He Is A Bridegroom
Dana Candler
"You have ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse; You have ravished my heart with one look of your eyes..." (Song Sol. 4:9).
The heart of God is ravished with enjoyment and delight over His people. We cannot pass by this quickly. We have known the concept of His love, yes, but often this very knowing and familiarity is what hinders us from ever entering into the depths and actually drinking from the deep wells of Love's plentitude. We cannot let common words stand-in for experienced realities. To say that He loves me is a familiar notion indeed, but to pursue, know and experience His love is a rare preoccupation. Our familiarity with the words deceives us into thinking we have personally known the exceedingly vast riches that lie beyond the realm of language and in the eternal deep of God's heart. We confuse the hearing of a concept with the actual abiding of that reality inside of us. Yet His Love is a realm that transcends all mental comprehension and leaves all utterance ashamedly barren. It is to this unknown world of eternal pleasures that we give ourselves as we begin our pilgrimage into His ravished heart.
God describes His Love in the Word as surpassing knowledge (Eph 3:19). Paul proclaims, "'...Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him'" (1 Cor. 2:9). A raging River of affections surges within His heart. It is a holy, violent flow of love. Daniel beheld a fiery stream coming forth from before the throne of the Ancient of Days. In Psalm 36, David describes a glorious river of pleasures, the very fountain of life that God causes His people to drink from. This river of desire within His heart is the one route into the place of intimacy that we long for. We can hear a thousand teachings and read a hundred books, but we will only find the satisfaction of our search in the deep of His heart. We must plunge the Person of Jesus Christ. It is not casually or from a distance that we dive into the depths of these vast regions, but rather we enter this Ocean by a focused abandonment, a violent pursuit and a lifelong drinking.
We were made for this love. Our entire story is wrapped up within its tale. For love we were created, and in love is our eternal testimony. It is our reason, our purpose, our end and our beginning. We have heard with our ears of a God of love, and we have known with our minds that in this love is our life, but have we yet been embraced by Love Himself? Have we deeply considered love's mysterious nature that has caused the entire purpose of mankind to be a stunning narrative of holy romance? Have we been overcome with delight and wonder at the boldness of Love's pursuit? Indeed, we have not yet even begun to search its treasuries. Language we have, perhaps, but the living glories of Love's delights we have only just begun to peer into. Though love is our eternal story, we do not yet even slightly recognize or know it. This is the journey we are embarking upon. It is the voyage into Love Himself.
The Everlasting Story
To begin the great story of our existence we must start at the end. For the end of natural history best unveils the beginning and all that lies between. The end of our story, as recorded in Revelation 19, is a glorious wedding day. This passage magnificently announces the ultimate purpose of all creation and the natural order. It reveals the day when the bride of Christ meets her heavenly Bridegroom and the marriage covenant is established.
In this passage, we find a great multitude gathered together on the sea of glass like crystal. The Body of Christ, all the saints from all history, will finally be assembled together for the first time. An anticipation that has been building for thousands of years will fill the air as each person looks around in wonder, beholding with natural eyes for the first time what he or she had only ever peered into with eyes of faith. Our voice of one will sound from the throne of God, saying, "Praise our God, all you His servants and those who fear Him, both small and great!" God will fling wide the great door of invitation and beckon believers to release the song of their heart to Jesus, the Desire of All Nations! Together, we will ascribe our love and declare our affections to the One who is beautiful and glorious!
This wondrous end of natural history was purposed from before there was time. In the mysteries of eternity past, God the Father, God the Son and the Holy Spirit dwelled in unsurpassed union and intimacy. The Holy Three have always existed as a divine dance of romance, a whirlwind of affection and pleasure and love unending. It was from this pulsating intimacy that God created humanity and the natural order. Though we will always remain the creation, He formed humanity to enter into relationship with the Trinity, the Godhead. In His great mysterious heart was a desire to bring human beings into the holy river of affections known between Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and to share in this Divine communion with them. The Father desired a family, and the Son desired a bride. From this overflow of burning desire, humanity was brought forth.
Yet it was not without a determined price established before creation that this glorious union would come to pass. It was for this ultimate end and purpose of eternal intimacy between God and man that the Lamb was slain before the foundations of the world (Rev. 13:8). To bring humanity into this astounding position of nearness with Himself, Jesus was crucified, and we were hidden in Him (Col. 3:3). It was for the joy set before Him, His eternal inheritance promised Him by His Father, that He endured the cross. He had the power to lay down His life and the power to take it up again, and He laid it down by His own choosing (John 10:18). Taking upon Himself our punishment, we are clothed in the very righteousness of Christ, justified freely by His grace and given eternal peace with God. For He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we might be holy and blameless before Him in love, forever accepted in the Beloved (Eph. 1:6).
When God created Adam, He said to him, "I will make a partner suitable to you." The Holy Spirit revealed to Paul that this promise ultimately speaks of Jesus and the church (Eph. 5:32). When God said this to Adam, He was declaring the hidden purpose of His heart from eternity past, the mystery of the ages, to bring forth for His Son His own bride that would be a fitting and suitable companion. He desired to bring forth voluntary lovers of God, entirely possessed by Jesus, a people who chose Him and lived out of the spontaneous overflow of their hearts rather than by mandatory obedience. The Father has kept this eternal motivation central in His administration and unfolding of all human history. He planned the wedding day, this unprecedented celebration feast, so that we, the dust of the earth, redeemed by the blood of Jesus, could end natural history where we began - in the embrace of the Son of God.
On that final day, Jesus will have affectionate partners who are voluntary lovers fully possessed by Him, and natural history will culminate with a lovesick bride in the image of Jesus, ruling the Kingdom of God with Him! "'Then the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people, the saints of the Most High...'" (Dan. 7:27). Oh how great is the mystery, this hidden plan that God has designed from before the ages!!