Union with Christ

Readings for today: Song of Songs 5:2-8:14, Psalm 45

“I am my lover’s and my lover is mine.” It’s perhaps the most beautiful expression of the oneness Christ desires for us in all the Scriptures. It speaks to the depth of the intimate relationship God desires to have with us. It speaks the union God wants with His people. Nothing held back. Nothing coming between them. All barriers coming down. All walls torn down.

Union with Christ is the “central truth of the whole doctrine of salvation” according to John Murray. You see it reflected in the number of times the Apostle Paul uses the phrase “in Christ” in his letters. 216 occurrences in the Pauline Epistles and 26 times in the Johannine literature. It conveys a wide range of meaning from the righteousness of Christ imputed to believers to the spiritual nourishment we receive from Christ day by day to the life of Christ that manifests itself in our lives as we grow in faith over the years. John Calvin taught that union with Christ was the basis for our justification and sanctification as nothing can happen apart from our relationship with Him.

The Song of Songs speaks to the experience of our union with Christ not just the theological principle. It speaks to the heart rather than the head. It communicates emotion and desire and seeks to awaken in us a deep longing for Christ, the lover of our souls. It’s one of the reasons the Song of Songs was read historically by the church as they prepared to come to the Lord’s Table. Similarly, it is considered one of the festal scrolls by the Jews for Passover. While it may have meaning for the relationship between a man and a woman, the deeper allegorical meaning relates to Christ’s relationship to His people.

God wants us to both know Him and experience Him. He wants to dwell in both our heads and our hearts. He longs for us to walk with Him in the cool of the day as He once did with Adam and Eve. He longs to reveal Himself to us in the day to day. As we reflect and pray over the words from the Song today, ask the Holy Spirit to give you a greater awareness of God’s abiding presence in your life. Ask the Spirit to give you a greater experience of the deep, deep love of the Father and the sacrificial love of the Son. Ask the Spirit to give you the eyes to see and the heart to understand the beauty and wonder and awe of the Triune God.

Readings for tomorrow: Proverbs 1-4

Intimacy with God

Readings for today: Song of Solomon 1:1-5:1

The Song of Solomon is one of the most difficult and least understood books in all of Scripture. It’s one we tend to avoid in our sex-saturated culture. The language is far too intimate. The imagery too graphic. We won’t allow ourselves to even picture it much less reflect on how the Spirit might speak to us through it. We flip through the pages as fast as we can to get to the end so we can avoid any embarrassment. We’re not alone, of course. Our Orthodox Jewish friends have a tradition that men should not read this book until they are at least 30 years old. The early church fathers advised a similar practice. Both traditions speak to a healthy respect for the power of sexual desire and want to make sure it is not stirred up before the appropriate time.

So what is this book all about? The love for a man and a woman? The love of God for His church? Perhaps both? Are we comfortable thinking about our relationship with God in sexually intimate terms? Is that a bridge too far? For my part, I believe this book invites us to approach God in the most intimate of ways. The language of the Song is designed to arouse. It’s meant to touch the deepest places of our hearts. It’s breathed out by God in order to draw us into His intimate embrace.

Our inability to embrace this book reveals how corrupt our understanding of human sexuality has become. Generally speaking, we see sex as dirty yet pleasurable. Something to be enjoyed and yet something to be feared. Our culture boasts of sexual freedom and yet is shocked when such freedom leads to abuse and violence. If there’s anything the #MeToo movement taught us is that our sexual appetites are almost impossible to satisfy. Sexuality without restraint is incredibly destructive and traumatic to all parties involved. There simply is no way to reduce it to a biological act or a simple exchange of fluids. Sex just doesn’t work that way.

