By Marvin Duncan
As a young Christian, I often wondered why God would become a man and die for me. I knew God loved His creation and wanted to save it from eternal judgment, but I kept asking myself, “Can there be more to God’s plan than just to save man from the Lake of Fire?” Maybe you have asked this same question. Let us examine some of the Scriptures to see if we can find any other reason for Christ being identified with man-kind.
One section of Scripture that helped change my understanding about why Christ entered the human race, and offered Himself as the Substitute to pay the sin debt for man, was Luke 19:10. Here I read:
“The son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
The more I considered this verse, the more I understood that Christ came to do more than just to die for man’s sins. He came to redeem ALL of His creation. When Adam sinned, the whole creation fell. Wildness entered the animal creation. Thorns and thistles invaded the new earth (Genesis 3:18) as The curse fell upon all of God’s creation. Christ came to remove this curse and to “save that which was lost.” When I considered these facts, it dawned upon me that more than just man was “LOST.” That which was lost was God’s creation.
But, was redeeming His creation from the curse the full purpose for Christ’s coming into this world as a man? As I pursued this question, I found a section of Scripture that added another dimension to Christ’s coming. From Ephesins 1:11, I learned that the redeemed of God have an inheritance in Christ. The Saints of God have all the blessings of the heavenlies (Ephesians 1:3). They have rewards awaiting them for their faithful Christian walk in this physical life (1 Cor. 3:14). And, the Saints of God are “joint-heirs” with Christ (Romans 8:17). Being “joint-heirs” means we will inherit jointly with Christ, all the Father has designated to be His portion as the Son of God. (son means, the one to inherit). Because we are “sons” of God, we, too, are the ones to inherit God’s estate.
The thought that the saints will reign with Christ (Eph. 2:6) and inherit jointly with Him, is mind-boggling. Yet, this isn’t the full purpose for our salvation. There is a much greater reason for Christ’s coming into this world as a man and dying as our substitute Sin Offering. That reason is found in Ephesians 1:18. From this verse we learn that Christ has a personal reason for saving the sons of Adam. From this verse we learn that Christ has an inheritance in the saints. This tells me that the reason Christ saves anyone is not to take that one to heaven and bless him there. Had this been the reason for our salvation, we would have been taken to heaven the moment we were saved. (Its true, the “hope” of the Saints today is to be taken to heaven (1 Thes. 4:17) but this was not the primary reason for our salvation). The primary reason for our salvation is that Christ has “an inheritance in the saints.” Christ saves us so He can glory in us as His personal possession. In First Corinthians 6:19-20, it is clear that every saint has been “bought with a price” and we are not our own. Our Body and our Spirit “are God’s.” He owns us. We belong to Him and we are Christ’s inheritance. When I recognized this truth, I had to ask myself, “What does God want from me since I am His inheritance?” If we fully comprehend what the Scriptures teach concerning our relationship with Christ, and His inheritance in His Saints, our entire perspective about our Christian life will be changed. Let us pursue the thought of our being Christ’s inheritance and notice some Scriptures that show what our being Christ’s inheritance means.
A Personal Relationship
When we begin to meditate upon the thought that Christ saved us for His inheritance, the first thing that strikes our attention is that Christ loves each one of His redeemed, personally. Christ came to this earth personally to save you and me. He personally dealt with each of us on a one to one basis to draw us to Himself for salvation. This was a truth that became important to me as a new Christian because I had some foggy idea that because Christ died for the sins of the world, I was just an insignificant part of that group for whom Christ died. I really didn’t amount to much and God wasn’t really interested in me as a person. He only saw me as part of the Body of Christ. But when I realized the personal love and personal concern He had for me and how much I, as an individual, mean to Him, my attitude toward Christ changed.
Too often we look at our salvation from a selfish point of view. We see only what salvation means to us. Yet, when we look at our Salvation from God’s point of view, we get a different picture. When we look at what our salvation means to God, we see that we are His treasure and He saved us for his pleasure. The thought that we are Christ’s treasure drew my attention to Matthew 6:21 where it says: “where your treasure is, there will be your heart also.” Since we are Christ’s Treasure, His heart is with us.
Since we are the object of Christ’s affection, and since we are saved for His pleasure, how are we to fulfill His desires for us? Do we have any Scripture we can go to that will show us how we are to act in this personal relationship we have with Christ? I believe we do. The Song of Solomon speaks of the personal relationship of God’s redeemed with Himself. I know this book is part of the canon of Scripture that is addressed to the nation of Israel, but I also know that “all scripture is given by inspiration of god, and is profitable” (2 Tim. 3:16). When we see this portion of Scripture as God’s revelation of the union and communion of the redeemed with Himself, we can apply the truths of this book to us today just as easily as these truths are to be applied to Israel. I see in this portion of Scripture the highest possible position any Saint of God can have with his Redeemer. Let us notice some truths from this book that can help us recognize our personal relationship with Christ and what He expects of us as His Redeemed ones who are His inheritance and the object of His personal attention.
