8. The Christ-Song is in the Key of Love
8. The Christ-Song is in the Key of Love.
“The Lord is the Song!” (Genesis 15:2; Psalm 118:14; Isaiah 12:2).
The Song with a Body. There are a few ways to understand this recurring biblical passage… The Lord is the reason I sing. The Lord is Who I love to sing about. The Lord is the object of my singing. The Lord is Who we sing to. The Lord is the one Who inspires our singing. I sing because of the Lord, in honor of the Lord, in obedience to the Lord. Many translations put this verse as saying, “The Lord is my song.” But biblical scholars say that this passage could just as correctly be translated as, “The Lord is The song,” or even, “The Lord is the song of God.”
Jesus is The Song. So this important piece of Scripture captures the imagination as it makes clear that… Jesus Himself IS the Song. Christ is the divine song with flesh on. He embodies the Song of the universe. Jesus is God’s Song to the world. The life of Christ is itself a Song. The Christ-Song is a perfectly constructed piece of eternal music in the flesh. Just as a song is the composer’s method of self-expression, Jesus is God’s perfect and ultimate form of Self-expression. As our Savior, Jesus is the Song of Salvation. As the Redeemer, He is the Song of Redemption. As the Deliverer, He is the Song of Deliverance. As the Wonderful Counselor, He is the Song of Wisdom. As the Prince of Peace, He is the Song of Shalom.
Another I AM? Might we be so bold as to add another I AM to John’s gospel list? I AM the Song. The Lord is my song, He is The Song. This idea makes it practically sacramental. Christ’s claim, I Am the Bread of Life, for example, was fulfilled in the Eucharist when we literally welcome the Bread of Life, the broken body of Jesus, into our very being. Likewise, when we sing the Song of Jesus, when we participate in Jesus as the Song, He becomes a part of us, body, soul and mind. The Christ-Song is the spiritual music in our lives.
The Infinity of the Song. Just as music, God’s greatest gift to mankind and the very language of heaven, has an infinite number of possibilities, the Christ-Song has an infinite number of styles, applications, qualities, moods. So it makes sense that the life and mission of Jesus can be explored by taking a careful look at the elements of a song. To study the aspects of the Christ-Song in the Gospels begs us to explore the elements of a song, any song. Hopefully, this study of the elements of the Christ-Song will make Him unforgettable, much like When words are put to music, they become unforgettable. When the living Word becomes the lyrics to a song, much the same happens. Hopefully, embracing Jesus Christ as the Song will make Him unforgettable as well. The elements of the Christ-Song can be explored through the ten elements of any song, including the Song’s key in which it is sung:
“Just as the Father has (agape) loved me, I have also (agape) loved you; dwell in my (agape) love. If you obey my commandments, you will be dwelling in my (agape) love; just as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and dwell in His (agape) love.” (John 15:9-10).
Sung in the Key of Love. Jesus made it clear that His mission centered on love, His ministry revolved around love, and that God’s love set the tone for the entire Christ-Song. In other words, the Christ-Song is set in the key of love, agape love. Agape established the sound of the Song’s music, and determined how the composer, the Father, wanted His Song to be sung on earth. The entire line of notes in the life of Christ, all His teaching and preaching, His healing and other miracles, His numerous exorcisms, all those actions set the tone of His ministry like the key of a song. All those love-actions reflected the sound of His Song. If ever Christ performed an action outside of love, He would have been off-key and defeated the purpose of the Song itself. But He never went off-key, nor was His music ever discordant, right up to the end. His life, death, resurrection and ascension all revolved around and were motivated by His Song of love.
What Kind of Love is Christ-Song Love? Agape love is the key of the Christ-Song, which is the supreme of all the loves, and desires the highest good of someone else. Agape is “the highest level of love known to humanity,” (C. S. Lewis), and thus can only come from above with God as its source. Agape love is the ultimate expression of God’s nature, the essence of His character (see Exodus 34). Agape love is not Eros, which is romantic love. It is not Phileo, which is brotherly love. It is not Storge, which is family love. Agape love is the divine love that can only come to us from the heart of God. Agape love is the love shared between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. God is truly the source of all these other loves, but it is only agape love that is poured into our hearts from the Holy Spirit, to those who believe in Christ. Agape love is an eternal virtue outlasting all the other virtues (1 Corinthians 13:8). Agape love is the primary fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22) Agape love, the sacred love of God, is universal, it is a gift, it is highly active, it is sacrificial, and it is unconditional. Agape was translated into Latin as Caritas, and thus agape has long been translated “charity.”