Sex is God’s creation. Sexual desire is something He instilled within each of us. Now I am fully aware there are those who do not experience sexual desire just as I am aware there are those who experience an addiction to sexual desire. Both of these conditions - along with many others - are products of the Fall when the sexual desires of human beings became disordered and God’s original design for sex became corrupt. Originally, God designed sex to be the ultimate experience of “knowing.” A way for us to express our deepest affections. Our deepest emotions. Our deepest vulnerabilities. When the Bible talks about “knowing” another person, it often uses the most sexually intimate of terms. The same is true for “knowing” God. And such knowledge is designed to be experienced within the safety of a covenant relationship. A covenant relationship with Jesus or a covenant relationship of marriage between a man and a woman.  

Viewed from this angle, is it possible to read this song as a prayer? A way to express the deepest desires of our hearts to God? A way for us to ask for deeper intimacy with Him? Or, does the brokenness of the human experience of sexuality warp our thinking? Does it corrupt how we understand this most powerful and primal of drives? Does it poison this well and thus prevent us from fully grasping the depth of relationship God desires to have with us? There’s a reason Christ calls the church His “bride.” There’s a reason God so often refers to Himself in the Old Testament as a “husband” and Israel as his “wife.” Marriage is the place where a man and a woman become “one flesh” before the Lord and it is designed to point beyond itself to something even greater...the “oneness” God desires to have with His people for all eternity.  

Readings for tomorrow: None

Personal God

Readings for today: Psalms 111-118

Christians believe in a personal God. Not a private god. Not a cosmic butler. Not a divine ATM machine. But a God who is personal, present, and who fulfills His promises. Today’s reading is a good one. In so many of the Psalms, God reveals His heart to us. He is a God who is with us. He is a God who is for us. He is a God who is at work in us. He will never leave our side. He will never let us go. He will never give up on us. 

“This God of Grace, this God of Love. He gave food to those who fear him, He remembered to keep his ancient promise…He paid the ransom for his people, He ordered his Covenant kept forever. He’s so personal and holy, worthy of our respect.” (Psalms‬ ‭111‬:‭4-5, 9‬ ‭MSG‬‬) God’s covenant with us in no way depends on us! What a glorious truth! It is completely and utterly dependent on the steadfast, faithful, fiercely loyal love of God!

“God is higher than anything and anyone, outshining everything you can see in the skies. Who can compare with God, our God, so majestically enthroned, Surveying his magnificent heavens and earth? He picks up the poor from out of the dirt, rescues the forgotten who’ve been thrown out with the trash, Seats them among the honored guests, a place of honor among the brightest and best. He gives childless couples a family, gives them joy as the parents of children. Hallelujah!” (Psalms‬ ‭113‬:‭4‬-‭9‬ ‭MSG‬‬) The Lord is especially tender towards those in great need. The poor. The needy. The barren. The hurting. The struggling. The depressed. The anxious. The lonely. God sees you! God looks down on your broken condition and He is at work to raise you up! There is nothing hidden from God. No secret pain or heartache. No injustice. No unrighteousness. The Lord sees it all and He will set all things right!

“I love God because he listened to me, listened as I begged for mercy. He listened so intently as I laid out my case before him.” (Psalms‬ ‭116‬:‭1‬-‭2 MSG‬‬) God hears every cry. God sees every tear. God knows every anxious thought. God feels all our pain. And He inclines His ear towards us. He doesn’t force us to come to His level. Doesn’t require us to ascend the heavens to gain an audience with Him. He inclines. He descends. He listens closely. Intently. He gathers His beloved into His arms and leans in to make sure He hears every word. Every thought. Every prayer. 

By the time you get to Psalm 118, it’s like the Psalmist can’t help himself. The words tumble over each other. Promise after promise. Declaration after declaration. So much to praise God for! So much to thank God for! One of the best ways to read the Psalms is back to back to back and let the words wash over you. Let them fill you. Let them give you confidence today. Let them give you strength. 

The Lord is on my side. 

The Lord is my helper.  

The Lord is my strength.

The Lord is my song. 

The Lord is my salvation.

Claim these promises as your own today. Let them guide you through each and every challenge. Each and every crisis. Each and every circumstance of your life.  

Readings for tomorrow: 1 Kings 1-2, Psalms 37, 71, 94