This is a three part series on our “three-fold” relationship with God. In Part 1 I covered “God, the Father of Spirits.” In this post I will discuss “God as Lover of the Church,” and in Part 3 I will cover “God, Shepherd of our Bodies.”
Part 2: God As Lover Of The Church
The great love story of the Bible is the analogy of the love of God for His wife as found in the Song of Solomon. It describes the thrill, excitement, and desire, when with the loved one. There is the moonlight and roses, the springtime and youth, the jewels and perfumes, the spices and the fruit, the garden and the mountains. What disappointment when the lover can’t be found. What joy in a reunion. This all compares to the glory in the Church when their Lover, Christ, had risen from the dead, ascended to heaven, and yet returned in the power of the Spirit, the very Breath of God.
God’s Desire Was Always to Dwell With His People
The Bible shows us that in the beginning God provided a loving relationship for Adam by making for him a wife which was from his own very flesh and bone. Adam said: “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man,” Genesis 2:23. Then the Word of God says: “Therefore shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh,” verse 24. Thus the pattern for loving family relationships was established.
God dwelt with His son, Adam, and his family in the Garden of Eden. However, God’s love was not requited by Adam and Eve, but they deliberately and willfully disobeyed His commandment to not eat of the tree of knowledge.
Many things were changed. They now must be clothed. Woman must now bring forth children in sorrow. Adam must till the cursed ground and by hard labor bring forth food for his family. They could no longer live in the Garden of Eden. They must die and return to dust.
But worst of all, God could no longer fellowship with them in the Spirit. Whereas they had originally lived by the Breath, Spirit, of God, they now did not have that Life. So the fellowship of the Spirit was broken. However, this did not stop God from loving them, but it changed their relationship.
The Promise
But God in His great love for them gave them a promise that the serpent that had deceived them would be slain by the Seed of the Woman. By this He revealed His great plan to restore the Spiritual relationship that had been lost.
Throughout the long history of God’s dealing with His people, He always desired the marriage relationship. In the Old Testament He was married to the nation Israel and was broken-hearted when they sinned against Him by going into idolatry, and He had to divorce them.
Throughout the Bible we see God working with His people to bring them back to Himself.
Restoration
But when Jesus came, in fulfillment of the promise to Adam and Eve in the Garden, He came to take a Bride out of the Remnant, seed, of the Old Israel. He was filled with the Holy Spirit, the Breath of God. He fulfilled all of the covenants and promises of God. At last His physical body was slain, buried, and raised from the dead in the power of the New Creation, the Spirit-filled Life.
Not only that, but He now could endow His Beloved with the gift of the Holy Spirit, Breath of God. Fifty days after His resurrection and ten days after His ascension, the Holy Spirit came and filled all of those waiting and longing for it.
One of the marks of the new indwelling of the Spirit was the great joy that was manifested. They now had the power to overcome the world, sin, self and satan. Death had been swallowed up in victory. This was not the bondage of the law forcing them into a strait jacket, but a glorious freedom and power to love, worship, serve, honor and obey. And they could offer it to all the world. They were ecstatic.
Finally, in Revelation 21 and 22, the loving marriage relationship is restored and Jesus takes His bride, the New Jerusalem, the Church. God again has a Spiritual Son and a family.
Revelation 21:3: “And I heard a great voice from heaven saying, ‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God.”
Verse 7: “He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my Son.”
The Church Responds To God’s Love
How does the Church respond to the love of Christ today? In heartfelt worship, prayer, praise, and dedication. This is practiced both on the individual level and on the corporate level. It has often been compared to entering into a garden, a tryst. “Oh the beautiful garden, the garden of prayer! Oh the beautiful garden of prayer! There the Savior awaits, And He opens the gate, To that beautiful garden of prayer.”
This is the “secret place of the Most High” of Psalm 91: “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.” The Psalmist describes it as a refuge, a stronghold, a fortress of safety.
Psalm 31:19-20: “Oh, how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee; which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men! Thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy presence from the pride of man: thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues.”
Song: In The Garden, Words by C. Austin Miles
1.“I come to the garden alone, While the dew is still on the roses,
And the voice I hear, falling on my ear, The Son of God discloses.
Chorus:
“And He walks with me, And He talks with me,
And He tells me I am His own.
And the joy we share, As we tarry there,
None other has ever known.
2. “He speaks and the sound of His voice, Is so sweet the birds hush their singing.
And the melody that He gave to me, Within my heart is ringing.
3. “I’d stay in the garden with Him, Though the night around me be falling,
But He bids me go, through the voice of woe, His voice to me is calling.
Chorus:
“And He walks with me, And He talks with me,
And He tells me I am His own.
And the joy we share, As we tarry there,
None other has ever known.”
Whether we are in a congregation or whether we are alone, we enter into this garden to respond to the love of God in worship, in prayer, and in communion. But in verse three the Lover says to go back out into the hurting world. This, too, is part of our love for Jesus. But we go empowered, for Jesus goes with us.
Song: Jesus Lover Of My Soul
- Jesus, Lover of my soul, Let me to Thy bosom fly.
While the nearer waters roll, While the tempest still is high.
Hide me, O my Savior, hide. Till the storms of life are past;
Safe into the harbor guide, O receive my soul at last.
- Other refuge have I none, Hangs my helpless soul on Thee.
Leave, ah, leave me not alone, Still support and comfort me.
All my trust on Thee is stayed, All my help from Thee I bring;
Cover my defenseless head, With the shadow of Thy wing.
- Thou, O Christ, art all I want; More than all in Thee I find,
Raise the fallen, cheer the faint, Heal the sick and lead the blind.
Just and holy is Thy name, I am all unrighteousness;
False and full of sin I am, Thou art full of truth and grace.
- Plenteous grace with Thee is found, Grace to cover all my sin;
Let the healing streams abound; Make and keep me pure within.
Thou of life the fountain art; Freely let me take of Thee;
Spring Thou up within my heart, Rise to all eternity.
Words by Charles Wesley