Song of Songs 8:6f
‘I have come…, my spouse!… The Voice…that knocks, says: “Open to Me…, my undefiled!”…. (The bride replies:) “I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them?!… Set me as a seal upon Your heart!… For love is (as) strong as death…, like the grave!…. Its coals, are coals of fire which have a most vehement flame. Many waters cannot quench (such) love, neither can the floods drown it!”‘ Song of Songs 5:1-3 & 8:6-7.
Calvin says in his Institutes III:16:4: “Justification…is gratuitous to us, but not also to Christ Who paid so dearly for it…. Our pollution is so great, that it can never be washed away, save in the fountain of His pure blood…. How can they [the members of His bride], after being once purified, avoid shuddering at the thought of again wallowing in the mire?… ‘I have washed my feet’ (says the believing soul in the Song of Solomon 5:3), ‘how shall I [thereafter again] defile them?!'”
The bride is of those who have turned to God from idols, and who wait for His Son from Heaven. For the love she bare to Him, and for the infinitely greater love He bare to her, she is asked by Jesus to open the door of her heart to give Him entrance. She had already washed her feet, and was undefiled from the very moment she first trusted the One Who became her Bridegroom.
We are told that the love between this Bridegroom and His bride is as strong as death, and as hard as the grave. In other words, nothing either in life or death or even the grave can ever break that love. No misfortune can slay it. This is the high-water mark of all true and loyal devotion. It outlasts life, death, and the grave – and remains alive for all eternity.
That love keeps on burning like coals of fire which have a most vehement flame. Many waters cannot quench such love, nor can all the floods ever drown it!
The bride shall be upborne by the Bridegroom Who is alike her Prophet, Priest and King. For love is as strong as death. Ardent love remains as retentive as the grave. And the flashes of love are flashes of fire, a very flame from the Lord!
Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it. The love which grace has begotten in the heart of the bride, is itself divine and persistent. Many waters cannot quench it, nor the floods submerse it forever. Bereavement and loss may test its constancy, but they will not quench it. Death is strong, but love is stronger. For death cannot conquer love!
What or ‘who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword?… No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him Who loved us!… Neither death nor life…nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord!’ (Romans 8:35-39). Nothing can ever quench His love for us who believe in Him! Such is the immortal and unquenchable seal of God’s ardent love for His bride! Do you believe?
