Tozer in the Morning – Church as the Bride of Christ
. . . the church is the bride of Christ. Jesus was a complete man. He had all the nature of a man, but He never married. He could have, but He never did. He never married any woman though He was a true and complete man. He never married a daughter of a woman that He might marry His whole church, the bride. A true local church is the bride of Christ in recapitualtion, in miniature. Everything that is in the whole church of Christ should be recapitulated in the local church. The church, part of it in heaven and part of it on earth, is the bride of Christ. Our Lord Jesus washed His bride, regenerated her and prepared her. He is coming back to take her–the whole church–as His bride. But any local church is the whole church in recapitulation, just as a local election recapitulates a national one. The same liberty is expressed. The same candidates run. They talk about each other; they plead their own worth and put up bulletins and do the same thing on a small scale that they do on the federal level. That may be a poor illustration, but the whole bride of Christ is recapitulated. Any local church is what the whole church is, just in miniature Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church (Ephesians 5:25-29). This figure drawn from husbands and wives is applied directly without apology to Jesus Christ and His church. Just as a young man would not marry a dirty bride, so Jesus Christ will not marry a church that has stains or wrinkles or blemishes. His desire is for a glorious church, and He wants to love that church as a man loves his own bride.
Tozer in the Evening – God Love
God being who and what He is must love Himself with pure and perfect love. The Persons of the Godhead love each other with a love so fiery, so tender, that it is all a burning flame of intense desire ineffable. God is Himself the only being whom He can love directly; all else that He loves is for His own sake and because He finds some reflection of Himself there . God loves His mute creation because He sees in it an imperfect representation of His own wisdom and power. He loves the angels and seraphim because He sees in them some likeness of His holiness. He loves men because He beholds in them a fallen relic of His own image. Potentially God loves all men alike, but His active love lights upon some men more than upon others, the degree depending upon how much of Himself He is able to impart to them. The truly Christlike soul enjoys more of God’s love because God sees in it a truer image of Himself than in a soul less purified. God loves His Son with infinite perfection because He is the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person.