Worm theology - All Nations Church

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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We had never heard of "worm theology in the 40+ years of our Christian experience. In actual fact, we are glad. It is a damaging doctrine that suggests that God despises sinners. It also carries with it the idea that even though we have been saved, regenerated, and seated with Christ in heavenly places, our status remains lowly and worthless.

The danger of this doctrine as we see it is that we put upon God an attitude that He does not possess. But there is no Scripture that tells us God despises humankind. Just the opposite:

Ps. 8:5 You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. 

Ps. 138:6 Though the LORD is on high, he looks upon the lowly, but the proud he knows from afar.

1Co. 1:27-29 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28 He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things — and the things that are not — to nullify the things that are, 29 so that no-one may boast before him.

Further, for the Christian, this false humility, this affectation, means we wallow in regret and we get stuck at the cross, never moving on in sanctification. In fact, sin should be expected. We can do no better, We are is powerless and weak. We cannot stand against the tide of unrighteousness that rises around us. We should anticipate failure. 

Worm theology is in stark contrast to the teaching of the Bible: 

2Co. 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 

1Co. 15:57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 

Ro. 7:5-6 For when we were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death. 6 But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.

Ro. 8:6 The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace...

Ep. 2:10 For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

There is no place in the Bible that teaches worm theology regarding God's view of humanity or the Church.

“Worm theology” was popular in the past, but gets a bad rap nowadays. It describes a Christian piety that enjoys describing ourselves as “worms”! (There is no verse that describes us as worms. None. There is no verse where God calls people worms in the sense of them being in a state of sin, rejection, or being despicable.)

Christians produced and sang hymns and offered prayers using worm language to abase themselves and magnify the grace of God. (False or misguided humility.)

Now, I expect there are Christian circles where “worm theology” still exists, but I suspect they are vanishingly small; I’ve certainly not heard Christians talking like that in the last two decades. (That would be a positive development.)

Normally, when I do hear it, it’s Christians putting the boot in to it, saying how bad it is. The one exception is the song: “Alas and Did My Saviour Bleed?”, which has the line: “would he devote that sacred head for such a worm as I?”.

Now, I’m sure “worm theology” can become quite deviant. That is a danger of any biblical truth. One of Job’s friends, called Bildad, was into his worm theology, and he may well be an example of a worm theologian gone wrong. “Man… is a maggot and the son of man… is a worm” he reminded Job (Job 25:6). (This is the sole example of mankind being called a worm, and it's deviant by the author's own admission. Why is it deviant, since it is a statement that agrees with the author's theology? Hopefully he will be able to produce legitimate scriptural examples that documents this doctrine. Hint: He won't.)

It would make an interesting Hallmark card slogan, wouldn’t it? But Bildad isn’t the only worm theologian in the Bible. (Bildad wasn't a theologian at all.)

Our Lord Jesus Christ says: “I am a worm and not a man” (Psalm 22:6). God says to his redeemed people: “you worm Jacob” (Isa 41:14), so it’s not language Christians can just ignore. (No, of course these verses shouldn't be ignored. But they need to be properly explained, which the author will not do. We will correct his error below.)

 
Jesus, the worm

When Jesus said: “I am a worm, and not a man” in Psalm 22, what did he mean? It is shocking language and it’s designed to shock us. Worms have a “yuck” factor; they’re associated with dirt and death. So, to think about myself as a worm belittles and humbles me. (Hmmm. Not off to a good start. The author yanks this snippet of Scripture out of its context. Let's quote a larger part: 

Ps. 22:6-8 But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by men and despised by the people. 7 All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads: 8 “He trusts in the LORD; let the LORD rescue him. Let him deliver him, since he delights in him.”

With the text before us we can see that David [and by extension, Jesus, since this is a messianic psalm] was writing about how others see him. He was so despised that He characterized their derision as him being like a worm. 

Thus this psalm is not about Jesus' actual character, or the Father's view of Jesus, but rather, how His persecutors viewed Him. Nor is it about God's view of humankind.)

Can you imagine a primary school teacher sitting her class down and saying, “Now, children! the Bible teaches we’re all worms in God’s sight”?! She’d be sacked for traumatising them, (No, she'd be sacked for teaching falsely. The Bible does not teach that we are worms in God's sight.)

and lowering their self-esteem. It contradicts the positive self-image, which we’re told our children need. So, why does Jesus use this language?

He’s voicing the experience of his humiliation. (Exactly. Why does the author correctly recognize the source of the worm idea, yet persist in asserting it's God's viewpoint?)

These are not words that Jesus, seated at God’s right hand, can say today. They do not describe him crowned with glory and honour (Psalm 8:5)! But they do describe an important aspect of his humiliation. This is what he went through, as he stepped into the shoes of sinners. As he identified with us, the “the Lord of glory” (1 Cor 2:8) could say: “I am a worm”. (His humiliation came at the hands of evil men who beat Him, mocked Him, and crucified Him. They viewed him with derision. He was a worm from their point of view, not God's!

The author is confusing this with the idea that Jesus humbled Himself:

Ph. 2:8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death — even death on a cross!

See the difference? The humiliation of Jesus is a separate thing from Him humbling Himself as an obedient Man.)

“Worm theology”, therefore, is describing the dehumanising effect that sin has on us. (??? Jesus had no sin, so He was not being dehumanized for sin, but rather because he was rejected and crucified. Which by extension does not apply to the saved, who are bought with a price and delivered from the law of sin and death.)

We regularly underestimate the devastation that sin has caused in human nature. Sin has disfigured us. Sin destroys beauty, and it is ugly. Paul’s letters descend down into dark and dirty metaphors to describe unredeemed humanity (e.g. Eph 4:17-22; Rom 1:26-32). (Let's actually quote the passages: 

Ep. 4:17-24 So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. 18 They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. 19 Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more.

