Hermeneutics of Worship

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 11:43 pm by Peter Leithart

Hermeneutics of Worship 2017-09-06T23:43:34+06:00 Peter Leithart

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INTRODUCTION
What is known as the ?Regulative Principle of Worship?E(RPW) is one of the distinctive emphases of Reformed liturgics. Though this is variously formulated and understood, it boils down to the principle that worship must be biblical. We are called to worship God in a way that is pleasing to Him, and we know what is pleasing to Him in worship from studying His revelation in Scripture. Formulated in this way, the RPW is a fundamental principle of worship. Scripture indicates that the sanctuary is regulated more tightly than other zones of life, and violations of the rules of the sanctuary are punished immediately and severely (Nadab and Abihu, e.g.).

Yet, the RPW needs to be interpreted and filled out. It sometimes deteriorates into a slogan, as if saying ?Worship must be biblical?Ewas enough to determine what Scripture actually teaches about worship. But the RPW is just the beginning. Once we have accepted this principle, we still have to figure out what Scripture actually teaches concerning worship. And that raises a host of challenging hermeneutical questions.

The central hermeneutical question raised by the RPW is the relationship between the OC and the NC. Some who appeal to the RPW have a tendency in practice to restrict their exploration to the New Testament. But the fact is that most of the instruction about worship in Scripture comes from the OT, from obscure and poorly-understood books like Leviticus, Numbers, and 1 Chronicles. The instruction of these books has to be fundamental in our understanding of worship, but of course we do not simply adopt the practices of Israel wholesale. As Hebrews makes clear, one of the key changes in the transition from Old to New is a radical change in the character of sacrifice, the location of the sanctuary, and the qualifications for priesthood. The basic question is whether or not we can draw on OT liturgical instructions as guidelines for our performance of NC worship; and if we can draw on the OT liturgical instructions, how?

In this first lesson on worship, we?ll start easy by looking at the relationship of OT and NT with regard to the sacraments of baptism and the Lord?s Supper. Once we see how the NT deals with the OT types of baptism and the Supper, we?ll have a pattern for how to practice Israel?s sacrificial system as NT believers.

FULFILLED IN JESUS
It is sometimes argued that because the OT cleanliness and sacrificial laws were fulfilled in Jesus, they no longer have any implications for the practices of the church. The sacrifices pointed to the cross, and that?s that. Passover is fulfilled in Jesus?Egreat Passover, but we no longer ?keep Passover?Ein a meal. For some Reformed folk, the ?moral?Eand (perhaps) ?civil?Elaws of Israel continue to give practical instruction to Christians, but the ?ceremonial?Elaws were exhausted in Christ?s work.

A twofold response is in order. First, we can emphatically agree that the entire OT is fulfilled in Jesus, and this is the fundamental point of the entire OT. The entire OT is typological. But the Jesus that is revealed in the OT is the head of a body. To use Augustine?s terminology, the OT is typological of the totus Christus, not merely the Head (Jesus) but the body (the church).

Richard Hays unnecessarily polarizes the choice between ?typological?Eand an ?ecclesiocentric?Ehermeneutic, but his emphasis on Paul?s interest in the OT revelation of the church is welcome. As he points out, in Galatians 4 Paul does not make a simple Abraham?s seed = Isaac equation; instead, the ?child of promise?Eis ?you brethren?E(v. 28). This does not mean that Jesus is not Abraham?s Seed; He is, but so are we, His body. The OT story of ?Abraham?s Seed?Eis the story of the ?Ei> totus Christus .?E Similarly, Paul?s exhortation to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 10 rests on a typological parallel between Israel?s exodus and wilderness wanderings and the life of the church.

Paul not only finds the history of the church prefigured in the history of Israel. He also appeals to the law, including the ceremonial law, for instruction about the church?s life and order. One of his arguments for paying ministers for their work, for example, is the Levitical principle that ?those who performed sacred services eat the food of the temple, and those who attend regularly to the altar have their share with the altar?E(1 Corinthians 9:13). Paul?s argument clearly assumes that priestly ministry at the altar prefigures the preaching of the gospel in some fashion. Priestly ministry is not entirely and exhaustively fulfilled in the work of Jesus. The ministry of the Aaronic priests continues in a different form in the proclamation of the gospel (cf. Romans 15:15-16). This is inherent in the idea of a type, which is not merely given to ?foreshadow?Ebut to serve as an example for imitation (cf. 1 Peter 5:13).

BAPTISM AND OT RITES
The same pattern of reasoning applies to the two chief ?liturgical?Einstitutions of the NC, baptism and the Supper. The NT writers see baptism as a NC form of ceremonial cleansing, and the Supper as a NT fulfillment of Israel?s festivals. The Old Testament washings are not fulfilled exhaustively in Jesus, but in the concrete practices of the totus Christus , and the OT sacrificial meals not only point to Jesus but to the meal that commemorates Jesus?Edeath and resurrection.

