A searchable, downloadable PDF of the original article appears below. Louise Holert is a missionary to students for International Neighbors in Seattle, Washington.
Last year I received two very special gifts. The first – I was granted a three-month Sabbatical by International Neighbors, a ministry to international students in Seattle with which I have served since October, 1985. The second – I was invited to be a Missionary-in-Residence at Regent College for the spring semester of 1994.
On January 24 I arrived at Regent for my Sabbatical. My primary goal was to nurture intimacy in my relationship with Jesus Christ. During that first week I sat in a lecture on the Puritans given by Dr. J.I. Packer and my heart was stirred to read John Owen. After class I headed directly to the Regent library. It was volume two of The Works of John Owen entitled “Communion With God” that captured my attention.
For Owen communion with God is central to our Christian experience and it is the definition of Christianity. The epitaph engraved on John Owen’s tombstone includes the following words: “He cultivated and realized in practice the blissful communion with God of which he wrote; a traveler on earth who grasped God like one in heaven.” John Owen has become my mentor and a spiritual friend during my semester at Regent College.
“Need is the spring of desire,” writes Owen. My need and desire was for a more intimate communion with God. My focus has been on Owen’s book within the book, his rich interpretation of the Song of Songs – the one book of the Bible that has been difficult for me to identify with as a single woman. But Owen drew me into it and before I realized it I was enamoured with the Song of Songs. The Song of Songs and Owen’s interpretation have become my valued counselors in nurturing intimacy with Jesus Christ.
I have come to realize that much of my understanding about God and even my relating to God has been in terms of propositional truth. I have traveled the propositional road all my life with only a few detours into “metaphorical thinking.” I needed to develop my right-brain approach to Scripture. I desired to experience truth more holistically – establishing a better balance between knowing on the emotional level as well as the intellectual level – knowing with the heart as well as the mind.
While realizing that Owen’s interpretation of the Song of Songs is allegorical and not in vogue today, I have chosen not to be limited by the 20th century theological climate, but rather to value an interpretation of the book that does not limit it to a celebration of physical love. I find the allegorical interpretation to be filled with relational meaning.
For “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16).
As many of you know, John Owen was a 17th century Puritan scholar who thought in Latin and wrote in English. Consequently, Owen’s style is generally elaborate and often cumbersome for the contemporary reader. During my time at Regent I pursued a self-assigned project of paraphrasing the portions of Communion With God that have to do with the conjugal relationship between Christ and the believer / Christ and the church.
He is infinitely beyond comparison with the most exquisite good or relationship imaginable.
I would like to share with you a section of my paraphrase which addresses the way in which we experience communion with Jesus Christ:
The Scripture reveals that it is through our conjugal relationship with Jesus Christ that we have communion with him. He is married to us and we are married to him.
In the Song of Songs the beloved states: “My lover is mine and I am his.” “He is mine; he is my head and my husband; and I am his, possessed by him, given to him as my Lover in a conjugal relationship.”
This is also stated in Isaiah 54:5: “For your Maker is your husband – the Lord Almighty is his name – the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; he is called the God of all the earth.” For this reason the church should not be ashamed or confused in the midst of her troubles and trials. She is married to her Maker and her Redeemer is her husband.
In Isaiah 62:5 we read: “As a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you.” As people are filled with joy when they are married, Christ and his saints are also filled with joy in their conjugal relationship. He is a husband to his saints if they will be a bride to him.
In Hosea the Lord makes his faithful promise: “I will betroth you to me forever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion. I will betroth you in faithfulness.” The main purpose of the ministry of the Gospel is to encourage people to give themselves to the Lord as he reveals his kindness in this engagement. Thus Paul tells the Corinthians: “I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him.”
Because Christ loved the Church he gave himself for it that he might enjoy his bride, that he might be for her, and that she might be for him and not for another.
The marriage allusion is the allusion most frequently used by Christ regarding his communion with the Church. When Christ takes the Church to himself it is the day of his marriage and the Church is his bride (Revelation 19:7,8). The entertainment he prepares for his saints is a wedding supper (Matthew 22:3).
The fellowship he has with his saint is like that which those in a marriage relationship enjoy. Thus in Ephesians 5 when the Apostle Paul describes the relationship between a husband and wife and between Christ and the Church he makes sudden and imperceptible transition from one to the other. He makes it clear that he is using the analogy of husband and wife to teach “about Christ and the Church.”