Since the Christ-Song is Eternal, Agape Love is always Sung by the Father as Well:
“As soon as Jesus had been immersed, He came up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, He saw the Spirit of God coming down upon Him like a dove, and a voice from Heaven said, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved, whom I love with agape love; I am well pleased with Him.” (Matthew 3:16-17).
“… in order that what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, saying, ‘Behold, my Child, my Servant, whom I have chosen; My Beloved (agape) in whom my soul is well-pleased; I will put my Spirit upon Him, and He shall proclaim justice to the Gentiles…” (Matthew 12:17-18, Isaiah 42:1).
“… And Jesus was transfigured right in front of them; and His face shone like the sun, and His garments became white as light… and behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice out of the cloud said, ‘This my Son, whom I love with agape love; I am well-pleased with Him; Listen to Him!” (Matthew 17:2-5).
A Closer Look at the Nature of the Song of Agape Love:
Agape Love is UNIVERSAL: “For God so agape-loved the entire cosmos that He gave His only and unique Son, so that everyone who faithfully trusts into Him may have eternal life instead of being utterly destroyed.” (John 3:16). This seems too good to be true. But actually, because of God’s love, it is so good it has to be true. Creator God has an eternal love for all people. He didn’t send his Son for the sake of the privileged or elite. He doesn’t love just those who are religious or pious. God truly loves everyone in His creation, past, present and future; the righteous and the unrighteous; the worthy and the unworthy; the broken and the whole; those who have a lot to offer and those who don’t. He sent His Son for those who would love Him, and those who would hate Him; those who might accept Christ and those who might reject Him; those who would worship Jesus and those who would shout “Crucify Him!” Not one person in the history of the world has had to qualify for God’s love, to somehow earn God’s love, to be considered worthy of His love. “For God so loved the world…” God took the initiative, God started the whole process of agape love. That kind of universal love is agape love, and is intended to spill out into the world through believers in Him.
Agape Love is A GIFT: “For we know how dearly God agape-loves us, because He has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with agape love; God has poured out His agape love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit whom He has given us; We can now experience the endless agape love of God cascading into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who lives in us!” (Romans 5:5) The most virtuous person on the planet cannot manufacture agape love as if it’s merely a highly esteemed trait. We don’t have it in us. We aren’t born with the ability to show agape love. It is impossible for us to demonstrate agape love on our own, because it can only derive from God, and not from human nature. Agape love is an undeserved gift. Faith in God comes first, even a microscopic faith. And then agape is poured into our hearts as believers, and it then spreads to the world. This divine love being poured into our hearts is meant to be demonstrated to others through acts of mercy, kindness and compassion. This love, this affectionate yearning that others are blessed, spills over from our hearts only after being poured into our hearts through a faithful submission to the Lord. Through the Holy Spirit, agape love can realistically become second nature to us and in us, displacing the old lesser loves in a Christian’s life. Agape love is the means by which God’s divine love may reach the world. Agape love is an eternal virtue, and it lasts forever (1 Cor. 13:8). Agape love is the primary fruit of the Spirit, the divine love offered to us to spread God’s love to others. Love poured into us, love splashed out to others… God’s gift to us that we would offer that gift to others.
Agape Love is UNCONDITIONAL: God’s agape has always been offered to the world unconditionally, so that same divine love in us is offered to others in the same way. Our love for others is fleshed out by desiring the highest good for someone else. Our love doesn’t expect anything in return, it is a love that gives but doesn’t take. Our love does not seek out those who would somehow be worthy of love, or could earn God’s love. Agape love is that love which is offered to hateful enemies (Matthew 5:43-46), to those who love nothing better than to hurt you and disrespect you. Agape love even desires what’s best for those who hate God. Agape is offered freely, no strings attached, to all made in the image of God. When we love an image-bearer, we are honoring our Creator. Agape love tends to involve, sooner or later, forgiveness.
