People still talk like this, but we don't preach like this anymore...
For some time now, I’ve been studying the practice of reading and preaching the Scriptures across the history of the church. Recently, I’ve been focusing on the Reformation. As part of that study, I came across this gem from John Calvin’s sermon on Deuteronomy 5:11 on the 3rd commandment:
Growing, Comforting, or Betrothing??
I’ve been reading the great John Owen’s Communion with the Triune God while recuperating from surgery. Great read. Hard, but utterly mind & heart changing. I long to know Christ more and more in the deep and personal sense Owen describes. I also long to pursue the purpose for pastoral ministry to which I am called and that Owen describes. Listen to this passage that well sums up what my ministry as a pastor ought to aim for, and while you're at it, think about how different it is from the purposes of most pastors (or church members for that matter):
“To this purpose we have his faithful engagement: ‘I will,’ says he, ‘betroth you unto me forever; yea, I will betroth you unto me in righteousness and in judgment, and in loving-kindness, and in mercies. I will even betroth you unto me in faithfulness’ (from Hosea 2:19-20). And it is the main design of the ministry of the gospel, to prevail with men to give up themselves unto the Lord Christ, as he reveals his kindness in this engagement. Hence Paul tells the Corinthians that he had ‘promised them to one husband, that he might present them as a chaste virgin unto Christ.’ (from 2 Corinthians 11:2). "This he prevailed upon them for, but the preaching of the gospel, that they should give up themselves as a virgin, unto him who had betrothed them to himself as a husband.” P. 154
While the romantic and sexual language may make some uncomfortable, it is the language the Bible uses to describe God’s strong emotional and volitional commitment to his relationship with us. And it is the language the Apostle uses for what every pastor’s goal is: that you would give yourself up to Christ with passionate love, devoted obedience, and unbending faithfulness. It’s a much better goal than growing a church or making people happy with the religious services I/our church provides, dontcha think? It is also a supernatural goal that I, and every other minister of the gospel, can’t possibly achieve through mere human effort. This is deep into the realm of the miraculous. Good thing this is precisely where the gospel of grace is most at home!