Facts About The Book
The Song Of Solomon sets forth the true picture of Christ and His redeemed (of any age). The relationship of the redeemed and Christ is pictured in this book as a marriage union. In the Song Of Solomon we find the deep love a man has for his wife and her response to her husband. Their love is the motivation for their giving to each other. Perfect love (God’s kind of love) always gives the best to the object of that love. John 3:16 shows us this kind of love was what moved the Father to give the best that heaven contained to save the world. We are told that “god so loved the world that He gave” This is the same kind of love Christ has for each of His redeemed. When you read the Song Of Solomon, picture yourself as the wife and Christ as the husband. It will surprise you how relevant this book is in relating our true attitudes and actions toward Christ. (This book will also reveal some basic truths about the relationship of marriage. If we are wise, we can apply these lessons to our marriage and toward our spouse).
When we read the Song of Solomon, it is important to recognize that this book begins at the marriage. The first action we have is the husband takes his wife to his chambers to be alone with her to share his love with her. Only later does he takce her to the banquet hall to share her with his friends (Song of Solomon 2:4) . We can apply this book to our lives from the moment of our salvation because our salvation made us one with Christ – a marriage, as it were (Rom. 7:4). At salvation, Christ took us to Himself to share His love with us. Can you remember the first few months of your salvation? Wasn’t that time wonderful as Christ made His love real to you? Didn’t you rejoice in that love and didn’t you share your feelings with Him? What happened to that wonderful closeness you had at the beginning of your salvation? (If you aren’t as close to Christ today as you were yesterday, who moved?) Let us examine this same experience between the wife and her husband as recorded in the Song of Solomon and see if we can learn where we might have gone wrong in our attitude toward Christ.
The Careless Wife
Immediately following the wedding, the attitude of the wife is portrayed for us in chapter two, verse sixteen. Here the wife says, “my beloved is mine, and i am his.” This verse tells us that her attitude was completely self-centered. She was looking at what she got out of the marriage. The desires of her husband aren’t even considered at this stage of her relationship as a wife. The result of this attitude was that there was a separation (this is the meaning of the word, “Bether,” in verse 17). In her self-centeredness, she encourages her husband to go away from her. She tells him, “be thou like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether (mountains Of separation)”.
That very night she sought Him (3:1) but He wasn’t beside her. She desires Him to be with her so she goes out into the city looking for Him. Verse three shows her beloved wasn’t far from her for he comes to her when she calls. (What a beautiful truth this is concerning Christ and His relationship with us. He is never far from us and when we call, He comes to us).
Even after this sad experience, this wife still hasn’t learned the lesson of seeking her husband’s desires and feelings. In chapter five, verses two through six,we see the carelessness of this wife in her attitude toward her husband’s desires. For whatever reason, she locks her door and her husband is again separated from her (verse 2). Her husband (her beloved) comes seeking to be with her. He begs her to open the door and let him in but she makes excuses (verse 3) for she has indulged herself in personal activities (verse 5). After much delay, she reluctantly opens the door but her beloved has already departed because of her neglect and seeming indifference (verse 6). Again she finds herself alone and she seeks her beloved. He comes at her call. After this experience she has a change of attitude, as we see in verse three of chapter six. Here we read of her attitude again, but now she says, “I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine.” This is quite a change for now she recognizes her husband’s desires, but this still is a long way from total surrender and full commitment to His desires.
The complete change in attitude of this wife is revealed as she grows more mature in her relationship with her husband. She learns that her joy and desires are fulfilled when she is in complete surrender to her husband’s needs and desires. In chapter six, verse ten, we see the complete surrender of her personal desires to .those of her husband. In this tenth verse, we read, “I am my beloved’s, and his desire is toward me.” She is still the center of His love and desire, but only now does she realize how full her joy can be when she seeks to satisfy His desire for her.
Could it be that the coolness and separation we sometimes feel in our relationship with Christ is due to our carelessness and indifference toward the desires of Christ? Are we to preoccupied with our own desires and what we have in Christ that we neglect Him and fail to meet His needs? Let us re-evaluate our relationship with our Lord and see if we may have been like the wife in the early chapters of Song of Solomon.
Once the wife is in total union with her husband, and seeking His pleasures, we find them working together as a team. In chapter six, verses eleven through thirteen, we have the husband inviting his wife to accompany Him in His work and activities. He wants her to come with him and share the joys of their working together. This is what Christ wants of us in our laboring together with Him.
Chapter eight shows the complete union of the wife and the husband. No separation now. They work together as seen in verse eight of this eighth chapter. Here it is “we” doing the acting.
The secret of our co-labor with Christ is to be ln total surrender to Christ and to His desires. Only when we are in perfect accord with Him will we be truly content and have our desires fulfilled. Our salvation is a personal relationship with a personal Savior.