SERIES
Sojourn: Toward an Enduring City
2017-03-05T11:00:00-06:00
22 At that time the Feast of Dedication took place at Jerusalem. It was winter, 23 and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the colonnade of Solomon. 24 So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” 25 Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name bear witness about me,26 but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep.27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.30 I and the Father are one.”
31 The Jews picked up stones again to stone him. 32 Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me?”33 The Jews answered him, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.” 34 Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I said, you are gods’?35 If he called them gods to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be broken—36 do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’?37 If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me;38 but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.”39 Again they sought to arrest him, but he escaped from their hands.
40 He went away again across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing at first, and there he remained. 41 And many came to him. And they said, “John did no sign, but everything that John said about this man was true.” 42 And many believed in him there.
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright (c)2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. http://www.esv.org
On Sunday, Mark read a quote from a book on marriage by Dan Allender called, Intimate Allies. Allender not only acknowledges the comparison between human marriage and God’s love for the Church, but he broadens the scope to make marriage a way of understanding the message of the Bible as a whole. He writes,
“The Bible is neither a marriage manual, nor a systematic statement of how to live. It is a love story, revealing the intimate relationship between God and His people. This divine-human marriage begins with fresh romance, devolves into a divorce, and then ends with a wedding. The Bible’s love story illumines the heart of our divine Lover, exposes our spiritual adultery, and woos us with the wonder of our Bridegroom’s persistent, unending love.”
To view the Bible as a story of love and marriage between God and His people is one that is certainly legitimate. The analogy of human marriage and Christ’s relationship to the Church is seen especially in books like Genesis, Hosea, Ephesians, and Revelation. But viewing the Bible as a story of love and marriage is also powerful. To use phrases like, “love story,” “fresh romance,” and “divine Lover,” gives a startling reminder of the relational and emotional dynamics between God and His people portrayed from Genesis to Revelation.
But what is perhaps most startling is how Allender describes our sin: he calls it, “spiritual adultery” which results in “a divorce.” As common as adultery and divorce are in our culture, the words themselves still evoke a sense of scandal and pain in us. To be accused of physical adultery and threatened with divorce is serious, and is no less serious if the adultery and divorce are spiritual. The prophet Hosea levels this exact accusation against Israel, and against us in Hosea 2:1-13. Our sinfulness is adultery (v. 2), and our sins the pursuit of other lovers (v. 7). To those of us quick to minimize our sinfulness and sins (which is all of us), those charges deserve our genuine consideration. And finding them to ring true, they deserve our earnest tears and pleas for mercy.
In Hosea 2:14, Hosea announces God's response to our spiritual adultery, and the first word, “therefore,” appears to be an ominous introduction to judgment. But listen to God’s response, “Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her.” God does not respond with rigid and angry condemnation, but with tender and loving compassion. For while God’s character is one of justice, His mission is one of redemption. So after exposing the scandal of our scandalous sin, God comforts us with the soaring wonder of His grace to us in Jesus Christ. As Allender says, “The Bible’s love story…woos us with the wonder of our Bridegroom’s persistent, unending love.”
Brother and sister, linger long in the wonder of our Bridegroom’s persistent, unending love as told in His Word. Pray for God to reflect your marriage to Him onto your marriage to your earthly spouse. And may the marriages of our church give glory where it is due: to God alone.