Just as human beings have desires, so does God. He has an eternal yearning to be related to man in a personal, loving way. His desire is so immense and strong that He became a man to live among us, and even died on the cross to do away with the sin that separated us from Him. God desires that, in response to His love, we would not only worship or serve Him, but also love Him ardently. The relationship between God and man can thus be described as a divine romance. The apostle Paul in the epistle to the Ephesians likens the nature of this relationship to that of the one between husband and wife. In Ephesians 5:25 Paul says, "Husbands, love your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her." By this we see that each of our own personal relationships with Christ can only progress to a certain extent, because Christ did not primarily love and die for us individually; rather, He loved the church and died for her. Just as a wife is the recipient of her husband's love, the church is the container into which Christ pours His affections. The desire of God's heart is to have such a relationship with the church, this "her" whom He loves to the point of death. In this divine romance, not only is God's need met, but we, as the object of Christ's love, are also fully satisfied.

Ekklesia
Then what, or rather who, is this "her" whom God loves so much? The church is not a man-made structure with a steeple or a cross. In Greek, one of the original languages of the Bible, the word used for church is ekklesia. Ekklesia refers to a throng of men assembled for a purpose.¹ God does not care about any physical structure. Neither the grandest cathedral nor the quaintest countryside chapel is worth the undying affection of God's heart or the poured-out blood of His Son. He cares for the ekklesia; He cares for the people He has gathered together, whose unique purpose and intention is to love Him. This ekklesia is all the believers in Christ throughout the earth who now have His life within them. This group of people, the church, for whom Christ died, is the only thing that can fulfill the yearning in God's heart for a counterpart.

Yet the church, composed of the believers, is not only an abstract entity to which each believer is attached. Although it may seem to be intangible, the church has a definite expression that can be seen on the earth today. Yet we only see this expression when we as the ekklesia respond to the love God has poured out on us. A believer is a lover of Christ, so a believer's involvement in the church is not merely waking up, even early, and dressing up every Sunday morning to worship reverently or ecstatically. Any personal relationship requires more than a weekly, formal greeting. God would like to flood the ekklesia with love in an unrestricted way rather than in the confines to which we have limited Him. Likewise, for us to be able to respond properly to God's love, we need an environment where we feel comfortable to release our praise to the Lord, and where our love for Him is freshly invigorated.

We find a portrait of such an environment in the Bible, in Acts 2. This chapter shows the early church as believers meeting together in a daily manner. Verse forty-six says, "And day by day, continuing steadfastly with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they partook of their food with exultation and simplicity of heart." Every day these lovers of Christ gathered together—not only in the temple, but also in each other's homes, remembering and praising the Lord Jesus and loving Him with one another in simplicity and joy. This was their participation in the divine romance, as it can be ours. This lifestyle of the early believers matches the one that is essential to sustain the relationship between God and His church.

Daily Life
What the Bible describes as the genuine church is not merely a scripture reading in the temple, but rather a day-to-day living. Imagine how an early Christian might experience God's love as a part of the ekklesia, loving God with the other believers in a daily, normal way. Upon approaching a house where other believers are gathered, a believer might smell the scent of home cooking wafting into the street as those inside begin to partake of their food. As he walks in, the cheerful voices of his companions relaxing or singing a melody after a long day would greet him. During or after the meal each person would share his experience of the Lord from the past few days, mutually encouraging each other in an atmosphere of love. Each would be perched on the edge of his seat, waiting for the opportunity to proclaim to everyone his praise for the Lord. Finally, on the way out, the invitation to gather together on another evening would be extended. In this daily life of the ekklesia the divine romance springs alive. It is in this environment that not only our individual love for God is strengthened, but we also perceive God's love for us. It is as the ekklesia that He loves us, and as the ekklesia we are brought into a more profound reality of that love. This is the secret hidden deep in God: He purposed to have the church as the supreme object of His love. When we enter into the life that is the church life, we enter fully into God's divine romance, and are able to fully enjoy and respond to His deep love.

1 Joseph Henry Thayer, trans., Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Zondervan) 195-96. (back)

If you would like to know God and respond to His deep love, simply open your heart to Him and sincerely pray the following:

"Lord Jesus, thank You for loving me so much that you died for me. Thank You for saving me from my sins and forgiving me. Right now I respond to Your eternal love. I invite you to come in and make Your home in my heart. I want to live in the divine romance with You and in Your church. Lead me into this divine romance for the rest of my life."