Let?s begin with baptism. A number of passages in the NT explain baptism by alluding to the OT cleanliness and holiness regulations. Hebrews 9:9-10 summarizes the OT system: ?Accordingly both gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot make the worship perfect in conscience, since they relate only to food and drink and various washings, regulations for the flesh until a time of reformation.?E The word for ?washings?Ehere is baptismos , a word used for OT and Jewish washings in Mark 7:4 and Hebrews 6:2, but also used for Christian baptism in Colossians 2:12. The fact that this word names both OT washings and Christian baptism hints that the NT writers saw continuity between these two types of washing.

Hebrews 10:19-25 makes a more specific application of OT ritual washings. There, the author says that Christians have ?our bodies washed with pure water?Ein order to approach the ?holy place.?E This refers to the washing that was part of the priestly ordination rite (Exodus 29; Leviticus 8), and also to the requirement that priests wash before approaching the tabernacle, lest they die (Exodus 30:17-21). There may be a specific reference to the priest?s preparation for the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16:4). In this case, the actual, literal washing of the Aaronic priests points to the actual, literal, bodily washing of baptism. Christian baptism is a ceremonial washing that permits us to approach God?s heavenly sanctuary. In Christian baptism, we do in a new covenant way what Israel did under the law.

In Ephesians 5:26, Paul describes Christ washing the church with water by or with the word. This washing ?cleanses?Eher, and in the same verse Paul says that Christ has given Himself to ?sanctify?Eher. The passage is employing the terminology of OT cleansing and sanctifying rites, and says that something similar happens to the church when she is ?washing with water.?E Though this might be taken as a purely ?spiritual?Ecleansing, the reference to ?water?Etells against this. Rather, Jesus prepares the church for Himself by giving Himself for her, and through baptism and the word.

For paedobaptists, the key example is circumcision. Circumcision is, like the sacrifices, fulfilled in Jesus (prob. Colossians 2:11) and in the new covenant circumcision of the heart (Romans 2). But paedobaptists also draw conclusions about the subjects of baptism from the typological connection of circumcision and baptism. The rite of circumcision gives us instruction about the actual, literal practice of the rite of baptism.

These passages indicate the logic of

the NT?s baptismal theology: Old Testament cleansing rites point to Christ, but are also fulfilled in the practice of Christian baptism. This logic encourages us to examine other typologies for baptism in the sacrificial system: The cleansing rites of Leviticus 15; the baptism from corpse defilement in Numbers 19; and so on.

THE SUPPPER AND OT FESTIVALS
The Supper is most clearly a fulfillment of Passover (Matthew 26:20-29; Mark 14:12-26; Luke 22:14-23). Of course, Jesus?Edeath also fulfills the death of the Passover Lamb (John 1:29). There is no conflict between ?The Passover is fulfilled in Jesus?Edeath?Eand ?We keep a New Testament Passover in the Lord?s Supper.?E These two affirmations, in fact, come together in a few verses in 1 Corinthians 5. Paul says that ?Christ our Passover has been sacrificed,?Eand immediately exhorts the Corinthians to ?keep the feast?E(vv. 7-8). He even draws an exhortation from the fact that the Passover is celebrated with unleavened bread: Christian are to purge out the old leave of ?malice and wickedness?Eand keep the Christian Passover with ?the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.?E (For what it?s worth, Calvin sees both atonement and Eucharist in this verse.)

Similarly, Romans 8:1-3 describes Jesus?Edeath as a sin offering, but Hebrews 13:10ff makes as Eucharistic application of the rules of the sin offering. There is both a theological typology, fulfilled in Jesus, and a liturgical typology, where the OT pattern is reversed and fulfilled in the practice of the NT church.

Finally, the book of Revelation is arranged by the sequence of Old Testament feasts. The book begins on the Sabbath, moves through the revelation of the Lamb slain from the beginning of the world, reveals the coming of the Spirit. The book focuses on the feasts of the seventh month (in keeping with the sevens that dominate the whole book). Seven trumpets are blown, matching the feast of trumpets that opens the seventh month; then seven bowls of blood are poured out, fulfilling the sevenfold sprinkling of blood on the day of atonement; finally, there is a great feast, when the nations bring their glory into the city. This feast of ingathering is the ?marriage Supper of the lamb,?Ethe wedding feast of the consummation. But this ?feast of the kingdom?Ethat corresponds to the Feast of Booths, is already celebrated in the feast of the Lord?s Supper.

CONCLUSION
Throughout the NT, we see that typology works with a double focus: OT institutions and practices of worship are fulfilled in Christ, but also are played out in the practices of the NT church. Actually, this is a single, complex typology: OT institutions and practices are fulfilled in the totus Christus , both in the events surround the death and resurrection of the Head and in the concrete continuing practices of the Body.

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