The Romance of Christ

I’ve got to be honest with you, I think Valentines Day is kind of weird. Now many of you will simply accuse me of being a bitter single young man, but I really just find the whole day sort of bizarre. Once a year on this one day everybody must celebrate their love in a special way. Now I know its not bad because my Dad takes my Mom out for Valentine’s day, and he’s not being insincere at all – He really loves her a ton. It's just weird we institutionalized a day of love. On the flip side, I do love getting all candy that it brings, although Valentines Day is notorious for bringing out the worst candy of all time…even worse than Twizzlers. I swear those little nasty heart candies are literally be made of chalk. Sidewalk chalk.

Anyways, Valentines Day made me ponder what romantic love really is from a Christian perspective. Now seeing as I’m not married or dating, I’m probably not a very reputable person to pursue this thought process, but I did so anyways. Obviously romance is very important, since God is the creator of romantic love. The Bible is full of romantic love (Song of Solomon) and romantic stories (Ruth and Boaz). Romance is the original foundation of mankind’s interaction with one another as marriage, not cities, government or friendship, lays the groundwork for human society in Genesis. In fact, romance is so important that the passionate love Christ extends to the Body of Christ is described as the intense love found in marriage between a husband and wife. We see a beautiful picture of romance in Christ standing as the groom, and we his bride. Clearly, romance is important to God and to Christians.

Yet, I think we often miss out on what romance is. We have bought into the worlds skewed vision of romance as something that is “sexy” rather than something truly beautiful. The world’s romance is a weak and hollow shadow of the deep and mysterious love that Christ extends to the Church. If you ask somebody what it means to be romantic most will probably croon a sentence littered with the words “cute”, “sweet” and “adorable”, but few talk about sacrifice or serving. We have taken romance and “sexed” it up by dressing it in jewelry, bouquets of flowers and chocolate. Now I’ve got no problem with chocolate, but we have far too many men in the world buying lots of chocolate but failing to sacrificing everything to love their wives in radical ways for the glory of God. Buying flowers is great, but “loving your wife as Christ loved the Church” is a whole lot better. Now I’m not married and certainly don’t claim to be an expert on love, romance or relationships. I don’t know much about any of that. But I do know Jesus, and I know how He has pursued me. I know how He sacrificed EVERYTHING to love me, and serves me with radical humility. I know he shed blood that I might breath life, and I know he took a beating that I might be safe. I know he experienced incomprehensible pain simply so I wouldn’t have to. I know He died for me, so that I could live – and I think this is romance.

I know gifts are a great way to express love, and I know that nobody is perfect and able to love exactly as Christ loved. But I do think we could focus a lot more on humbly serving our loved ones. I think the image of Christ washing his disciples feet is a better image of romance than a massive boquet of roses. It’s not that roses are bad at all, I just think laying down your life is whole a lot cooler. No need to pick and choose though - buy the girl her roses, but then wash her feet and serve her with radical humility.

“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.”

Ephesians 5:25-27

Maybe this is romance. It is strong, it is powerful, and it transforms. It refines and it sanctifies, and it brings God glory. Or maybe I’m wrong and romance is something else altogether, but I’m pretty sure it’s not chocolate, and it’s certainly not those nasty candy hearts made of chalk. Seriously, they are so bad…

Spoken Into Love

In the beginning, there was nothing. Then God spoke, and there was something. The words of God have the power to form, create and define.

God created ex nihilo - out of nothing. There was literally nothing in existence, then He spoke and creation took form. His words create. They give form and definition. They give matter and speak the essence of a thing. Light had never existed before but when God spoke it into existence it found its form, its purpose, its definition, its substance and its very essence.

Speaking creation into existence is remarkable; a beautiful miracle that clearly reveals the authority, power and creativity of our God. However, the power of God’s words to create brings us to a new level of awe when we begin to ponder the implications of what God has spoken to us.

God has called us His “Beloved” (Romans 9:25). We were enemies of God, dirty and filthy, drinking damnation upon ourselves. We were prodigals sons hiding in the shadows where we might feast and fulfill the lusts of our heart. We were lost in the wilderness, wandering aimlessly wherever our cravings led us. Yet, God did not abandon us in our wretched state, but instead God has called us His “Beloved”. He has called us Beloved, so that is what we are. That is our identity. God said “let there be light” and there was light, and so when God says “You are my Beloved”, we are his His Beloved. It’s as simple as that. His words create, they form and they define. God speaks, and it is so. So, when God calls us His Beloved, something remarkable happens. I true transformation, or recreation occurs. Though we were once enemies of God, that is no more, and we become new creations who are clean and loved. We become God’s Beloved. Not for what we do, but simply for being - it becomes our being.

God’s Beloved. This is our identity. It is our essence and it defines our purpose. We are His Beloved, his friends, his children. Our sin weighed heavy on our souls and we sunk deep into the mire, but his voice called out to us amidst the darkness and now, under this new name we become an new creation as God once again spoke the impossible into reality. With the burden of sin tied securely to our back there was no way to become lovable, but then out of the silence He spoke and we emerged as new creations. Children of God who are cleansed and loved. He has spoken, we are new.

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come."

2 Corinthians 5:17

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I read an article by Henri Nouwen that was really encouraging in this thought process. Also check out this blog written by somebody MUCH smarter than me here.