Chapter XV · The Upper Room — J. C. Ryle
— Canticles 4:12
THE Lord Jesus Christ has a garden. It is the company of all who are true believers in Him. They are His garden.
Viewed in one light, believers are Jesus Christ’s spouse. They are all joined to Him by art everlasting covenant that cannot be broken; wedded to Him by the marriage of faith; taken by Him to be His for ever, with all their debts and liabilities, with all their faults and imperfections. Their old name is gone, they have no name but that of their Bridegroom. God the Father regards them as one with His dear Son. Satan can lay no charge against them. They are the Lamb’s wife: “My Beloved is mine, and I am His” (Cant. 2:16).
Viewed in another light, believers are Christ’s sister. They are like to Him in many things. They have His Spirit; they love what He loves, and hate what He hates; they count all His members brethren; through Him they have the spirit of adoption, and can say of God, “He is my Father.” Faint indeed is their resemblance to their elder Brother! And still they are like.
Viewed in a third light, believers are Christ’s garden. Let us see how and in what way.
I. Jesus calls His people a garden, because they are altogether different firm the men of the world. The world is a wilderness: it brings forth little but thorns and thistles; it is fruitful in nought but sin. The children of this world are an untilled wilderness in God’s sight. With all their arts and sciences, intellect and skill, eloquence and statesmanship, poetry and refinement,-with all this they are a wilderness, barren of repentance, faith, holiness, and obedience to God. The Lord looks down from heaven, and where He sees no grace, there the Lord can see nothing but a “wilderness” state of things. The Lord Jesus Christ’s believing people are the green spot of the earth; the oasis amidst barren deserts; they are His garden.
He calls His people a garden, because they are sweet and beautiful to His mind. He looks on the world, and it grieves Him to the heart: He looks on the little flock of His believing people, and is well pleased. He sees in them the fruit of His travail, and is satisfied. He rejoices in spirit when He sees the kingdom revealed to babes, though the wise and prudent receive it not. As in the day of Noah’s sacrifice, He smells a sweet odour and is refreshed. It is very wonderful, very mysterious! Believers are vile in their own eyes, and feel themselves miserable sinners; yet Jesus says, “Thou art all fair,---sweet is thy voice,—thy countenance is comely,—beautiful as Tirzah, comely as Jerusalem, fair as the moon, and clear as the sun” (Cant. 1:15, 4:7, 2:14, 6:10, etc.). Oh, the depths! It sounds incomprehensible and almost incredible; but it is true.
He calls His people a garden, because He delights to walk among them. He sees the children of this world, but He mingles not with them. His eyes are on all their ways, but He does not come down to talk with them, as He did to Abraham, like a man with his friend.
On the other hand, He loves to walk among His candle, sticks, and see whether the light burns brightly. He loves to be present in the assemblies of His saints, and to come in and sup with them, and they with Him. He loves to come with His Father, and make His abode with His disciples; and wheresoever two or three are gathered in His name, there is He. He loves to come into His garden and eat His pleasant fruits; to go down to the beds of spices, and gather lilies; to see whether the vine flourishes, and the tender grape appears, and the pomegranates bud forth (Cant. 7:12). In short, He holds peculiar communion with His people, and deals familiarly with them, as He does not with the world.
He calls His people a garden, because they are useful, and bear fruit and flowers. Where is the real use of the children of this world? Of what value are they, while they continue unconverted? They are unprofitable tenants and worthless cumberers of the ground. They bring no glory to the Lord that bought them; they fulfil not their part in creation; they stand alone in the world of created beings, not doing the work for which their Maker meant them. The heavens declare the glory of God,—the trees, the corn, the grass, the flowers, the streams, the birds speak forth His praise,—but the man of the world does nothing to show that he cares for God, or serves God, or loves God, or feels grateful for Christ’s redeeming death.
The Lord’s people are not so. They bring Him some revenue of glory. They bear some little fruit, and are not altogether barren and unprofitable servants. Compared to the world, they are a garden.