Agape Love is SACRIFICIAL: Agape love is the ultimate demonstration of unselfishness, of self-denial for the benefit of others. Agape develops the habit of forgetting yourself on purpose. It is the willingness to remain a daily martyr of goodwill, picking up one’s cross so others are blessed. Agape love sometimes is demonstrated at great personal cost. It could even mean giving up something that is rightfully ours so that someone else can receive something he probably hasn’t earned. The clearest and most profound example of sacrificial agape love was the death of the Innocent One, Jesus Christ, on the Cross. He gave up His life for those who didn’t deserve it, which includes all of humanity. “No one has greater agape love than a person who is willing to lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13).
Agape Love is ACTIVE: Agape love is not theoretical, it is not abstract. It is not just a great idea ripe for discussion. Agape love actually does things, it acts out and demonstrates love. Agape doesn’t merely think about loving others with God’s love, agape fleshes out the love and makes it visible. Agape is filled with genuine empathy and not mere sentimentality. Feelings and emotions have nothing to do with agape love. Agape is an act of the will, a deliberate decision to demonstrate God’s love to others whether they deserve it or not, whether we “feel like it” or not. Agape loves what is best for someone else, which could mean accountability and a proper justice. So sometimes the best thing to do for someone else’s benefit is to stand in their way, and offer a hard word to hear, “speaking the truth in agape love (Ephesians 4:15).” It could mean mercy, too. That’s why agape love depends on the wisdom of God to discern what is best for someone else. Sometimes agape love is inactive, in the sense of not intervening, and stepping back if it is appropriate. Agape love is literally practical that way, and wants to put into play an imitation of Jesus as He knew when and what to say, what to do. Sometimes agape love appears to be rather inconsistent. We know that the Son of God was completely filled with agape love, and that He went around doing good, touching the untouchable, loving the unlovable, embracing the unclean, accepting those who were rejected, serving those who were unlovely and broken. If one wonders what agape love looks like in action, read the gospels and imitate Jesus. When we need to be reminded of what marks the life a true believer, we fix our eyes on Jesus and witness agape love in the flesh.
Agape Love in the Words of the Disciple Who Jesus Loved Best:
“By this it is made clear who take their nature from God and who take their nature from the devil: those who practice righteousness is of God, as well as anyone who agape-loves his fellow believer in Christ. For this is the message which you have heard from the first, that we should love one another with agape love.” (1 John 3:10-11).
“By this we have come to understand the nature of agape love: that He laid down His own life for us; and we ought to lay our lives down for those who are our brothers and sisters in Him. But if anyone has this world’s resources and sees his fellow believer in need, yet closes his heart of compassion against him, how can the agape love of God live in him? Little children, let us not agape-love merely in theory or in speech but in practice and in truth.” (1 John 3:16-18).
“And we have come to understand by experience and put our trust in this agape love that comes from God. God is Agape Love. When we dwell in agape love, and take up permanent residence in God’s agape love, we remain united with God, we in God and God in us. This way, agape love becomes at home in us, in our communion with Him, and it matures in us, so that we’re free of worry on Judgment Day. For our standing in the world is identical to Christ’s.” (1 John 4:16-18).
“We agape-love God now, because He first agape-loved us. If anyone boasts, ‘I love God,’ and continues to detest his brother or sister in Christ, he is a liar; if he won’t agape-love the person he can see, how can he agape-love the God he can’t see? This charge we have from Christ is blunt: Agape-loving God includes agape-loving people. You’ve got to agape-love both.” (1 John 4:19-21).
The Song of Christ is Love. Agape is what God is made of, it is the true substance of God Himself, it is perfect key of the Christ-Song. St. John didn’t say “Love is God,” as if any old kind of love is acceptable, that they are all equal; as if one’s ability to show human love is somehow the same as and equal to the divine presence of God; as if expressing any kind of love is sufficient to replace a belief in God. Loving your spouse, loving your best friend, loving your family, they are all blessed by God and have God as their source. Human loves are like navigable streams coming from a huge, thriving river. The River is Agape Love, and that River’s waterfall singing of divine love comes to us from heaven and is always ready to splash into our hearts. St. John declared that “God is love” (1 John 4:16), and so the Christ-Song is always sung in the key of love.