UECF.NET study companion — original commentary, not the book's own text.
Tozer insists that worship cannot be produced by technique, mood, or good intentions in unregenerate human nature; it is the fruit of a spiritual birth, not merely a decision recorded on a card. He is careful to say this is not a departure from justification by faith — he affirms he believes it as firmly as Luther did — but he warns against a shrunken, transactional idea of salvation that stops at a signed decision and never grows into a worshiping life.
True worshipers, Jesus tells the woman at the well, worship the Father “in spirit and in truth” (John 4:23–24); that kind of worship presupposes a heart that has actually been made new (John 3:3–7). Tozer's point is pastoral as much as theological: he is not questioning anyone's salvation, but asking whether it has grown into the worshiping life it was meant to produce.
Key points
- Worship is a fruit of regeneration, not a performance unregenerate people can sustain indefinitely.
- Salvation is for something, not only from something: God saves us so that we may become worshipers.
- “Spirit and truth” worship (John 4:23–24) requires a Spirit-indwelt nature, not just correct form.
- A transformed nature, not a repeated name, is what makes prayer and worship genuine (echoing 2 Peter 1:4).
Scripture (read on NKJV)
- John 3:3–7 — Jesus and Nicodemus — you must be born again
- John 4:23–24 — True worshipers worship in spirit and truth
- 2 Peter 1:4 — Partakers of the divine nature
Reflect
- Tozer distinguishes “automatic,” card-signing salvation from a living, worshiping faith. Which better describes your own walk with God right now?
- What would it look like this week to worship God “in spirit and in truth” rather than only in the right words or the right place?
- How does knowing you have been given “a divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4) change how you approach worship?
Prayer
Father, thank You for the new birth You have given us in Christ. Let our worship flow not from habit or performance but from a heart truly made alive by Your Spirit. Teach us to worship You in spirit and in truth. Amen.