Solomon’s book, The Song of Songs, is an allegory concerning the relationship between Christ (the Beloved) and the Christian or Church (the Shulamite Maid). The book opens with the Shulamite declaring the wonders of the Beloved’s love (SofS 1:2). Her opening words invite us to explore the intensity (“much”) and diversity (“many”) of God’s love for us. It offers applications concerning:
The Song of Songs has been subject to many different modes of interpretation. More recently it has been used to teach concerning right attitudes toward marriage, but historically it has been taken as an allegory for the love between Christ and his church. It is this latter sense which this article employs.
The Song of Songs includes various characters, the main two being the Shulamite Maid and The Beloved. The traditional handling sees the Shulamite Maid as a type of the Church or the Bride of Christ, and the Beloved as a type of Christ. So when the Song opens with: “Let him kiss me with kisses of his mouth” (SofS 1:2) we meet with the Shulamite’s desire for intimacy with her Beloved.
What do we encounter when we receive Christ's kiss? The Psalmist says of Christ: "grace is poured upon your lips" (Ps 45:2). So, to be kissed by Christ is to be the beneficiary of his grace. It is to know the undeserved favour of having sins forgiven. It is to experience the intimacy and uniqueness of his love. It is to hear the gracious words that come from his mouth (Luke 4:22). This is not a kiss full of fear and threatening as when the Psalmist admonishes the rulers of the earth to kiss the Son (Ps 2:12). Neither is it a kiss with overtones of unfaithfulness as when Judas kissed Jesus in Gethsemane (Luke 22:48). This is a kiss from Christ which is full of kindness, affection, familiarity and self-disclosure.
To some of us, words of such affection appear to be a maudlin romanticising of Scripture. Does it not seem that treating Scripture in this way is to exude a sentimentality unworthy of Christ? Perhaps so, but the Song characterises the Shulamite as sometimes close to her Beloved and at others neglecting him. John Newton (1725-1807), the hymn writer who would have us sing of the sweet sound of Christ’s amazing grace, says of this Song:
In her delight, the Shulamite declares “. . . your love is better than wine” (SofS 1:2). The Hebrew of this verse presents "love" in the plural. This "loves", speaks in two ways:
Indeed, it is as we ponder the “many” loves of Christ toward us that we begin to understand his “much” love. It is a glorious thing to remember the sacrificial love of Christ at Calvary that secured our forgiveness (Rom 5:8), but it is a seriously shallow thing to rejoice in that love to the exclusion of all other instances of God’s love for us.
The apostle John writes of three different aspects to Christ’s love:
Central to these three forms of Christ’s love is God’s election. “Here is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us.” (1 John 1:10a). Paul concurs. “In love he (God) predestined us . . . “ (Eph 1:4) and again “In love he chose us as his own in Christ” (Eph 1:5 ESV).
But this Electing love expresses itself as God’s forgiveness and redemption, since in love “ . . . he sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” (1 John 4:10b). But more than this, God’s Electing love and Redeeming love in Christ, comes with a profound benefit since; “In this the love of God was made manifest . . . that we might live through Christ” (1 John 4:9). God’s love makes itself plain by us now being alive in Christ, or regenerate. Thus, God’s Electing love and Redeeming love have become God’s Regenerating love! Paul also bears witness to God’s Regenerating love saying that it was “ . . . because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, [that] he made us alive together with Christ” (Eph 2:4-5).
But being alive means that there needs to be a manner or format to the life we live. Thus the love of God compels us in the direction of a sanctified life: “if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another” (1 John 4:11). According to John, the love which God bears toward us shapes our attitude toward life such that we love one another, and in this way we live in obedience to the second of the two great commandments (Mark 12:31). God’s love for us draws us on in sanctification as we live loving our neighbour. Here too we find Paul in agreement. Paul assures us that God’s love enables us to live sanctified and unblemished lives: “ . . . in His love, He chose us as His own in Christ before the creation of the world, that we might be holy and without blemish in His presence” (Eph 1:4).
