Have you received the new birth of water and Spirit? If so, you belong to God’s new family and you serve in a new priesthood that gives new offerings. For that reason—if you take your priesthood seriously—you seek to fulfill the newness of the New Covenant. By definition, newness is different from oldness. That is why God says, “I will establish a new covenant… not like the [old] covenant” (Hebrews 8:8-9 cf. Jeremiah 31:31-32). That is why Romans shows how we serve, and how we do not serve.
Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to Him who has been raised from the dead…. But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code. (Romans 7:4, 6)
Do you see the change, including what this “new way” means for our worship? “The written code” had many detailed commands for “the old way” of worship, the way in which we today do not worship. Now, there is “the new way of the Spirit” which, as Jesus shows, includes the new way to worship (John 4:19-24).
So, what does the Spirit reveal? First, as the church grows, He reveals an absence of the old things: no need for the earthly temple, no more earthly sacrifices, no more earthly altars, no more earthly priests with their earthly uniforms, incense and instruments. Second, He reveals the better spiritual equivalents: Christ, His sacrifice, His unique priesthood, His new priests with their spiritual sacrifices. What is their music? Look for its Spirit-filled forms in Ephesians. Look also for what makes our musical worship effective.
And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Ephesians 5:18-20)
There is the communication of our singing. There is the music offered “to the Lord.” There is the thanks to the Father. We use words, but our joy overflows the bounds of words. While we sing, our hearts burst forth with music—“making melody to the Lord with your heart”—that expresses to the Lord what is “inexpressible.”
Though you have not seen Him, you love Him. Though you do not now see Him, you believe in Him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory. (1 Peter 1:8 cf. Romans 8:26)