Roses the Symbol of Love

Roses are a symbol of love. A reflection of the beauty of God. What is God’s beauty and how can we see it when we look at a rose?

The Beauty of God is His holiness which consists in the Eternal Love he has toward Himself as the Supreme Beauty.  In God’s love to Himself or His Son, God does no evil.  There is no mixture of evil in God.

So we look at a rose and see is there a mixture of evil of any kind.

The Father Loves to behold the matchless Beauty of His Son who is the Brightness of His Glory.  God desires for us to delight in what he delights in.  God’s infinite delight is in His Son.  His Son is infinitely beautiful in all His natural attributes and His Spirit is Beauty itself, holiness itself, love itself, For God’s Spirit is infinitely Holy, Lovely and Beautiful!

The love of God written on the heart consists in both the mind and the affections.  The common love of God is communicated to the whole heart when both the mind and affection are engaged.  The mind in beholding and the affections in sensing.  Herein the common Love of God is tasted or experienced by the whole soul.

I say common love of God because there is a special love of God that only believers can sense and feel from God through Jesus Christ by faith.  We don’t see Jesus but we know he loves us and it gives us pleasure and delight to know that but I primary concern is not to desire the feeling apart from knowing Him.  We were created to Glorify God and enjoy Him!!  God is worthy of the greatest delight for His special love to those in Christ is more delightful to experience than the beholding of the most beautiful flower!

Just seeing someone give a rose needs no explanation.  He loves her and is expressing it by giving her a rose.  We just intuitively see beauty and delight in beholding the rose, yet there is more delight in beholding a husband express his love to his wife by giving the rose.  The rose is only a physical beauty yet the act of love is a moral beauty, yet both can give us true knowledge of the love of God, therefore to see a husband give a flower to the one he loves is a beautiful act.  Pure expressions of love are beautiful, this is why Christ’s death on the Cross is the most beautiful act because His dying love to God and sinful man is the greatest expression of love.  “No greater love does some have than this, that he lay his life down for his friends.”

In the mind we have knowledge of God and in the heart there is a response to that knowledge of God.  A response that is felt by us and returned to God for love is not complete unless it has God for the first and God for the last.  Love must be felt in order to be understood.

So you can gain knowledge of the love of God when you look at a rose and feel something.  A rose is but a mere reflection of the infinite Beauty.  A rose is lovely and God’s Loveliness consists in how Beautiful He is.  How beautiful is a rose in comparison to the Beauty of God?

The holiness of the rose makes it beautiful!  The more holy the more beautiful!  What are the various natural aspects of the holiness of the rose?

