The Garden of God

Introduction

There is an interesting metaphor in the Scriptures used to describe the church of God: a garden. In the Song of Solomon, the Bride of Christ is described thus: “A garden inclosed is my sister, my spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed” (Song. 4:12). She is a fenced-in garden, not part of the wild forest or the desert. She is a spring and fountain open only to her Maker, her Husband. We know this refers to the church because the entire Song of Solomon is a discourse between the Savior and his Bride. This is a Garden of Jehovah’s making: “For the LORD shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody” (Is. 51:3). In Ezekiel, we see that this is work is accomplished through the New Covenant: “And they shall say, This land that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden; and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are become fenced, and are inhabited” (Ezek. 36:35). There are several important truths that we ought to glean from the use of this metaphor. After all, the Holy Spirit utilized this picture for a reason, and so we ought to think deeply about the truths revealed to us.

Things Full of Life

First, gardens are things full of life. Seeds or seedlings are planted, watered; these absorb the sunlight, and produce fruits and vegetables. These are living things, growing and changing and fulfilling their purpose. The soil itself is “alive” in a sense. It is full of nutrients which the plants need to flourish. It is home to the worms and insects that naturally till the earth, and help in the decomposition process, which in turn continually supplies the necessary nutrients for growth. In a manner of speaking, in a garden we can see dead things used to bring life. Compost piles are filled with discarded eggshells, vegetable matter, and other “dead” things that are used to liven up the soil of a garden. In our garden, we have a bed of rotting wood and leaves that will one day turn into rich soil. So too the church of God is a thing full of life. She is composed of dead things brought back to life. Particularly, she is composed of those who were once dead in trespasses and sins (Eph. 2:1) who have been raised to newness of life with Jesus Christ the Lord (Rom. 6:4). This is an important truth that we must settle on before going any further when discussing the concept of Bearing Much Fruit. The very idea of producing fruit implies life. A dead tomato plant will never produce tomatoes, regardless of how much time and energy you put into it. Life comes out of living things. This is one of the things that makes regeneration such an amazing, miraculous work of God. Who but the Lord God Almighty can take a dead thing and make it alive? Who else but the Lord God Omnipotent which reigneth can breathe life and flesh into dry and dusty bones? Thus, the church must be a collection of regenerated souls purchased by the blood of the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. There are many, unfortunately, who do not have such a view of the church, at least not as she is now. They see her as something of a mixed field, both a garden and a desolation, filled with believer and unbeliever, regenerate and unregenerate alike. But what place does a dead thing have in the Garden of God? What do we do with plants that have died in our gardens, but uproot them and cast them out? This is not to say that one of God’s elect can lose their salvation, for the Lord Jesus said, “this is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day” (Jn. 6:39). At the same time, we understand both by Scripture and experience that there are those who profess the name of Jesus Christ who depart from the church. Of these, the apostle John says, “They went out from us, but they were not of us” (1 Jn. 2:19). Though a person is able to fool his pastors, deacons, and fellow church members, he cannot fool God, who “shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel” (Rom. 2:16). The church, then, the Garden of God, is made up of those who believe, who have been given everlasting life.

The Garden Will Be “Weeded”

Second, weeds grow in gardens as well as fruit-bearing plants. In Matthew 13, the Savior tells a parable of “the kingdom of heaven” (v.24). A man sows good seed in his field, and while he sleeps his enemies come and sow tares. The Greek word in verse 25 translated “tares” is the noun ζιζάνιον (zizanion). It refers to a plant also called the darnel. Robertson writes, “In its earlier stages it is indistinguishable from the wheat stalks so that it has to remain till near the harvest” (Robertson 1930, 108). Notice that these tares, which look just like the wheat, grow up in the same field with the wheat. Remember that this is a parable describing “the kingdom of heaven.” This is not the world at large, but the church. This tells us that while the church itself (the field) is planted by Christ with “good seed,” it is infiltrated by his enemies, and within her spring up those that look like Christians, but are really not Christians. This does not mean that the church is composed of both believer and unbeliever; it means that the enemies of Jesus Christ sneak into the midst of the church (Gal. 2:4). In other words, to use the language of the parable, the wheat and the tares are not equals, even though they look the same. What does the Savior say? “Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn” (v.30). Only the saints are truly members of the Garden of God; false professors, those who merely claim the name of Christ (though they may have the appearance of holiness), are weeds that have sprung up, and will be gathered separately for the fire when the Lord Jesus Christ comes to inspect his Garden. But more on this later.

