Christ, All Together Lovely!

''Here I am to worship, Here I am to bow down, here I am to say that you are my God, you are all together lovely...''. That's the  chorus of one of the popular Hillsong track, Here I am to Worship. What fascinates me is the specific wording at the chorus, ''You are all together lovely'', which I think encapsulates what Christ is, as Song of Songs 5:16 also declare boldly, ''Yes, He is altogether lovely.''

Our understanding of Christ as all together lovely should compels us to love Him more in return. His love is beyond understanding as Andrew Gray wrote, "We shall never be able to comprehend, nor recompence that love which he hath to us; for the furthest we can go, is to be sick of love to him. But O! he died with love for us, for he had so great love to us, that he laid down his life for us."

If Christ is all together lovely, the only logical respond is not just to love him in return but to love him more than anything. Desiring Him more than the things of the world. The things of the world is actually transience in nature, and it fades away quickly.

If Christ is not yet our everything, then He is close to nothing. To love Christ is not just to put Him in one area of our heart, but to place Him as the heart that is core and central to our live and being. 

When we begin to love God more, then we begin to love the things of and from God more. Of course, we will love ourselves better than before.

At the end of the day, It is not about whether God love us. Most of the time is about whether we love Him as He deserves to be loved. Benard of Clairvaux echoes the nuance in the Gospel of John as he urge that we need to love God beyond measure, as He first love and delight in us (1 John 4:19).

By delighting in God, we give ourselves to God we will lose ourselves and find a new one in the life of Christ and work of God, as Benard have once argued ("God directed selflessness").

If knowing the love of God will drive us to love Him more and better. What loveliness of Christ that we need to acknowledge and embrace today, so that we can love him better/more in return?

The best answer to the question above, expressed by John Flavel beautifully whereby he resolves the loveliness of Christ into three aspects, here bellow I quote from What he put in his works: 

First, Who he is: 

The Lord Jesus Christ, after whom she had been seeking, for whom she was overcome by love; concerning whom these daughters of Jerusalem had enquired: whom she had struggled to describe in his particular excellencies. He is the great and excellent subject of whom she here speaks.

Secondly, What he is , or what she claims of him: 

That he is a lovely one. The Hebrew word, which is often translated "desires," means "to earnestly desire, covet, or long after that which is most pleasant, graceful, delectable and admirable." 

The original word is both in the abstract, and plural in number, which says that Christ is the very essence of all delights and pleasures, the very soul and substance of them. 

As all the rivers are gathered into the ocean, which is the meeting-place of all the waters in the world, so Christ is that ocean in which all true delights and pleasures meet.

Thirdly, What he is like : He is altogether lovely, the every part to be desired. He is lovely when taken together, and in every part; as if she had said, 

"Look on him in what respect or particular you wish; cast your eye upon this lovely object, and view him any way, turn him in your serious thoughts which way you wish; consider his person, his offices, his works, or any other thing belonging to him; you will find him altogether lovely, There is nothing disagreeable in him, there is nothing lovely without him." 

Hence note, DOCTRINE: That Jesus Christ is the loveliest person souls can set their eyes upon: "Thou art fairer than the children of men." Psalm 14:2 .

What a beautiful description by Flavel. very concise yet deep. Reading these three aspects of Christ loveliness will surely remind us of the reason of our very existence, as the song of the beginning start to replay again,

''Here I am to worship, Here I am to bow down, here I am to say that you are my God, you are all together lovely, all togethet worthy, all together wonderfull to me...