The first act of communion is a mutual resignation to one another. Christ gives himself to the soul with all the love, care, and tenderness of a husband; and the soul gives itself to Christ to be his in total loving and tender obedience. This is the essence of the marriage of Christ and the saints. He says to believers: “I will be for you, and you shall be for me and not for another.”
Christ gives himself to the soul with all his excellencies to be its Saviour, head, and husband to live with it forever in the holy relationship of marriage. He looks upon the souls of his saints and finds them pleasing. He says to his beloved: “How beautiful you are… how beautiful. Your eyes are like doves.” The souls of the believers are very beautiful because of the attractiveness of Christ which he puts within them. Their spiritual light is particularly excellent – it is like the eyes of a dove; tender, discerning, clear and shining.
Let us receive him in all his excellence as he gives himself to us.
The Lover adds a lamenting desire for the enjoyment of his beloved: “My dove in the clefts of the rock, in the hiding places on the mountainside,
show me your face, let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely.” Do not hide yourself as one that runs away to the clefts of the rocks; do not be dejected as one that hides herself behind the stairs and is afraid to come out to the company that asks for her. Do not let your spirit be discouraged by the weakness of your requests.
Let me hear your sighs and groans for me. They are very sweet, very delightful. Your spiritual countenance and your appearance in spiritual matters is beautiful to me.
He does not leave her as she is, but begs her to accept a closer union with him in their conjugal bond: “Come with me from Lebanon, my bride, come with me from Lebanon. Descend from the crest of Amana, from the top of Senir, the summit of Hermon, from the lions’ dens and the mountains haunts of the leopards.” You are in a wandering condition (as the Israelites of old) among lions and leopards, sins and troubles. Come from them to me and I will give you rest.
With this invitation the beloved confidently concludes that Christ desires her; that he indeed loves her and intends to take her into fellowship with himself. “I belong to my lover, and his desire is for me.” As precious and excellent as he is, he becomes ours. He makes himself ours and with him we receive all his graces.
Christ takes the initiative and freely gives himself to be our Christ, our Lover. He does this to accomplish all the goals and purposes of love, mercy, grace and glory in mediating a marriage covenant that will never be broken. As our mediator the Lord Jesus Christ is qualified and prepared to be a husband to his saints, his church.
He makes himself available to them in all his attractiveness through the promises of the gospel and convinces them of his good will toward them and his sufficiency to meet their needs. With their consent to accept him, which is all he requires or expects of them, he commits himself in a marriage covenant to be theirs forever.
The saints’ part is to respond with a free and willing consent to receive, embrace, and submit to the Lord Jesus as their husband, Lord, and Saviour – to dwell with him, submit their souls to him, and to be ruled by him forever.
It means preferring Christ far above all others. When the professors of faith insist that the beloved share her thoughts about the excellency of her Lover in comparison with other lovers, she responds that he is “outstanding among ten thousand” and “altogether lovely.” He is infinitely beyond comparison with the most exquisite good or relationship imaginable.
The soul’s entrance into a conjugal communion with Jesus Christ means to consistently prefer him above all competitors for our affections and to count all as loss and rubbish in comparison with him.
It means accepting Christ with the will as our husband, Lord, and Saviour. This is called “receiving Christ.” It refers not only to our first receiving of him, but also to the constant frame of mind of dwelling with him and acknowledging him as Lord.
It is confessing that: “Although I have walked according to my own thinking, I now give myself to be ruled completely by your Spirit. For in you I have righteousness and strength. In you I am justified and in you I glory.” This is to receive the Lord Jesus in his attractiveness and his position of distinction. May believers train their hearts to do this freely and fully. This is choice communion with the Son of God.
Let us receive him in all his excellence as he gives himself to us. Let us frequently compare him with other beloveds. Let us prefer him before them all and consider everything as loss and rubbish in comparison with him. Let our souls be convinced of his sincerity and willingness in giving himself and all that he is as a meditator for us in order to be ours. Let our hearts give themselves up to him. Let us tell him that we will be for him and not for another. Let him know it from us. He delights to hear it. For he says, “Your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely.” The result will be a sweet refreshing communion with him.
John Owen’s Communion With God has been my constant companion during these past weeks. The truths in this book have profoundly affected me and have significantly enhanced my relationship with Jesus Christ. I am grateful for what this has opened up for me in the beginning of a new journey with him.
The Song of Songs instructs us in training in righteousness – what it means to be faithful in our heart of hearts to the One who is “outstanding among 10,000” – the One who is “altogether lovely.” This is our lover. This is our friend.