The Lord Jesus regenerates the church so that the church may be His bride (John 3:3, 5, 29-30). The Lord is the Bridegroom with the divine life and the divine nature. If we would become His bride, we must also have the divine life and the divine nature. For this, regeneration is necessary. Apart from possessing this life and nature, we could never become Christ’s counterpart. In John 3 we see that regeneration qualifies us to be Christ’s bride. Only after we have been regenerated with the divine life and have thereby received the divine nature can we, sinners, be taken by Christ to be His love. He is so high, possessing the divine life and nature, and we are so low. How can we become His counterpart? This is possible only by regeneration. Through regeneration we receive another life, the divine life. In this life and by this life we are qualified to become Christ’s counterpart and to match Him.
At the end of this age, Christ will come to marry His redeemed and to take her as His wife (Rev. 19:7). The present age is an age of “dating,” courtship, and engagement between God and His people. At the end of this dispensation, there will be a glorious wedding day, at which time Christ will marry His redeemed ones. This revelation of the marriage between Christ and His redeemed ones is a major revelation in the Bible.
At the very end of the Bible we see that God will enjoy a married life with His people in eternity and for eternity. For eternity in the new heaven and new earth, the New Jerusalem will be the wife of the Lamb (Rev. 21:9). This is the fulfillment of God’s romance revealed in the Scriptures.
The entire Bible is a divine romance. This means that the Bible is a very romantic book. This is true in particular of Song of Songs. Certain modernists doubt whether Song of Songs should be included in the Bible. Even some proper Christian teachers have had doubts about this book. When I was young, I also wondered why such a book is in the Bible, a book concerned with a romance between a man and a woman. This book is a portrait of the love relationship between us and Christ. According to Song of Songs, our relationship with the Lord should be very romantic. If there is no romance between us and the Lord Jesus, then we are religious Christians, not romantic Christians. If you wish to know what I mean by romance, I would encourage you to read and pray-read Song of Songs. Pray-reading this book of romance will cause you to become romantic with the Lord. You will be beside yourself with love for Him. The Bible is a divine romance, and our relationship with the Lord should become more and more romantic.
As a divine romance, the Bible is a full record of God’s wooing, even of His “dating,” of man. Again and again in the Scriptures, God comes to man in this way. Two examples are God’s coming to Jacob at Bethel the first time (Gen. 28:10-22) and also the second time (Gen. 35:9-15). Another example is God’s coming to Moses at Mount Horeb (Exo. 3:1-17).
The Bible is also full of God’s courting of man. As a young man wants to give constant attention to the woman he is courting, even to the point of bothering her, so the Lord “bothers” us by courting us. The Bible records God’s courtship of His people. In the New Testament we see that when the Lord Jesus called His disciples, He was courting them. Again and again, the Lord Jesus bothered Peter in this courting way. It is significant that it was not Peter who came to the Lord; it was the Lord who came to Peter. In John 21 the Lord inquired of Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these?” (v. 15). Twice more the Lord asked him, “Do you love Me?” (vv. 16, 17). By asking these questions of Peter, the Lord Jesus was courting him. He did not want Peter to love Him as a child honoring a parent, a friend caring for another friend, or a rich person pitying a poor person. Instead, the Lord wanted Peter to love Him with an affectionate love, with a love like that of a young woman for the man who loves her.
We should not read John 21 apart from John 3. The One who was asking Peter if he loved Him was the very Bridegroom who came to have the bride. Based upon the revelation of the Lord Jesus as the Bridegroom in John 3, we see that His conversation with Peter in chapter twenty-one was conducted in the way of courtship.
The same is true of the Lord’s word in John 14:21 and 23. In verse 21 the Lord says, “He who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me; and he who loves Me shall be loved by My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself to him.” This is a word spoken by the Bridegroom to His bride. It is a word of “dating” and of courtship. In verse 23 the Lord continues, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make an abode with him.” The Father and Son making an abode with the one who loves the Lord Jesus is a reference to living together in married life. To share the same abode with the Lord Jesus is to live with Him as His spouse.
Although the Lord often spoke as a Bridegroom conversing with His bride, not many Christians have realized this aspect of His word. The tendency has been to take the Lord’s word in an altogether different sense. Therefore, I hope that this word concerning God’s “dating” and courting of His people will revolutionize our concept. The Lord’s coming to us is His “dating” and courting of us.