Christ-- Altogether Lovely

"Yes, He is altogether lovely. This is my Beloved, and this is my Friend!" Song of Songs 5:16

In calling the Lord Jesus "altogether lovely," the redeemed church asserts that she sees nothing in Him which she does not admire. The world may rail at His cross and call it shameful, but to her it is the very center and soul of glory. He is never without beauty to her! She presses His pierced feet to her embrace and looks upon His wounds as jewels! Fools stand by His cross and find many a theme for jest and scorn, but she discovers nothing except solemn reason for reverent adoration and unbounded love!

"You are absolutely beautiful, my Beloved--with no imperfection in You!" (Song of Songs 4:7) Viewing Him in every office and relationship, she cannot discover a flaw! She knows too well His perfect Godhead and His spotless manhood to offer a moment's shelter to the thought of a blemish in His immaculate person! She abominates every teaching that debases Him! She spurns the most gorgeous religious drapery that would obscure His beauteous features! Yes, so jealous is she of His honor, that a hint against His purity would stir her soul to holy wrath and speedy would be her relentless execution of the heresy! Nothing has ever aroused the ire of the true church so much as a word against her beloved Redeemer. To all true believers, this is high treason and an offense which cannot be treated lightly.

Jesus is without a single blot or blemish, yet this negative praise and this bold denial of any fault is far from representing the fullness of the loving admiration of the Church. Jesus is positively lovely in her eyes! Not merely lovely--His beauties are attracting beauties, and His glories are such as charm the heart. But although this utterance of the church is the very climax of the language of praise and was doubtless intended as the pinnacle of all description, yet it is not possible that this one sentence, even when expanded by the most careful meditation, should be able to express more than a mere particle of the admiration felt. Her description towers above all others; but its stature fails to reach the towering height of Heaven-born love. It is but a faint symbol of unutterable affection! It is a choice pearl washed on shore, from the deep sea of Divine love.

- C. H. Spurgeon