THE DIVINE DISPENSING OF THE DIVINE TRINITY FOR THE DIVINE ECONOMY
Message Two
Experiencing the Divine Dispensing of the Divine Trinity by Living in the Divine Romance
Scripture Reading: Eph. 3:14-19; S. S. 1:2-3; 3:6; 4:7, 15; 6:4; 8:6-7; Rev. 19:7; 21:2
I. The Bible is a romance, in the most pure and the most holy sense, of a universal couple—God in Christ as the Bridegroom and God's redeemed people as the bride—John 3:29; Matt. 25:6; Rev. 19:7; 21:2; 22:17:
A. Throughout the centuries, God has had a romance with man; He created man with the purpose of having a counterpart—v. 17.
B. God is a lover, and He created man in the image of Himself as a lover; this means that He created man so that man would love Him—Mark 12:30; Eph. 3:14-19.
C. The entire Bible is a divine romance, and Song of Songs is an abridged form of this romance—1:2-3; 8:14:
1. The Bible is a romantic book, and our relationship with the Lord should become more and more romantic—S. S. 4:7.
2. If there is no romance between us and the Lord Jesus, then we are religious Christians, not romantic Christians—1:2-3.
3. As a whole, the Bible is a word of the divine courtship; in the Bible we see that God is seeking our love—2 Cor. 11:2.
D. If we would keep God's courting word, we need a responsive, affectionate love for Him; this kind of responsive, affectionate love is depicted in Song of Songs, where we have a portrait of the love between the Beloved and His love—1:2-4; 2 Cor. 5:14-15; John 14:21, 23:
1. The subject of Song of Songs is the history of love in an excellent marriage, revealing the progressive experience of an individual believer's loving fellowship with Christ—1:2.
2. Song of Songs is a marvelous and vivid portrait, in poetic form, of the bridal love between Christ as the Bridegroom and His lovers as His bride—2:4; 6:3; 7:11-12; 8:5-6, 14.
II. In Song of Songs we see the relationship between the experience of the divine dispensing and living in the divine romance:
A. If we really love the Lord, we will surely have the growth and transformation in life—2 Cor. 5:14-15; 3:18.
B. Because the seeking one in Song of Songs loves her beloved so much, she experiences the divine dispensing, and there is a continual change in her growth in life—1:2-3, 4b, 9, 12, 15; 2:2, 14; 3:6-7; 4:7, 12-15; 6:4, 10, 13a.
C. Whatever one loves, his whole heart, even his whole being, is set on and occupied and possessed by—1 Tim. 6:10-11; 2 Tim. 3:2-4; 4:8, 10a; Titus 1:8:
1. "To love God means to set our entire being—spirit, soul, and body, with the heart, soul, mind, and strength (Mark 12:30)—absolutely on Him, that is, to let our entire being be occupied by Him and lost in Him, so that He becomes everything to us and we are one with Him practically in our daily life" (footnote 3 on 1 Cor. 2:9).
2. To love the Lord Jesus is to appreciate Him, to direct our being toward Him, to open to Him, to enjoy Him, to give Him the first place, to be one with Him, to live Him, and to become Him—Matt. 26:6-13; 2 Cor. 3:16; Mark 12:30; Col. 1:18; 1 Cor. 6:17; Phil. 1:20-21; Hymns, #477, stanza 2.
III. Tirzah and Jerusalem signify God's sanctuary, God's dwelling place, with God's holy city surrounding it to be its safeguard—S. S. 6:4a:
A. When the lover of Christ becomes one with God to be God's dwelling place, in the eyes of God she is as beautiful as Tirzah and as lovely as Jerusalem.
B. Through her living in Christ's ascension in resurrection, the lover of Christ becomes mature in the riches of the life of Christ so that she becomes the building of God, the sanctuary of God and its safeguard—cf. Gen. 2:8-12, 18-24; 1 Cor. 3:9-12.
C. The lover of Christ lives in the Holy of Holies, the inner chamber of the heavenly sanctuary, within the veil, experiencing the ascension of Christ through the cross after her experience of His resurrection—S. S. 4:8.
D. By loving the Lord with the best love, we are incorporated into the Triune God to become His dwelling place—Rev. 2:4; John 14:20-21, 23; Eph. 3:17:
1. It is the love in God that gives Him the yearning to unite, mingle, and incorporate with us, and it is the same love in us that gives us the yearning to unite, mingle, and incorporate with Him—1 John 4:19, 8, 16.
2. By loving the Lord with the best love and by participating in every aspect of the divine romance, we become the New Jerusalem, which is the enlarged Holy of Holies—S. S. 1:2-3; 2:14; 4:8; 6:4; Rev. 21:9-10.
E. To become the sanctuary of God is to be built up (related to the building up of the Body of Christ) in the growth in the life of Christ with its unsearchable riches unto maturity—Eph. 4:12-16:
1. In the Old Testament the building of God is typified by Tirzah and Jerusalem; in the New Testament it is the organic Body of Christ—Eph. 4:16.
2. The building up of the Body is organic and depends on our growth and maturity in life—v. 15.
3. Ultimately, this building up of the organic Body of Christ, which is also Christ's wife (5:25-32), will consummate the New Jerusalem, the holy city as the consummation of the Holy of Holies, the mutual dwelling of God and His redeemed in eternity—Rev. 21:2-3, 16, 22.
IV. In the maturity of Christ's life, the lover of Christ becomes the Shulammite, signifying that she has become the reproduction and duplication of Christ to match Him for their marriage—S. S. 6:13:
A. The Bible tells us repeatedly that God's intention is to make Himself one with us and to make us one with Him—the same in life and nature but not in the Godhead—Rev. 21:2; 22:17.
B. When we consider how to arrive at the high peak of the divine revelation—God becoming man to make man God in life and nature—we should not trust in ourselves but depend on the Lord as love, power, and mercy to make us vessels of mercy, honor, and glory—S. S. 8:5-6.