The relationship that God wants to have with man is of love, and the Bible is a book of romance, for God created us not only to be in His image and with His likeness but that we would become the counterpart of Christ.
In the Old Testament in particular we see that God came to choose Israel not only to be His people and enter into the good land, but that they would be His wife.
In Jer. 31:3 Jehovah expressed His love toward the people of Israel, telling them that He has loved them with an eternal love and has drawn them with lovingkindness.
When God delivered His people out of Egypt and brought them through the wilderness to the good land, He was courting them, dating them, and He even gave them an engagement contract, the law, to betroth them to Himself.
When God saw Israel in the wilderness, He loved her; He passed by her and saw that it was a time of love, and He spread His skirt over them and covered their nakedness, and He swore to them and entered into a covenant with them (see Ezek. 16:8).
God didn’t only create us in His image and with His likeness, but He loved us, and He wants to call a group of people to Himself for them not only to worship Him and obey Him but love Him and be married to Him as His wife, His counterpart.
In His essence and being God is perfect and complete, having no need of anyone or anything; in His economy, however, He is a Bachelor, and He is looking for a counterpart.
Just as Adam was not complete until Eve was produced and came to him, so God in His economy is not complete until the church as His spiritual people is produced, built up, sanctified, and glorified, and she is brought to Him to be His counterpart, His wife.
Just as Isaac was not complete and fully happy until Abraham sent his servant to find, redeem, and bring Rebekah to him to be his wife, so Christ in His economy is not fully complete and happy until the church is redeemed, transformed, and glorified to be His wife for their married life together.
As believers in Christ we have entered into a love relationship with the Lord; we have received His life, just as Eve received Adam’s life, and we are now in the process of being produced as His counterpart, His wife.
It is by this life, the divine life we have received through regeneration, that we are enabled to be one with God and God is able to be one with us.
As we love the Lord as our Husband and partake of His life and nature, we become one with Him to be His counterpart as His enlargement and expression. Praise the Lord!
God chose Israel to be His Spouse, and the Church is the Counterpart of Christ
In the Old Testament we see that God chose Israel to be not only His people, those set aside from all nations unto Himself to worship Him and serve Him, but also His wife, His spouse.
He gave them the law as an engagement contract, and He wanted to get the children of Israel not merely to outwardly obey the law and thus be obedient to Him, but to love Him most of all.
There are so many verses in the Bible, especially in the prophets, that show us God’s intention to be the Husband and the people of Israel to be His spouse (Hosea 2:19-20; Jer. 2:2; 31:3; Ezek. 16:8; Gen. 24:67; 41:45; Ruth 4:13; 1 Sam. 25:40-42; S.S. 6:13).
Also, there are quite a few spouses in the Old Testament that are a type of the church as the counterpart of Christ.
We may read about the many rich aspects of the church in the New Testament, but as we study these types in the Old Testament, we will see a more vivid and colorful picture of the church as the counterpart of Christ.
The church as the counterpart of Christ is typified by Eve as the counterpart of Adam (see Gen. 2:21-24; Eph. 5:23-32). Eve was not created by God; she was built from the rib which God took from Adam’s side, and she was brought to him after he woke up from the deep sleep.
Adam is a type of Christ; He came as God becoming man , and on the cross He died (He went into a deep sleep). Through Christ’s death the divine life within Him was released, and through His resurrection His released divine life was imparted into His believers for the constituting of the church.
This means that the church is Christ, just as Eve is Adam; the church comes out of Christ, just as Eve came out of Adam. The church is the counterpart of Christ; the church is the Christ, the Body-Christ. So today we need more of Christ; we need to let Christ make His home in our heart, and we need to pursue to gain this Christ so that we can be the church.
Rebekah typifies the church as the counterpart of Christ being chosen from the world (see Gen. 24:67). Abraham typifies God the Father, the servant typifies God the Spirit, Isaac typifies God the Son, and Rebekah typifies us, the chosen people of God, who are becoming the counterpart of Christ.
The entire New Testament is a record of the Triune God working together to gain many from among men to be part of the bride, the counterpart, of Christ the Son (see John 3:29; 2 Cor. 11:2; Eph. 5:25-32; Rev. 19:7-9; 21:2, 9-10).
In Rebekah’s case in particular we see that we have been chosen from among men to be part of the counterpart of Christ, the church. Ruth typifies the church as the counterpart of Christ being redeemed (Ruth 4:13).
Ruth was a Moabitess, but she was redeemed to be part of the people of God, and she even became a grandmother of the Lord Jesus. First, she gained a redeeming husband, Boaz, who typifies Christ as the redeeming Husband of the believers (Rom. 7:4).