1. The holiness of the shape.
   1. No defect can be in the shape that distracts from the rose its beauty.  What do we see with the eyes and feel in the body.  We see a beautiful shape and feel joy, happiness or delight.  The point is that we have a feeling a response to the sight of the shape.  If the sight is pleasing to the eye then delight is felt when you behold its beauty.  Proper proportions.  The holiness of the shape of the rose depends upon the symmetry and proper proportions of the pedals, leaves etc.
2. The holiness of the color.
   1. All the various colors are consistent with beauty.  There in no deformity or eye sore in the colors being seen.  Now you behold beauty in the shape and also the color.  Depending on the health of the flower the color contributes to the beautiful sight.
   2. Holiness of the smell.  Here we have a function.  Is the rose defective in any way.  Should it produce a good smell but it produces a bad one?  I don’t know a rose of this sort but most roses that are supposed to smell will smell.  Now I do believe that our senses are cursed to some degree and our bodies dying there our ability to really sense all that is there is hindered but our senses in heaven will be glorified and the sights will be more beautiful and the smells much more delightful.  What I mean here is that is the rose doing what the rose is intended to do and made for.  To reflect the invisible attributes of God.  His Godhead and eternal power.  Wisdom, goodness and his love all by God’s common Grace.  A flower that is supposed to smell and doesn’t would then have a defect in it and not be consistent with its purpose supposing it was created by God to smell pleasing to the nose (supposing some roses aren’t intended to smell).  A rose that stinks would be contrary to the nature of the rose and would then have a mixture of some sort of natural evil, therefore the fullness of the beauty as a whole would be hindered.  The sight would be nice but as soon as you smelled a rose that stunk then you would know something to be wrong.  Not just something wrong but backwards.  Natural evils are backwards to natural beauty.  This is a good illustration of someone who claims to be a Christian and looks good on the outside but if your were to get a wiff of their private live or be able to see in their heart and everyone is backwards and altogether corrupt.  But a rose that gave off the fragrance that it was intended to then herein lies another beauty of the rose that is supposed to smell.  Function plays a role in natural beauty.
3. The holiness of the functions within itself.  Is the rose perfectly suited for its purpose.  How well does it communicate beauty to the minds and delight in the soul?  Is it dysfunctional or useful?  Is it a fit object of beauty.  The ability of the rose to communicate the benevolent common love of God to both the mind and heart when beholding a rose is determined by the degree of excellence in the flower, the mind that behold it, the heart to sense the beauty, the smell and the harmony of all.
   1. Harmony.  There must be a harmony between the object and the whole heart.  An agreement.  Seen with the mind and felt in the heart.   Here when both happen then the love of God is communicated to the whole heart by God’s common grace and love to all mankind.  Yet there may be a defect in the mind and not the object beheld that may hinder the view, but the greater the excellence of the flower the greater the natural holiness of it.  The greater the ability to reflect the love of God the more excellent the flower.
   2. The more excellence the greater the beauty.  God is the most excellent Being therefore the most Beautiful for there is none like Him.  All other beauties come from him and  The more of being in the flower the greater the beauty that is possible to be seen and delighted in.

So now you have the beauty of the rose depending upon the holiness of the shape, color, smell and the harmony of it all.

Delight in beholding.    Joy and delight in God are good principles.  These emotions are religious affection in the heart.  In the shape, color and smell of the rose you have information going to the mind and producing and effect in the heart.  Something is felt.  Pleasure in the mind is felt due to God’s love of beneficence to all, wether sinner or saint they all sense the delight or happiness to some degree or another.  They have a good feeling when beholding the beauty and experiencing the pleasure of the smell.

 

Application

Behold the beauty of the rose and do not worry about your life, what you will eat, what you will wear and do not worry about tomorrow.  Keep your heart beautiful by not worrying.  God clothes the rose with such beauty and your are much more valuable then nature for you have a soul.  God puts a higher value on taking care of your physical and spiritual needs than the value he puts on making the rose glorious and beautiful.  Yes God cares for the beauty of the rose but your beauty is of much more value to Him.  Therefore the priority of all the works of God are for you.  There all work together for your spiritual good in Christ.  All things work together for the beautification of your soul.  God beautifies the rose how much more so would the holiness of your heart be of concern to God.  Our souls transform into the beautiful likeness of God when we think often about Jesus.  Jesus is Beautiful and all He did was Beautiful for Jesus, God’s Son is infinitely Holy.  That which is naturally or morally holy is beautiful.

Thank the goodness of God in giving such wonderful object of beauty to delight in!!  Roses are beautiful yet Jesus Christ’s Beauty is far more delightful to behold.  Thank the Lord that the world is not all black and deformed, Praise the LORD!! Praise the LORD for Jesus Christ the spotless Lamb of God.  Jesus is beautiful because He is spotless.  Jesus is absolutely lovely and without mixture of evil.  When told to leave heaven for sinful man, Christ is lovely and beautiful because He left perfect happiness to suffer in our place.  When Christ obeys then His Love to God is on display.  Since Jesus Love God He obeyed thus revealing to us His Holiness for holiness consists in love to God.   See or rather understand in your mind how knowing that Jesus obeyed the Father, this is love to the Father.  Beautiful.  The holiness of Christ is His Beauty or moral excellency.  We see it shine brightest and most beautiful when we take our sins to the cross and see Jesus dying for them.  He who has been forgiven much will love much for they see the greatness of God’s Beauty next to their great deformity and evil and they hate their sin and love God more for they love holiness and delight in it and hate pride, selfishness and unbelief.

More lessons on roses

“I am a rose” 1

Beauty within, I am a rose

“I am a rose” 3

 

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