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Household Fellowship |
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07/15/2007 |
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Website：www.ChurchinNutley.org E-mail：ChurchinNutley@yahoo.com |
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Church Burden: The Romance of the Bible
The Bible is a romance. Have you ever heard this before? It may sound secular and unreligious.
However, if you have entered into the deep thought of the Bible, you will
realize that the Bible is a romance, in the most pure and the most holy sense,
of a universal couple.
God in
Christ as the Bridegroom The male of this couple is God Himself. Although He is a divine Person, He desires to be the male of this universal couple. This very God, after a long
process, has resulted in
Christ as the Bridegroom.
God's
Redeemed People as the Bride The female of this couple is a corporate human being, od's redeemed people, including all the saints of
the Old Testament and the New Testament. After a long process this corporate
person results in the New Jerusalem as the Bride.
This holy romance is repeatedly revealed throughout the Old Testament. Immediately after the record of God's creation, we
find the story of a marriage (Gen. 2:21-25). In this marriage Adam is the type
of Christ as the husband, and Eve is the type of the church as the wife. In
Ephesians 5 we see the couple typified by Adam and Eve--Christ and the church. The
type of Adam and Eve reveals that the persons of this universal couple must be
of the same source. God created one person, Adam, and out from this person a
wife came. Eve was not created separately by God; she came out of Adam. Eve was
made out of a rib, a piece of bone, that came from Adam, indicating that both
Adam and Eve proceeded out of the same source. In this universal couple the
wife must come out of the husband. Likewise, the church must come out of
Christ. The two persons of this couple must be of the same source. They also
must be of one nature. Furthermore they must share one common life. Adam's
nature and life were also Eve's. Eve had the same nature and life as Adam. The
two persons of this couple were of one source, of one nature, and had the same one
life. Without doubt, they also had one living. They lived together. Eve lived
by Adam and with Adam, and Adam lived by Eve and with Eve.
This couple is the secret of the universe. The secret of the whole
universe is that God and His chosen ones are to be one couple. Hallelujah! We,
God's chosen ones, and God are of one source, of one nature, and have one life.
Now we also need to have one living. We are not living by ourselves or for
ourselves; we are living with God and for God, and God is living with us and
for us. Hallelujah!
Several times in the Old Testament God referred to Himself as the
Husband and to His people as His wife (Isa. 54:5; 62:5; Jer. 2:2; 3:1, 14;
31:32; Eze. 16:8; 23:5; Hosea 2:7, 19). God was desirous of being a husband and
of having His people as His wife. ….Our God
certainly is the Almighty God, and, as His creatures, we must worship Him. Many
verses speak about worshipping God in this way. However, have you never read in
Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Hosea that God desires to be a husband? In
ancient times God's people built the temple and established a system of worship
complete with priesthood and sacrifices. One day God intervened and spoke
through Isaiah saying, "I am tired of this. I am weary with your
sacrifices. I want you to love Me. I am your Husband, and you must be My wife.
I want to have a marriage life. I am lonely. I need you. I need you, My chosen
people, to be My wife."
In the case of Adam and Eve we saw that the couple had one source, one
nature, one life, and one living. In Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Hosea we
saw that God desires to have a wife who will live together with Him. God longs
to have a marriage life, to have divinity live together with humanity. But His
people failed Him. In Song of Songs, however, we see the genuine marriage life.
What is the secret of such a romance? The secret is that the wife must take her
husband not only as her life and her living, but as her person.
Now we need to consider this romance as it is portrayed in the New
Testament. a. Christ as the Bridegroom in the Gospels There is no
doubt that the gospels give us a full record of Christ as our Savior. However,
have you noticed that the four gospels also tell us that Christ has come as the
Bridegroom (Matt. 9:15; Mark 2:19; Luke 5:34; John 3:29)? He has come for His
bride. When the disciples of John the Baptist saw many people forsaking John to
follow the Lord Jesus, John told them not to be troubled, that Christ is the Bridegroom,
and that all the increase belongs to Him (John 3:30). The Bridegroom has come
for the bride. What is the bride? The bride is the increase of Christ. Each of the
four gospels presents Christ as the Bridegroom coming for the bride.
In the epistles Christ and the church are portrayed as husband and wife
(Eph. 5:25-32; 2 Cor. 11:2). The epistles clearly liken Christ and the church
to husband and wife. If we know what is unfolded in the epistles, we will see
that Christ is revealed in them as our Husband and that the believers are
revealed as His counterpart, as His wife. We must be one with Him in source, in
nature, in life, and in daily living.
In the book of Revelation Christ is unveiled as having a wedding (Rev.
19:7) and the New Jerusalem is presented as His wife (Rev. 21:2, 9). In chapter
19 of Revelation we see that Christ will enjoy a wedding feast, and in chapter 21
we see that the New Jerusalem will be His wife. In Revelation 21 and 22, the
last two chapters of the Bible, we see that the ultimate consummation of the
whole Bible is this universal couple--the husband and the wife. (Life Study of Roman # 1)
Prayer Items
July 15, 2007