Then, she was redeemed from her debt, which shows that we as believers were redeemed by Christ from the sin of our old man. Finally, she became an ancestor in the genealogy that brought forth Christ; we are redeemed not only to be saved from sin but to be the counterpart of Christ, the church.
Thank You Lord Jesus for choosing us and redeeming us to make us the church, the counterpart of Christ. Thank You for dying for us to redeem us. Thank You for releasing Your divine life to regenerate us and make us Your counterpart. Hallelujah, we have been regenerated with the divine life and we are now part of the corporate Christ, the Body-Christ, who is becoming the bride of Christ as His counterpart! Amen, Lord Jesus, keep us enjoying You, loving You, and allowing You to make Your home in our heart until we are fully matured and produced as Your counterpart!
As the Counterpart of Christ, we need to be Romantic Christians Loving the Lord as our Bridegroom
The divine romance – of which the entire Bible speaks, from Genesis to Revelation – is portrayed in a vivid way in the book of Song of Songs (see S. S. 1:2-4).
This book is a marvelous and vivid portrait of the bridal love between Christ as the Bridegroom and His lovers as His bride in their mutual enjoyment in the mingling of His divine attributes with the human virtues of His lovers (see S. S. 1:15-16; 4:7, 10-15; 5:1-2; 6:4, 10).
The relationship between God and His people, as portrayed in a poetic form in Song of Songs, is not that of a boyfriend-girlfriend but of a marriage love, a bridal love between Christ as the Bridegroom and us as His bride.
According to this book, we as believers in Christ should love the Lord and be romantic with Him in our relationship with Him. If there’s no romance between us and the Lord, we are religious Christians and not lovers of Christ.
When we see how much the Lord loves us, how He courts us and woos us, and how He is everything to us to bring us to Himself and even into Himself to make us the counterpart of Christ, we cannot but love the Lord.
If we pray and read the book of Song of Songs, we will become romantic believers, those who are besides themselves with love for Him.
The Bible is a divine romance, and our relationship with the Lord should become more and more romantic. The Lord Jesus came not only as our Redeemer, as the Lamb of God, as the Savior, as the Shepherd, or as our life, but even more – He came as the Bridegroom, and we are His bride.
He who has the bride is the bridegroom, said John the Baptist, who was a friend of the Bridegroom, and so he rejoiced to see the Lord (John 3:29).
The goal of our being regenerated is to be produced and prepared as the counterpart of Christ, the bride for the Bridegroom.
We need to pray that the church life will be full of romantic brothers and sisters, romantic believers, those who live every day in the reality of the divine romance.
May not a day pass by without loving the Lord and being in a personal, affectionate, spiritual, and intimate relationship with Him.
Our romantic relationship with the Lord is the underpinning of our Christian life and church life; if we don’t have this, we don’t have a Christian life or church life to speak about.
Every day we need to wake up and tell the Lord how much we love Him; we need to be daily in love with Him, being bound by His jealousy.
In the book of Song of Songs we are told that love is as strong as death, and jealousy is as cruel as Sheol.
Death is one of the strongest powers there is; when death calls, you don’t negotiate or wait, but it takes you forever.
In a poetic form, the Lord’s love is as strong as death – it sweeps us away, it is so powerful that it takes us away forever! And His jealousy is powerful to hold us loving the Lord.
May we as the counterpart of Christ give ourselves to love the Lord and be romantic Christians with Him!
Lord Jesus, we love You! Kiss us with the kisses of Your mouth, for Your love is better than wine. Lord, we give ourselves to love You today. May we advance in the divine romance as we spend intimate, personal, affectionate, spiritual time with You day by day in private. Amen, dear Lord Jesus, You are our Bridegroom, and we are Your bride. Keep us in Your love and hold us here loving You by Your jealousy. May we no longer be religious Christians but romantic Christians, those who daily live in the divine romance with our Lord Jesus Christ!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Minoru Chen for this week, and portions from, Three Aspects of the Church, Book 1: The Meaning of the Church, chs. 7-8 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallisation-Study of Numbers (1), week 4, The Lord’s Jealousy over the Church as His Wife.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Through shadows, types and figures, / God’s deepest thought is known; / As typified by Adam, / The Husband, Christ, is shown. / A rib brought forth from Adam / Reveals the source of life / By which God built a woman: / Eve, as the church, His wife. (Song on, The Bible is a romance)
# Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth! / For your love is better than wine. / Your name is like ointment poured forth; / Therefore the virgins love you. (Scripture song, Song of Songs 1:2-4, 7-8)
# From death You ’rose and entered me, / I now possess Your divinity; / In life and nature we’re the same: / Both human and divine. / In Your love I’m drawn, / To You I belong; / I am not my own, Lord, / I’m Yours alone. (Song on, The Divine Romance)
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