The worship of Jesus our Lord

[Peairtach]

Those who have studied the hypostatic union between God the Son and His humanity may be able to help here.

Christ in His humanity not only prayed to the Father but worshipped Him as God. Is that not the case?

Did/does Christ in his humanity worship the Spirit as God, the Son as God, and the Triune Jehovah as God.

We approach the Father through the Son and by the Holy Spirit. What about Christ in His human nature?

 

[py3ak]

Those who have studied the hypostatic union between God the Son and His humanity may be able to help here.

Christ in His humanity not only prayed to the Father but worshipped Him as God. Is that not the case?

Most definitely.
At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight.

Did/does Christ in his humanity worship the Spirit as God, the Son as God, and the Triune Jehovah as God.

We approach the Father through the Son and by the Holy Spirit. What about Christ in His human nature?

Durham is good on this (in his commentary on Revelation). Worship is directed to God, and although various considerations may move us to worship, the object of worship is always God in three Persons.

Christ is himself the mediator through whom we approach: the mediator doesn't stand in need of mediation. Now since Christ leads us all in worship, it is obvious that he himself worships. It is a personal act, performed by virtue of and through the human nature; but you can't conceive of the nature as approaching, because worship is something done by persons.

That's my current guess, anyway.

 

[Peairtach]

Christ is himself the mediator through whom we approach: the mediator doesn't stand in need of mediation. Now since Christ leads us all in worship, it is obvious that he himself worships. It is a personal act, performed by virtue of and through the human nature; but you can't conceive of the nature as approaching, because worship is something done by persons.

That's my current guess, anyway.

Thanks.

A rather deep and mysterious subject; one of the most mysterious.

But it hadn't occured to me until today, to see if I could get further clarification on it.

Christ in His human nature worships the Father as God by the Holy Spirit.

 

[py3ak]

I'm not sure your final sentence is quite correct. Durham says:

From which it follows ... that whatever person be named, he is not to think that the other is less worshiped; but that in one act he worships that one God, and so the Father, Son, and Spirit.

 

[Peairtach]

So without getting too convoluted, would it be correct to say that Christ in His humanity approaches the Father as God in worship by the Spirit, which Father represents the Triune God.

Maybe you could attempt to put it into words, Ruben, if you feel able.

 

[py3ak]

I wouldn't say it quite like that. As a true man, Christ of course worships God in the way that God has appointed: as Mediator, of course, he does not depend on another to open up his access, but like all men he does worship rightly through the influence of the Holy Spirit. But it is God, the Trinity, who is the object of his worship, as well as of ours (otherwise how could he lead us in worship?). Since the persons of the Trinity do glorify one another, I don't think this should tie us in any knots. I would suspect that attempting to follow the example of Christ's worship as held out in the Gospels and the Psalms is probably the most profitable use of this discussion. Durham warms about the tendency we have to foster divided conceptions of the persons of the Trinity, as though they were separate objects of worship, and I don't want to even accidentally promote that myself by attempts to define what exceeds my knowledge.