Got Worship?

If you read this site often, you’ve probably seen Romans 1:25

“because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.” 

You’ve probably seen the following quote from Calvin’s Institutes

“The human mind, stuffed as it is with presumptuous rashness, dares to imagine a god suited to its own capacity; as it labours under dullness, nay, is sunk in the grossest ignorance, it substitutes vanity and an empty phantom in the place of God.” (Inst. I.11.8)

And last of all, you’ve probably seen one of these huge quotes from Dr. Van Til

“But Reformed theology, as worked out by Calvin and his recent exponents such as Hodge, Warfield, Kuyper and Bavinck, holds that man’s mind is derivative. As such it is naturally in contact with God’s revelation. It is surrounded by nothing but revelation. It is itself inherently revelational. It cannot naturally be conscious of itself without being conscious of its creatureliness. For man self-consciousness presupposes God-consciousness. Calvin speaks of this as man’s inescapable sense of deity”
One cannot emphasize enough how important it is we remain self-conscious as to who we are as image-bearing creatures of God. This not only includes Christians, but non-Christians as well. It is because we’ve been created by God, in His image, it is our very instinct to worship Him. The only difference is that the unbeliever replaces all that He knows about God naturally with lies. The lie, of course, is that something or someone in the created realm, which is chosen according to the fancy of the idolater, is projected as God. The LORD’s wrath is the very reason that unbelievers are given to those dead idols that fail to deliver. Unbelievers will do good things, such as give to charities, make scientific discoveries and advancements, and otherwise glorify God with their gifts (whether they acknowledge it or not). Even atheists will build a place to worship, and evangelize for their cause.

As Christians we are to be God’s agents in stirring their consciences to repentance, hoping and praying that He will grant it to them. We are to be self-conscious, and the only way we can do that is to know, trust, and obey His Word. They will accuse of hypocrisy, hatred, foolishness, and many other things. What they say of us isn’t worse than who we know ourselves to be; that is wretched sinners saved by the grace and mercy of God.