20 You, however, did not come to know Christ that way. 21 Surely you heard of him and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. 22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. 

Paul is clear. We are not to behave as sinful men, but rather we are to put off the old dead man and put on the righteousness that is our new selves.  

Ro. 1:26-32 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion. 28 Furthermore, since they did not think it worth while to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.

29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31 they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

This is an accurate depiction of the lost. They are depraved, evil, and sinful. This is not us.

A clearer contrast between the saved and lost could not be found. These are two different groups of people. One is not like the other. And neither passage has anything to do with worm theology.)

This vivid imagery is designed to wake us up to the effect of sin. It is not a denial of the creation of man in God’s image, but it’s a lamentation of the ruinous effects of sin on our human nature. (This is certainly true of sin, with regard to the lost. But even the lost are never called worms. Further, we have been washed in the blood. We no longer live, Christ lives in us. The sinful flesh has been put to death. 

The author is wrong.)

In one version of Les Miserables, Jean Valjean, the convict says: “I don’t belong in the family of men, monsieur, I’m on the outside”. That’s what Jesus is talking about. (No, it's not.)

The church, God’s worm

“OK, but surely once Jesus has saved us, we’re no longer to identify ourselves as worms? After all, as Christians, we’re now saints not sinners, aren’t we?”. Well, I think it’s safe to say that we won’t be calling ourselves worms in glory, but that doesn’t mean we cut out the language yet. 

We can’t get around the fact that God says: “Fear not, you worm Jacob, you men of Israel! I am the one who helps you, declares the LORD; your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel”. In that verse, God doesn’t address his redeemed people, with prestigious titles like “chosen race, a royal priesthood” or “a holy nation” (1 Peter 2:9). No, he calls them a “worm”! Why? Why would God seemingly belittle his people? (Indeed, why? The author again rips verses from their context. Let's look at the context. First, God is speaking of Israel:

Is. 41:8 “But you, O Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, you descendants of Abraham my friend...

We should resist the urge to insert ourselves into the narrative. Isn't this what we are regularly warned to not do with the OT promises to Israel? Their promises are not necessarily ours. We are not Israel. The Church is not OT Israel. And we are not worms.

God's purpose was to tell Israel to not be afraid, that He will dispense with their enemies: 

Is. 41:10-11 So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. 11 All who rage against you will surely be ashamed and disgraced; those who oppose you will be as nothing and perish.

This is not us, this was Israel. Israel was quaking with fear in the face of their adversaries. Their status among the nations was as worms, but God will give them victory: 

Is. 41:14-16 "Do not be afraid, O worm Jacob, O little Israel, for I myself will help you,” declares the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. Is. 41:15 “See, I will make you into a threshing-sledge, new and sharp, with many teeth. You will thresh the mountains and crush them, and reduce the hills to chaff. 16 You will winnow them, the wind will pick them up, and a gale will blow them away. But you will rejoice in the LORD and glory in the Holy One of Israel.

This promise is not for their later glorification in heaven, but rather, because of what they faced at that moment. God promised that this tiny, insignificant nation will be something greater as they vanquish their enemies with His help.

This is clearly not us. We are not Israel facing the oppression of strong nations around us.)

Well, it’s clearly not out of wrath, or to scare them. But I think it does two things:

i) It accents his grace. God does for his weak, disfigured people what they cannot do for themselves. It’s the same gospel logic as Paul, when he writes: “God chose what is low and despised in the world, even the things that are not, to bring to nothing the things that are” (1 Cor 1:28). It’s why Paul gladly labels himself the “chief of sinners” (1 Tim 1:15) and “the very least of all the saints” (Eph 3:8). Paul’s doing some powerful “worm theology” in those texts. The greatest saint on their death bed will still be able to sincerely sing: “Would he devote that sacred head for such a worm as I?”. So, to lose or reject that note, is to shrink God’s grace down.

ii) It pushes our hope in to the future. In the next verses of Isaiah, God makes clear he’s going to transform the “worm Jacob” into a triumphant people (Isa 41:15-16)! So, the language emphasises “we’re not there yet!”. God’s goal in worm theology is not to leave man crawling around in the dirt; its goal is to exalt us. “Worm theology” is not the whole story of the human race. It’s not where our story starts, and it’s not where it will end. But it is part of our story, and, it’s currently part of our story. So, when we reject “worm theology”, we reduce our eagerness to be “raised in glory … [and] power” (1 Cor 15:43).

I’m sure “worm theology” can, and has, led to a distorted doctrine of humanity. But the same is true of “grace” (Rom 6:1; Jude 4). When a doctrine is distorted, the answer is never to run away from it. Replacing “worm theology” with “worth theology” is a disaster. “Worm theology” offers a more expansive understanding of what it means to be a human made in the image of God, this side of the Fall, and this side of Judgment Day. In an age obsessed with self-esteem and loving yourself, it says it’s precisely by looking hard at ourselves in the mirror and taking seriously what sin and grace has done to worms like us, that we’ll understand who we are.

I suspect there’s a connection between “worm theology” and accepting hell as a place “where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched” (Mark 9:48). Lose one and you’ll lose the other. After all, the damage sin has done to the human race, and that grace needs to fix, really is very serious. “Worm theology” reminds us that quick routes to dignifying humanity won’t work. When done well, it exalts God’s grace, exalts the man Christ Jesus, humbles us, and points us forwards to our exaltation.

A Christ-centred, Bible teaching church in Ilford, London. A congregation of the International Presbyterian Church.

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