One of the most astonishing yet mis-understood concepts in the Word of God is the paradox of Grace. God enjoys us and delights in us, even in our weakness and immaturity. This is not what many preachers are teaching from the pulpit as the ‘grace message.’ We cannot continue in sin. There is not one ounce of tolerance in God’s heart towards our sin. But when we, as Christians, have a genuine spirit of repentance before God we are lovely to Him even when we stumble in immaturity.

The un-Biblical teaching regarding grace says that God ‘overlooks’ our sin thus we don’t need to pursue holiness…”Don’t worry about that stronghold brother; there’s grace.” In reality the true grace of God teaches us to deny ungodliness and to live righteously, soberly and godly today (Titus 2:11).

How then can the bride say “I am dark but lovely” in Song of Solomon 1:5?

She can say this because she has sincerity in her heart and genuine repentance before God (bunny trail here if you like). She sees the reality of her sinful desires but she also sees that she is lovely to God in her God-given passion for Jesus and in her position in the grace of God. It is the reality of ”The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” (Mt. 26:41)

The Bride has a weak flesh, but a willing spirit. She stumbles because of her weak flesh yet longs for Jesus because of her willing spirit. This passage is not describing someone who is rebellious against God but a sincere believer with weakness in their life.

We have no idea how wicked we really are. There is a greater capacity for sin in our heart than we comprehend. Sometimes we are surprised when we sin, and we think that God must also be surprised. Such a misunderstanding often results in fear of being rejected by God. The truth is that He wasn’t surprised at all. God has full knowledge of our sinfulness and our capacity for rebellion; and He loves us still.

Something else the Lord sees more than we do is our willing spirit. He has eyes that see every motive in our hearts. He knows that even though we are immature in our faith we have a sincere desire to reach for the highest heights in God. He doesn’t just see our struggles, He sees our sincere hearts.

There are four reasons why we are lovely and beautiful to God in the midst of spiritual immaturity:

1. The finished wrk of the Cross. We are lovely because of His work, not because of what we did.
2. He has given us a willing spirit at the new birth. The movement of our heart to God is called a willing spirit. It is the work of the Holy Spirit.
3. The nature of God’s personality. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. It is because of the heart of the Beholder that we are beautiful. our beauty is related to the passion and pleasure of God’s heart. He is not an angry God.
4. Her destiny as the future Bride of Christ. God is confident in His ability to work out our salvation and bringing us into maturity. If we will continue to partner with Him the certainty of our destiny as an adorned, embraced and enthroned Bride with Jesus is a substantial reality of our beauty.

The correct response when we sin is to run to God, not away from Him. When we run from Him it is because we don’t understand His personality. We run away because we feel shame and think that we’ve shocked God by stumbling. But God is not shocked. He wants us to come to Him, repent, and move on. Just hit ‘delete’ and keep on going.

To consistently grow spiritually requires that we know we are lovely to God while we are on the journey of discovering the darkness of our own heart. Some think victory is only when they have subdued the flesh entirely. However, the very presence of sincere desires to obey jesus is the beginning of victory.