How do we ensure that our preaching aviods the great peril of moralism, while still placing a due emphasis upon the great indicative commands of God’s holy law? My thoughts here are the result of my recent attendance in a corporate worship service where the liturgy was profoudnly God-centered and the preaching radically moralistic and man centered. It was such a shock to transition from a high and lofty view of God’s holiness into a shallow humanism which more closley resembled self-help psychology than Christianity. What makes Christianity distinctive? It should be obvious, yet for some its tragically absent from their life and ministry. Paul resolved to preach nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified. It seems as though our churches today are preaching the opposite. Instead of glorying in the cross, we’re glorying in ourselves. Instead of cherishing the Savior, we’re cherishing a humanistic attempt at self reform. Instead of looking outside of ourselves, we’re looking within and the result is devastating. Church-goers are constantly beaten over the head with legalistic imperitaves which serve to burden the soul and blind the mind and affections to Christ and Him crucified. Pastors preach as if Christ had never died. Sermons are delivered as though the New Testament had never been written. A watered down form of pseudo-Judaism has taken hold of the church of Jesus Christ. What’s the answer? The answer is shouting to us from every page of the Bible. Christocentricity is the divinely appointed solution to the crippling man-centeredness which pervades our worship. Jesus proclaimed that all of Scripture testifies to Himself. If so, why is He glaringly absent from our preaching, teaching, singing, and praying? Our hearts by nature are factories of idols, and deprvaity will always attempt to usurp Jesus Christ from His rightful place as the center of Christian worship. Our sinful hearts are always blinding us to the salvation necessary in an object outside of ourselves. Consequently, we deceive ourselves into thinking that we can satisfy God’s righteous demands through the inclination of our will. What’s sad is that many self professed Calvinists are functioning Arminians, and preach a mish mash of both law and gospel, which in the end, is nothing but a “softer form of law.” How can we restore Christian worship to its divinely intended purpose? By preaching nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Any approach which fails to allow Christ to dominate every aspect of life and ministry ultimately misses the mark. God refuses to be glorified apart from His Son. The church would do well to grasp this truth.