Divine Union

“But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.”

I Corinthians 6:17

At the beginning of creation, God designed marriage to illustrate a vital truth about His relationship with humankind: the loving fellowship, mutual service, and intimate fidelity between creature and Creator. The unity of two distinct items does not occur merely as an exterior bond, such as two lanterns glued together, but as a shattering of the glass that keeps each flame apart followed by a merging of the two flames into one. For the human soul united with the Triune God, this experience can be pictured as two hearts of flesh, soft and pliable, ripped into pieces by pain and suffering: the first, a human soul broken by the realization he or she can never be good enough or strong enough to be everything God requires; the second, Christ’s soul broken upon the Cross when He took upon Himself all the sins of the world. At the moment of divine union, all these hurting pieces are gathered together in the grace-filled hands of God then fused together into one new heart by the power of the Holy Spirit, the pieces intermingled to such a degree that every thought, every emotion, and every desire vibrates with love for the other.

As with every experience of God, divine union occurs only through sheer grace. No amount of ascetic piety, good deeds, vigilance, or temperance of heart and soul can merit divine touch or divine presence. God, by His very nature, is Love; therefore, He longs to pour Himself into every human soul. However, like an adulterous wife, each of us runs after other loves, and so He waits. He waits for us to come, broken, before Him, longing only for Him and for His touch. Brokenness produces humility, which frees a believer from the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—all of which hinder the awareness and experience of God’s active presence in a believer’s life. God knows the moment when the soul is so depleted of all false, fleshly, and demonic loves that He is able to pour Himself utterly into the cavity of the believer’s heart, enabling the believer’s emotions and neurons to experience a pure and fulfilling mergence with the fullness of Love Himself.

Origen of Alexandria, one of the earliest Church fathers, perceived this passionate romance in the Song of Solomon. He wrote in his commentary, “It seems to me that this little book is…a marriage-song, which Solomon wrote in the form of a drama and sang under the figure of the bride, about to wed and burning with heavenly love toward her Bridegroom, who is the Word of God. And deeply indeed did she love him, whether we take her as the soul made in his image, or as the church…who has been joined to him.”

Indeed, the Bible is replete with analogies of Christ and His people being presented as Husband and Wife. The prophet Hosea utilized mystical language when he presented Yahweh’s passionate appeal to His people: “Therefore, behold, I will allure her, will bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfort to her…. And it shall be, in that day, says the Lord, That you will call Me ‘My Husband’ and no longer call Me ‘My Master’. I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness and you shall know the Lord” (Hosea 2:14,16,20).

For the New Testament believer, spiritual transference into the Kingdom of God occurs at the moment of salvation: accepting Jesus Christ as personal Lord and Savior (Romans 10:9-10). At that moment, this person receives the Spirit of adoption, through whom we cry out, “Abba, Daddy!” (Romans 8: 15). We become members of the Church, Christ’s bride (Revelation 21:7-8); yet Christ’s love is not limited to the whole. Instead, divine union occurs as a subjective experience within an individual because the Lord passionately pursues and bestows His loving grace upon each individual member (I Corinthians 12:27).

As a Christian struggles to overcome sins of the flesh and of the mind as well as demonic temptations, the covenant of spiritual marriage to God is much like the legal document signed by husband and wife. The covenant is solid and binding, declaring a legal truth: the two are a couple. Yet, as with every human marriage, acting as one takes time. Every decision made for the good of the other person, with a conscious awareness and desire to act in accordance with the spouse’s will, deepens the feelings of intimacy. Such degrees of intimacy also exist in a believer’s relationship with God.

Unfortunately, since encountering the Risen Lord is a subjective experience within an individual’s heart, some Christians believe the only way to be free of spiritual deception is to reject all mystical experiences. They believe spiritual unity occurs in heaven, apart from feelings, through a believer’s adherence to fundamental doctrine and Biblical morality. However, late Christian counselor Brent Curtis points out in his book The Sacred Romance, “Above all else, the Christian life is a love affair of the heart. It cannot be lived primarily as a set of principles or ethics. It cannot be managed with steps and programs. It cannot be lived exclusively as a moral code leading to righteousness.” Many Christians in both Protestant and Catholic traditions testify that God can be experienced through the senses and that He desires to reveal Himself in this way.

Bernard McGinn, professor emeritus at the Divinity School of the University of Chicago, explains the lifeblood of mystics throughout Church history: “The mystic wants to penetrate to the living source of the biblical message, that is, to the Divine Word who speaks in and through human words and texts.”  Evelyn Underhill, a contemporary Christian mystic, summarizes the muscle tone of a mystic’s heart this way: “The Christian mystic therefore is one for whom God and Christ are not merely objects of belief, but living facts experimentally known first hand; and mysticism for him becomes, in so far as he responds to its demands, a life based on this conscious communion with God.”

TobyMac, a popular Christian pop/hip-hop singer, expresses divine union with beautiful clarity in his song Captured. Speaking of Jesus, he says, “Like blood in my veins, You’re my sustenance. The moment of trust, the ‘me’ becomes ‘us’, the ‘we’ become ‘one’. Your gift is my gust of wind ‘til we meet again. All I want to do is get into You. You’ve got me captured by Your love. All I wanna do is stay here with You. You’ve got me raptured. Can’t get enough!” Yes, Jesus is real, present, and powerful, and He disregards man-made religious boundaries. He is Himself, the Word of God made flesh, and He is above all human pride, fear, and prejudice. For a mystic, spiritual connection with Christ means that the unseen indwelling of the Holy Spirit develops into a deeply felt, conscious awareness of Christ’s interior and exterior presence.