Acceptable Worship
I found this quote from T. F. Torrance (check out http://www.eucatastrophe.com/blog/archives/category/focus-on-worship/) that really nails the fact that our ability to offer a pleasing response to God in worship is not possible unless it is drenched in the life and death of Jesus Christ. This should change the way we think about our ”response” in worship. He writes:
The vicarious humanity of Jesus Christ…fulfills a representative and substitutionary role in all our relations with God…such as trusting and obeying, understanding and knowing, loving and worshipping…Jesus Christ…in and through His humanity took our place, acting in our name and on our behalf before God, freely offering in Himself what we could not offer and offering it in our stead, the perfect response of man to God in a holy life of faith and prayer and praise, the self-offering of the Beloved Son with whom the Father is well pleased” (God and Rationality, 145).
