WORSHIP NOTES
Volume 20, No. 8 ( August 2025)
Throughout the Bible, the indicatives of grace always precede the imperatives of law and obligation. (James B. Torrance, Worship, Community and the Triune God of Grace, 70)
Divine indicatives give rise to divine imperatives. This is the Bible’s underlying grammar. Grace, in this sense, always gives rise to obligation, duty, and law. (Sinclair Ferguson, The Whole Christ, 168)
In the Bible, the form of covenant (in both the Old and New Testaments) is such that the indicatives of grace are always prior to the imperatives of law and human obligation. “I have loved you, I have redeemed you . . . therefore, keep my commandments. . . .” But Judaism turned it the other way round. “If you keep the law, God will love you. If you keep the sabbath, the Kingdom of God will come”, etc. That is, the imperatives are made prior to the indicatives. The covenant has been turned into a contract, and God’s grace made conditional on man’s obedience. It is precisely against this inversion of the order of grace that Paul protests in Galatians 3:17-22. God made a covenant with Abraham, and although the law came four hundred and thirty years later (to spell out the obligations of grace) it did not suddenly introduce conditions of grace. It did not turn the covenant into a contract. To introduce conditions would be to break a promise. (James B. Torrance, “Covenant or Contract? A Study in the Theological Background ofWorship in Seventeenth-Century Scotland,” Scottish Journal of Theology 23 (1970):56
It is only as we know who God is and what he has done and is doing that we can find appropriate answers to the question of how, and then see the incredible relevance of the gospel to every area of life. (James B. Torrance, Worship, Community and the Triune God of Grace, 70-71)
Imperatives—making demands—are a part of the gospel. But they are not and cannot be first. To proclaim the mandates of the gospel prior to or apart from the promises of the gospel is to imply that people have within themselves the capacity to live as Christians. (C. Welton, The Gift of Worship, 74)
Vos says that the heart of legalism is when we separate the law of God from the person of God. And what we have got then are bare imperatives that don’t have an indicative that will sustain them. (Sinclair Ferguson, http://sovgracemin.org/Blog/post/Legalism-in-Eden-(Ferguson-Interview2c-pt-4).aspx)
The imperatives are seen as based on the fact of a new nature and are therefore also a call to obedience to the one who has already established a relationship with the Christian; that is, the “believer’s every action is oriented on God’s antecedent act in Christ.” Ethical behaviour, then is a consequence, not the cause, of the newness of the believer’s being; it is an appropriation of what has already been assigned in the work of the Lord and of the Spirit. In Braaten’s words: “Being precedes act.” (Gunther Bornkamm, Paul, 201)
Christian existence is a strangely relaxed kind of strenuousness, precisely because the Christian gospel is what it is. Before ever any demand is made, the gift is offered: the announcement of good news precedes the challenge. The indicative precedes the imperative as surely as the rope is made fast round a firm piece of rock for the climber’s security before he has to apply himself to the struggle. (C. F. D. Moule, “’The New Life’ in Colossians 3:1-17,” Review and Expositor 70:4 [1973], 479)
Finally, how liberating would it be for preachers, musicians, and artists of all types to know that their worship is perfect not because of what they do but because of who they are in Christ. For an artist, performing and the evaluation of the performance can become all-consuming. Yet, if preaching and artists knew that their worship was perfect because a perfect response has already been offered, their worship could indeed become an act of praise and thanksgiving. We do not have to live a life of gratitude; we get to live a life of gratitude because a way has been made for us to participate in the worship of Christ. Because of the indicatives of grace, we can participate in the imperatives of law. (Kevin Navarro, Trinitarian Doxology, 188-189)
[Are we] engaging in worship activities to please God or because He already is pleased with the finished work of Christ? (James B. Torrance, “Worship and the Gospel,” Regent Audio, 1974)
| VERSES | INDICATIVE | IMPERATIVE |
| Ex 20:2-3 | “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. | You shall have no other gods before Me.” |
| Rom 12:1 | I appeal to you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, | to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. |
| 1 Cor 5:7-8 | Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. | Let us therefore celebrate the festival. |
| 1 Cor 6:20 | You were bought with a price. | So glorify God in your body. |
| 1 Cor 15:57-58 | God . . . gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. | Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. |
| Gal 5:1 | For freedom Christ has set us free; | stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. |
| Phil 3:20; 4:1 | Our citizenship is in heaven. . . . | Therefore, my brethren, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved. |
| Col 2:6 | Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, | so walk in Him. |
| Heb 10:19, 22 | Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus… | let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith. |