God's Love Story
God’s Love Story
‘Your maker is your husband’ (Isaiah 54:5)
Two things. First, all love stories leave us longing. Second, only one love story leaves us satisfied. So, longing and satisfaction.
All love stories leave us longing
There’s something about all love stories that leaves us longing. A couple weeks ago, I watched the movie version of Pride and Prejudice for the first time. And, to be honest, at the beginning I was a bit annoyed. The story begins with a family with 5 daughters: the Bennetts. And their mother, Mrs. Bennett, is desperate to get them all married off. And I found it annoying to see at least three of the five daughters acting like chickens with their heads chopped of in pursuit of a husband. But, as the movie went on, and as I began to get to know the characters, Lizzie and Jane and Mr. Darsey and Mr. Bingly, I found that I was filled with longing for the story to work out. And by the end, I was sad that it had finished. I couldn’t get enough of it.
I think that that’s true of all us, in some way. Whether or not you like Pride and Prejudice, we all long for love in some way. Even the roughest and most unemotional man can sympathize with this feeling. A good friend spent 20 years in prison for murder and breaking parole. He’s the hardest man I’ve ever met. And yet, when a woman came into his life, he absolutely melted. In his own words, he said, ‘I became like a baby.’
And so, whether or not you feel this now, I think everyone knows what I’m talking about. Love stories leave us with longing. There’s something in us that says, ‘Yes. I want that.’
And yet, that’s all they do. Real life isn’t Pride and Prejudice. Most real love stories either end in divorce or they just become dull. And all love stories end in death. Something we often forget about Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, one of the greatest love stories in the English language, is that it is a tragedy! It ends in death.
And so, all love stories fill us with longing.
Only one love story leaves us satisfied
You might find this shocking, but in the Bible, God is portrayed as a husband to his people. The prophet Isaiah says, ‘Your maker is your husband’ (Isaiah 54:5). In essence, he is saying, ‘God, the one who created you, the one who is the Sovereign King of the universe, this God is your husband!’ It’s shocking, isn’t it? It’s shocking, because we usually think of God as distant and unreachable, like an untouchable Dictator. It’s shocking because marriage is such an intimate thing. How in the world can God be a Husband? Maybe a King or a father, but never a husband.
Yet the Bible isn’t ashamed to speak in such intimate terms about God’s relationship with his people. Now, it’s not talking about sex, just to make that clear. Nor is it implying that God is only married to women. No. God is the spiritual husband and God’s people (or his church) are collectively, both men and women, his spiritual wife. And in a mysterious way, this spiritual marriage goes far deeper than any physical marriage can go.
Usually, when you think of a good love story, you’ve got the good looking guy and the good looking girl. As always, there’s tension somewhere in the middle. But, by the end, the good-looking guy gets the good-looking girl.
Yet the Bible tells us of a totally different kind of love story. In the Bible, the girl isn’t good looking – far from it. The Bible describes God’s people as unclean, naked, bloody, and worst of all, a whore, a prostitute (Ezekiel 16). And these are all pictures of sin. Sin isn’t just doing bad things like murder, adultery, or lying. Sin is spiritual prostitution. It’s a problem with the heart, where your heart prostitutes itself after everything but God. God created us for a relationship with him, but we’ve turned from our Maker and love everything more than him. Even good things, whether it be sports or relationships or even church. If we love anything in life more than God, we are guilty of spiritual prostitution.
When I lived in Louisville, Kentucky, I lived in a neighborhood where there were a number of prostitutes. I was able to befriend a couple of them. And if you know anything about prostitution, you will know how destructive it is to relationships. It cuts off friendships. It breaks up marriages. And it causes children to be neglected. It destroys everything in its path, including the people themselves. And it’s similar with God. Sin destroys our relationship with God. It cuts him out of our lives and deserves his just punishment.
And here we begin to see how much it cost God to be in a relationship with his people. The beauty of God’s love story is that he looks at the blood and dirt of our sin, and instead of turning us away like we deserve, he chooses to die for us, make us his wife, and clean up all our blood if we trust in him (Ephesians 5:25-26). It cost God his life to marry this woman. Every other religion is people reaching out to God. Christianity is God reaching down to people. And the Bible tells us that God became a real man 2000 years ago. Jesus Christ, even though he was completely pure and clean, died unclean, naked, and bloody on a cross. He was bloody so that he could make his bride beautiful. Just think about that! The good-looking guy, the God of the universe, not only marries the prostitute, but he dies for her so that she might become beautiful.
And so, Pride and Prejudice, Romeo and Juliet, you name it, no love story can compete with that. So, the question I leave with you today is, Have you been satisfied with this love story? Or, are you still longing? Have you been cleansed from your spiritual prostitution by the blood of Jesus? Have you entered into this love story by saying, ‘I do’? If not, I plead with you to turn to him today. Trust in him. Isaiah says, ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow’ (Isaiah 1:18).
All love stories leave us longing. Only one love story leaves us satisfied.
Created about 1 year ago