The fact of Christ’s mediation on our behalf has brought to light a progression of loves toward us and in us. There is;
This is love abundant, both as “much” and “many”. But the abundance and array of God’s love to us in Christ does not stop there. For although we are recipients of God’s Sanctifying love, there are times when we do not live according to the blessing of that love. To this end, there are times when we are the recipient of God’s chastising love:
God has a way of dealing with us which ensures that we never stray too far from him. In his Sanctifying love, God loves us too much to leave us to the folly of our own fleshly or sinful desires. He lovingly chastises us to bring us back to himself. But notice this is not an experience universally offered. Scripture tells us “ . . . He scourges ever son whom he receives” (v12). Thus is God’s Chastening love part of his Adopting love. It is because of the Holy Spirit’s adoptive work in us that our hearts cry with a familiarity toward God, a familiarity which is unbecoming indeed blasphemous for those in the world. For the ministration of God’s love as poured into our hearts be the Holy Spirit (Rom 5:5) causes us to speak of God as “Abba Father” or “Daddy”!
Sin is a devastating and mortal influence in God’s creation. It is rapacious and unrelenting in its claim on mankind. But sin not only makes a man unrighteous, it robs him of the glory of God, since “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23). Thus, if Christ’s Cross and Resurrection are to fully reverse the fruit of Adam’s fall, they must do more than establish our forgiveness and regeneration. Christ’s salvific work needs also to restore man’s glory.
What scripture means by the glory of God in man is subject to various opinions. John Calvin (1509-1564) at his commentary on Romans 3:23 says:
“The glory of God I take to mean the approbation [i.e. approval] of God, as in John xii.43, where it is said that ‘they loved the glory of man more than the glory of God’. And thus, he summons us from the applause of a human court to the tribunal of heaven.” [iii]
Which is to say that sin robs men and women of that degree of acceptance, that form of dignity, which God bestowed on Adam when he was first created. If Christ’s work of redemption is a complete work, then it will restore the believer to a dignity, a nobility and praiseworthiness that emanates from God as well as is pleasing to God. Therefore, never let it be said that Christ’s love was not up to the task, for we read:
In these two verses we again see the impact and fullness of God's love, for the “brothers beloved of the Lord” are; chosen (v13), called (v14), sanctified (v13) and receiving the glory of Christ (v14).
Thus are we loved in a multitude of ways, all which coalesce to form us into a remarkable redeemed state. We are the objects of:
Well does the Shulamite say that the much and many of your loves are better than wine.
What does the much and many of God’s love mean for us in practice?
FIRST ~ We cannot contemplate the workings and depth of God’s love without acknowledging that to speak of God’s love is to speak of its transformative nature. Scripture does not allow us to think of God's love as akin to the benign sentimentality of a doddering old man who indulges his grandchildren with a saccharine, mawkish, passive tolerance. God's love is dynamic, purposive and geared for our growth in godliness, our increase in sanctification and the completion of our relationship with him as sons. That is, sons who are restored to glory and worthy of the dignity and title of “kings and priests unto our God” (Rev 1:6 & 5:10).
SECOND ~ The dynamism and depth of God’s love means that today’s trend of preaching an emotional, if not highly romanticised version of God’s love denudes God of his might and glory, as well as robs the Christian of a glorious hope in the multi-faceted, intentional and powerful character of God’s love for us. If we limit discussion of God’s love to that of forgiveness, we excise the Gospel of the comprehensive and sanctifying power of God’s grace in his love.
THIRD ~ We must note that this analysis of God’s love has said nothing of his providential love. This is for two reasons. The love dealt with here is the love of Christ for his bride. It is a unique and exclusive love. As such we need discernment in addressing God’s providential love because:
It is distortion of God’s love to preach “Come to Jesus and your life will become abundantly blessed”.
FOURTH ~ It is an irony that that those preachers who forsake the doctrine of God’s election because it presents God as harsh and capricious, in favour of a more accommodating and loving God, must at the same time limit the Christian’s understanding of God’s love. For it is in God’s electing love that his many other loves find their genesis and place.
[1] Quoted in R Brooks, ''Song of Songs - Under His Banner of Love'', Evangelical Press, Leyland, England, 2019
[1] R Brooks, pg 25
[1] https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/eng/cal/romans-3.html ~ sighted 26-Mar-25
