Canticles 4: 12
by Rev. J. C. Ryle, D.D.
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 an 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.” (Canti. 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.
- Jesus calls His people a garden, because they are altogether different from 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” (Canticles 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 candlesticks, 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.
II. The Lord’s garden has a distinctive peculiarity about it. It is a garden inclosed.
There is an inclosure round believers; or else they never would be saved. This is the secret of their safety. It is not their faithfulness, their strength, or their love, — it is the wall around them which prevents their being lost. They are a “garden inclosed”.
They are inclosed by God the Father’s everlasting election.
Long before they were born, — long before the foundations of the world, — God knew them, chose them, and appointed them to obtain salvation by Jesus Christ. The children of this world do not like to hear this doctrine proclaimed. It humbles man, and leaves him no room to boast. But whether it is abused or not, the doctrine of election is true. It is the cornerstone of the believer’s foundation, that he was chosen in Christ before the world began. Who can rightly estimate the strength of this inclosure?
They are inclosed by the special love of God the Son.
The Lord Jesus is the Saviour of all men, but He is specially the Saviour of them that believe. He has power over all flesh, but He gives eternal life to them that are specially given to Him, in a way that He does to none others. . . . He invites all, but He quickens whom He will, and brings them to glory. He prays for them; he prays not for the world. He intercedes for them, that they may be kept from evil, that they may be sanctified by the truth, that their faith fail not. Who can fully describe the blessedness of this inclosure?
They are inclosed by the effectual working of God the Holy Ghost.
The Spirit of Christ calls them out from the world, and separates them as effectually as if a wall were built between them and it. He puts in them new hearts, new minds, new tastes, new desires, new sorrows, new joys, new wishes, new pleasures, new longings. He gives them new eyes, new ears, new affections, new opinions. He makes them new creatures; they are born again, and with a new birth they begin a new existence. Mighty indeed is the transforming power of the Holy Spirit! The believer and the world are completely put asunder, and everlastingly separated. You may place a believer and an unbeliever together, marry them, join them under one roof, but you cannot unite them any more into one piece. The one is part of the “garden inclosed”, and the other is not. Effectual calling is a barrier that cannot be broken.
Who can tell the comfort of this threefold wall of inclosure! Believers are inclosed by election, inclosed by washing and intercession, inclosed by calling and regeneration. Great is the consolation of these threefold bands of love around us, — the love of God the Father, the love of God the Son, the love of God the Holy Ghost! A threefold cord is not easily broken.
Does any reader suppose for a moment that all this was not needed? I believe that nothing short of this threefold inclosure could save the Lord’s garden from utter ruin. Without election, intercession, and regeneration, there is not one soul who would get to heaven. The wild boar out of the wood would break in and devour; the roaring lion would come in and trample all under his feet. The devil would soon lay the Lord’s garden level with the ground.
Blessed be God for this, that we are a garden inclosed! Blessed be God, our final safety hangs not on anything of our own, — not on our graces and feelings, — not on our degree of sanctification, — not on our perseverance in well doing — not on our love, — and not on our growth in grace, — not on our prayers and Bible readings, — not even on our faith. It hangs on nothing else but the work of Father, Son and Holy Ghost. If this threefold work inclose us, who shall overthrow our hope? If God be for us, who can be against us?
Adam had a heart free from sin. Adam was strong in innocence and undefiled by contact with bad examples and corrupt neighbours. Adam was on a higher ground, a thousand times higher than we now occupy; and yet Adam fell before temptation. There was no inclusion round him, no wall to keep Satan out, no barrier round the first flower of the Lord’s garden — and see how Adam fell.
Let believers open their sleepy eyes and try to understand the value of their privileges. This is the most blessed part of the Lord’s garden. It is a “garden inclosed”. I believe if there was no election, there would be no salvation. I never saw a man who would be saved if it depended in any wise on himself. Let us all thank the Lord Jesus, every day, and thank Him from our hearts, that His people are a chosen and guarded people, and that His garden is nothing less than a “garden inclosed”.