Beauty and Joy

Third, a garden is a thing of beauty and joy, filled with the music of nature. Picture a well-tended garden in full bloom. There is yellow squash, zucchini of one shade of green, jalapeños of another shade of green, red tomatoes, orange cherry tomatoes, light green cucumbers, and so on. There are so many different colors, and different fruits and vegetables. There is something, also, of great joy in the simplicity of harvesting produce for which you labored. Work and sweat go into a garden, sometimes with blood and tears! Occasionally there is great frustration, as when a summer drought ruins the crop or a hailstorm pulverizes the plants. But come harvest time, when the earth has yielded her increase, there is something special in the simple joy of plucking a tomato from the vine. Further, a garden has music all its own that cannot be reproduced by man. The hum of honeybees, the thrumming of dragonflies, the sound of the breeze blowing through the field, all of these compose a beautiful natural melody. So, too, the Garden of God is a beautiful thing full of joy and music. The Psalmist writes, “Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King” (Ps. 48:2). The Bridegroom says to his Bride: “O my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs, let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely” (Song. 2:14). In Zephaniah 3:17 we read, “The LORD thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing.” Have you ever wondered why God commands singing as part of our worship of him? Growing up, I did not understand the reason behind singing hymns and psalms and spiritual songs. The reason is simple: our songs of praise and adoration of our God is an expression of our joy in him. Rejoicing and singing go together; the former is the cause of the latter. Again, the Psalmist sings, “Sing unto him, sing psalms unto him: talk ye of all his wondrous works. Glory ye in his holy name: let the heart of them rejoice that seek the LORD” (Ps. 105:2-3). This is one reason why the songs we sing in the worship of God are important. We ought to glory and rejoice in the Lord himself, and so our songs ought to be addressed to him. We ought not to rejoice more in the gift than in the One who bestows it. Nor should we content ourselves with shallow songs containing irreverent or man-focused lyrics. Let him that glorieth, glory in the Lord.

The Divine Purpose

Fourth, a garden is planted for a purpose. No one plants a garden without expecting something from it. We do not put tomato plants in the ground, and then let the tomatoes rot and fall to the ground. We harvest them and enjoy them. Even so, the Lord God did not plant his Garden on the earth without a purpose. Psalm 80 describes Israel, and spiritually the church, and verse 8 says, “Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt: thou hast cast out the heathen, and planted it.” As the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt, so too he has delivered his people from their bondage to the law, sin, and death (Gal. 5:1; 1 Cor. 15:56). For what reason did God plant this beautiful, living, joyful Garden? The Lord Jesus gave us the answer, using the metaphor of the vine: “Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples” (Jn. 15:8). The word “that” in this verse is the Greek conjunction ἵνα (hina), which typically introduces the purpose of something. In this instance, it is showing us the manner in which we glorify the Father; namely, in bearing much fruit. The purpose of all creation is to glorify God: “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created” (Rev. 4:11). Thus, the reason why the Father has united us to the Lord Jesus Christ is to glorify him by bearing much fruit. In John 15:5, the Lord Jesus said, “I am the vine, ye are the branches: he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.” Now we find the depth of the metaphor. We are engrafted into the Lord Jesus Christ, as Paul says in Romans 6:5, “for if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection.” In that verse, Paul used a gardening term: planted. Our life is the life of Christ in us (Gal. 2:20). Therefore, we bring forth much fruit, and so glorify our Father in heaven. In short, this is our purpose: to bear fruit unto God. In case there is any doubt left, the apostle Paul lays this truth out for us in the simplest and clearest of terms. In Romans 7:4 he writes, “Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.”

Conclusion

The question then becomes, am I bearing fruit? If I profess to be a plant in the Garden of God, a member of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, am I fulfilling my purpose of bringing forth fruit unto God? The wheat and the tare look the same on the outside, but the wheat has life inside it. There are grave warnings in the Bible concerning those that do not bear fruit, and there is a striking warning to those who bear fruit only for themselves. We must take the Word of God seriously, and examine ourselves. Yet in doing so, we would wander astray if we kept our eyes on ourselves. We cannot produce fruit in our own power, by the false strength of the arm of the flesh. The only way that we will bear fruit for God is by looking to and trusting the Lord Jesus Christ, humbling ourselves under the mighty hand of God, and depending fully and unreservedly on the power of the Holy Spirit in us. Sadly, there are many today who are not bearing fruit, and there are many today who are not bearing as much fruit as they ought. Perhaps you find yourself in one of those categories. The remedy for this is neither defeatism or escapism. We tend to both of these things when confronted with difficulties. We think that we shall never overcome the obstacles, and resign ourselves to a miserable existence full of defeat. Or we ignore the truth, bury our head in the sand, and continue on hoping to escape from the implications of the things with which we are confronted. We must avoid both of these. Instead, we must look with eyes of faith to the Lord Jesus Christ. We must believe the Word of God, and we must live the Word of God. If we belong to the Lord Jesus, the good work began in us will be completed by our Father in heaven through the operation of God the Holy Spirit. Therefore, if you are feeling convicted, know two things. First, I was convicted first, and this is as much to myself as it is to anyone reading. So you are not alone in this battle, but rather you are part of a great company of saints who daily must wage war with the world, the flesh, and the devil. Second, your conviction is designed to drive you into the arms of the Savior. Conviction, for the believer, is not a bad thing. It is a good, sanctifying thing. This is how the apostle John comforted those to whom he wrote: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 Jn. 1:9).