Tomorrow is the Lord’s Day. I made a comment in last week’s sermon—it was not in the manuscript but was an extemporaneous remark—that there is a sense in which every week you are being re-converted, regenerated, and saved again as you participate in the liturgy. I thought the point was sufficiently clear in the context of what I was describing, but I received a couple of questions about it, so let me take this opportunity to clarify my comment… and double-down on it.
First, let me offer the necessary qualifications. No one is literally, actually, or salvifically being regenerated in Lord’s Day worship who had already been regenerated by God. Regeneration, in that sense, is an act, a singular event, a work performed by the Holy Spirit once and for all time. It does not fade over time. Its benefits do not expire. It cannot be lost, and it is not on a subscription that has to be renewed. If you have been regenerated, you are regenerate forever. If you have been saved, you are saved forever. We are Calvinists, after all, and we believe in the eternal security and divine preservation of the elect.
Second, let me clarify what I meant by what I said. The weekly worship of the Church, if it is structured in the pattern of covenant renewal that we find throughout the Bible, is an enacted ritual and experience of the gospel and salvation. God calls us out of the world. He cleanses us of our sins. He consecrates us by his Word and Spirit. He communes with us at the Table. He commissions us to go into all the world to fill it with his glory by subduing it to the authority of Christ. These movements correspond, broadly speaking, to effectual calling, justification, sanctification, adoption and glorification (in that the Eucharist is a proleptic experience of the marriage Supper of the Lamb to which we are bound), and Christian service as we await the coming of the King. It is as if we are being saved again. Every Lord’s Day should be like eating Frosted Flakes in which we taste the gospel again for the first time. It feels like a renewal of our salvation because, in a meaningful though accommodative sense, it is a renewal of our salvation. God is renewing covenant with us, and in the process he is restoring our soul, nourishing our faith, and re-establishing our hope and joy in Christ.
Third, let me double-down on what I said. This is true, and we should embrace, cherish, and proclaim it loudly. How many Christians do not value weekly worship because they do not understand what is happening in it? How many churches are languishing under worldly or traditional or cultural rather than biblical forms of liturgy that do not reflect the richly gospel-centered narrative of covenant renewal? If we understand what is happening in worship, we will better understand and more gladly embrace the duty of corporate worship every Lord’s Day. I am not here defending the structure of covenant renewal as the biblical model for worship—I have done that elsewhere (HERE), and there are good books on the subject (cf. Jeffrey Meyers, The Lord’s Service and Jonathan Landry Cruse, What Happens When We Worship?). If someone is not convinced worship should be structured in this way, then they should carefully study the issue. But why wouldn’t we want to experience the gospel in this way, week after week? Even if the Lord did not reveal and require this pattern of us, who would not find it more satisfying than the worldly and superficial worship found in many churches today?
I hope this clarifies what was meant in last week’s sermon and eases any concerns that may have existed by my saying we get saved again every Lord’s Day. I think it is an important point to grasp, and I commend it to you as we prepare for another Lord’s Day together. How often do you feel like you do need to “renew your salvation” or “get saved again”? You know your salvation is secure in Christ, but sometimes you wish you could start all over. And you can, every Lord’s Day, as God summons you to receive his grace in Christ again. Come, taste and see the goodness of the Lord. --JME
