Have you ever heard that the Bible is a romance? If you enter into the deep thought of the Bible, you will realize that it is a romance, in the most pure and holy sense, of a universal couple. The male of this couple is God Himself. Although He is a divine Person, He desires to be joined to a counterpart. Through a long process, He has become Christ as the Bridegroom. The female of this couple is a corporate human being, God’s redeemed people, including 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 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 a type of Christ as the husband, and Eve is a type of the church as the wife. Ephesians 5 indicates that Adam and Eve typify Christ and the church. The type of Adam and Eve reveals that the persons of the universal couple must be of the same source. God created one person, Adam, and out from this person a wife came. Eve was made from a rib, a bone, that came out of Adam, indicating that both Adam and Eve issued from the same source. Likewise, the church comes out of Christ (John 19:34). The two persons of the universal couple must be of the same source. It follows that they would also have the same life, nature, and living. Adam and Eve lived together. She lived by him and with him, and he lived by her and with her.

Several times in the Old Testament God through the prophets refers 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; Ezek. 16:8; 23:5; Hosea 2:7, 19). Humanly speaking, we tend to think of God in a religious way as the Almighty and feel compelled to worship Him. But is this what husbands desire from their wives? Suppose your wife thought of you as a giant, bowing herself before you, and kneeling down to worship you. What would you say? You would say, “Silly wife, I don’t need such a worshipper. I need a dear wife to embrace me and kiss me. If you will simply give me a little kiss, I will soar in the air.” Psalm 2:12 says, “Kiss the Son, Lest He be angry.” 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, we also 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, essentially saying, “I am tired of this. I am weary of 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, My chosen people, to be My wife.”

Unique among of the thirty-nine books in the Old Testament, Song of Songs, speaks of two people who fall in love. In this book we find a woman falling in love with a man saying, “Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth!” (1:2). Immediately, her beloved is at hand, and the pronoun changes from he to you. “Your love is better than wine…Your name is like ointment poured forth… Draw me; we will run after you” (vv. 2-4). She did not want him to teach her as a pastor, a preacher, or even an apostle but to draw her. What a romance! We may kiss the Lord by confessing His name (Heb. 13:15; Rom. 10:12) and by simply saying, “Lord Jesus, I love you.”

The first figure to which the beloved in Song of Songs compares his seeking lover is a company of horses (v. 9). Horses are strong, energetic, full of personality, and seek a definite goal of their own. Gradually, by the working of love, the seeker is changed from a company of horses to a lily that is fragrant, beautiful, and blossoming (2:2). She becomes a lily without will, emotion, or person. Eventually, she becomes a pillar (3:6). Although the word pillar denotes something strong, the seeker was likened to a pillar of smoke, not a pillar of marble. She is a pillar of smoke that stands erect and steadfast yet is very flexible. The seeking one in Song of Songs eventually becomes a palanquin to carry her beloved (v. 9). She no longer has a person of her own; her beloved is now the person within her. Later, the seeker becomes a garden growing something to satisfy her beloved (4:12-13). Finally, she becomes a city, like Tirzah and Jerusalem (6:4), signifying the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:2). In Song of Songs 6:1 the seeker’s name is Shulammite, the feminine form of Solomon, indicating that at this point she has become Solomon’s duplication, counterpart, the same as him in life, nature, and expression (cf. Rom. 8:29). She is without any person of her own but has the strong person of Christ within her (Gal. 2:20). This is the holy romance. The secret of this romance is that the wife must take her Husband not only as her life and her living but also as her person.

 

There is no doubt that the four Gospels give us a full record of Christ as our Savior. However, have you noticed that the Gospels also tell us that Christ came as the Bridegroom? Each of the four Gospels presents Christ as the Bridegroom coming for the bride (Matt. 9:15; Mark 2:19; Luke 5:34; John 3:29). 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 (v. 30). The Bridegroom has come for the bride, which is the increase of Christ.

In the Epistles Christ and the church are further revealed as husband and wife (Eph. 5:25-32). The Epistles clearly liken Christ and the church to husband and wife. In 2 Corinthians 11:2 Paul exclaims, “I am jealous over you with a jealousy of God; for I betrothed you to one husband to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.” In the Epistles Christ is revealed as our Husband, and the believers are revealed as His counterpart, His wife. The Epistles also compel us to be one with Christ in life (Col. 3:4), in nature (2 Peter 1:4), and in daily living (Gal. 2:20).

Ultimately, the book of Revelation unveils the wedding feast of Christ (19:7), and presents the New Jerusalem is as His wife (21:2, 9). In Revelation 21 and 22, the last two chapters of the Bible, we see that the ultimate consummation of the whole Scriptures is this universal couple—a husband and wife. The Bible tells us that the two persons of this couple are one (Gen. 2:24; Eph. 5:31). Adam and Eve were one flesh. Christ and His chosen people are one, universal, corporate man with Christ, the Husband, as the Head (4:15) and the church, the wife, as the Body (1:22-23). In Revelation 22:17 the Spirit and the bride, the church, speak together as one person to say, “Come!…Let him who is thirsty come; let him who wills take the water of life freely.” This universal couple is the kernel of the divine revelation in the Word of God. The entire revelation of the Bible shows us a love story, that is, the sovereign Lord, who created the universe and all things, the Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—who went through the processes of incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension, and who ultimately became the life-giving Spirit, is joined in marriage to the created, redeemed, regenerated, transformed, and glorified tripartite man—composed of spirit, soul, and body—who ultimately constitutes the church, the corporate expression of God. In the eternity that is without end, by the divine, eternal, and surpassingly glorious life, they will live a life that is the mingling of God and man as one spirit, a life that is superexcellent and that overflows with blessings and joy! Yes, the Bible is a romance, and it has the most wonderful happy ending!

“Gleanings from the Bible” is a series of articles contributed by a local Christian home meeting group that loves the Lord Jesus, believes that the Bible is God’s Word, and cares for the oneness of the Body of Christ. For more information please visit our website at www.fromhouse2house.org or email us at info@fromhouse2house.org. This article is based in part on footnotes from the Holy Bible Recovery Version published by Living Stream Ministry.