I was considering how God has made his existence known last Sunday and I have been pondering this idea in my head over and over. I am convinced that the words of Peter Kreeft are true in that everything here points either to Heaven or to Hell. Nothing is an end in itself. It points to something beyond itself.
I looked at everything thinking about it pointing beyond itself. I have come to the conclusion that God is the true romantic. I looked at everything I could and considered God telling me through it to look beyond it. (I don’t mean God giving me a personal message, but I mean a message available to anyone.) I considered Heaven being the final consummation of the relationship and thus all here is foreplay.
Instead, we too often act like lovers betraying the one wooing them over by going over to the counterfeit lover. That would be the things of this world in the wrong way that are good or the evils of this world that aren’t good to begin with. One either sides with Satan or Christ in this battle. There is no middle ground.
But in each case of God showing himself, he is like the flirtatious lover. Consider the lady wooing the man over by being as tantalizing as possible. She is saying, “There is more here. I have more for you that you have not see yet. If you like what you see now, wait til you see the whole picture.”
Of course, I don’t mean that in a scandalous sense. I mean that in a holy sense as a lovely woman who is godly should be desirable. In fact, her modesty is what makes her attractive. She is making herself difficult to get to, but at the same time, giving enough to make any guy who is desiring holiness go crazy.
What guy does not desire that? I believe this is what Christ desires for his bride as well. I don’t believe the system of intercourse is an accident. Instead, I believe that it entirely mirrors the way that the love of God is shown to us. It is the imagery he uses in the Bible after all. If there is a part that I don’t understand, it will come.
A lady I often think has the treasure every guy wants. She can look at herself all she wants in her own privacy and she is just as delighted in her beauty as the male is. However, I think as much as she might be familiar with her own self, on a honeymoon night, she learns to see how beautiful she is in a whole new way.
I speculate this is what Christ desires for us. That he desires to take us and unclothe us spiritually and have us standing before him as we are. In fact, we could say this is what happens at the point of conversion. That we allow ourselves to stand before Christ and he takes away our old garments and gives us new ones.
At that point also, he sends his life into us, which is what happens essentially on the honeymoon night. The lady cannot produce new life on her own. She needs the man to send his life into her and then from her will come the new life. When Christ comes to us, he gives us his life and we are now awaiting the final moment.
Which one is that? The same one nature is awaiting. Romans 8 tells us that creation is in birth pangs. We can expect that God will take this creation and unclothe it as well and send his life into it entirely. It will be fully reborn into what it never was before. It will be a reborn creation better than ever.
And the same will happen to us. When the time of birth comes, instead of giving birth to something separate from ourselves, we will have that full life in ourselves. We will be the new creation. Christ’s life will be fully manifest in us. He will show us who we are and make us what we never were before, which is again, ourselves.
Until then, we look around. God is tantalizing us with the joys of this creation and waiting for the Ephesians 2 moment so he can have all eternity to show us the riches of his grace. Let us not pass up the flirting, for all men and women know that if a wooing takes place and there is no response, there will be no honeymoon.
Support Deeper Waters on Patreon!
