our human limitations and even our failures, the Lord is sovereignly directing His own work of redemption. And we are linked to the vast resources of His power so that we don’t merely “get by” in our lives and ministries but “in all these things we are more than conquerors through him” (Romans 8:37). And, as the context of that inspiring and reassuring verse promises, nothing “shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:39). God can turn the greatest tragedies into that which is for our good and for His glory, for “we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).

Because Jesus is Savior, He saves us from the penalty of sin. Because He is Lord, He, by His Holy Spirit, gives us power over sin as we daily walk with Him. And some future day He will take us to be with Him, far from the very presence of sin (Hebrews 9:28). Only because Jesus is God and we have confessed Him as Savior and Lord can He bestow and we receive these benefits, this blessed assurance and hope (Romans 10:9).

Our Father and our God, I confess that Jesus Christ is the living Lord of my world and my life. I know He is one with You and I have access to Your power through Him. Teach me to live as a conqueror and to lead others to You through Him and in His power. Amen.

Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010).