Song of Solomon 2:16

Song of Solomon 2:16

These few deep words express the bond or hold of love between Christ and His Elect, whether they be saints or penitents, and they fasten it by a twofold strength. "My beloved is mine; and not this alone, but "I am His." They teach us:

I. That He is ours in the very sense in which we speak of our father or our child, our life or our own soul. And how has He become ours? Not by deserving or earning, by finding or seeking; not by climbing up to Him, or taking Him for ours; but because He gave Himself to us. He gave Himself to us as the bridegroom gives Himself to the bride. In this mystery of love is summed up all that is inviolable, binding and eternal. He will never draw back from it, or release Himself, or annul His vows, or cast us away. The pledge of His love is everlasting, as His love itself.

II. And next: these words mean that, in giving Himself to be ours, He took us to be His own. It is a full contract, binding both, though made and accomplished by Himself alone. We are bought, purchased, redeemed; we are pledged, vowed, and betrothed; but, better than all these, He has made us to be His by the free, willing and glad consent of our own heart. This is why we may call Him "My Beloved."

III. These words are full of all manner of consolation. (1) They interpret to us the whole discipline of sorrow. It is most certain that, if it were not necessary for our very salvation, He would never send affliction. (2) In this we see further the true pledge of our perseverance unto the end. Our whole salvation is begun, continued, and ended in His love. He that kept us from perishing when we were willing to perish, will surely keep us from perishing now that we are trembling to be saved. (3) In this there is our true and only stay in death. If we were saints, if we loved Him with all our soul and with all our strength, the most blessed day in life would be the last. To go and be with Him whom our soul loveth; to be for ever with Him, gazing upon His face of love, ourselves sinless, and living by love alone this is heaven.

H. E. Manning, Sermons,vol. iii., p. 411.

I. Think first of the person here designated "My Beloved." Christ is the object of the believer's love. He is altogether lovely (1) when we consider His Person. We behold in Him all the beauty of the Godhead and of humanity. (2) When we consider His suitableness. He is suitable to us as the image of the invisible God. Man needs this: man was made thus. He was himself made in God's image, after His likeness and he lost it; but now he has in Christ the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. He is suitable to our state as ignorant being made of God unto us "wisdom;" as guilty being made of God unto us "righteousness;" as polluted being made of God unto us "sanctification;" and as altogether undone being made of God unto us "redemption."

II. Now of this Beloved, the Church says and the believer says, "He is mine, and I am His." This is the language (1) of direct faith; (2) of adherence to Christ; (3) of strong affection.

III. There are times when this affection is brought into more lively exercise, and the soul says, "My Beloved is mine and I am His." (1) There is the time of conversion of the first embracing of Christ. (2) There are times of special approach, of peculiar fellowship, when Christ draws near the soul, and the soul under His approach draws near. (3) There is the time of recovery out of backsliding, out of carelessness, out of forgetfulness of God. (4) There is the hour of death; (5) the hour of temptation, which is twofold temptation of want, and temptation of fulness. (6) The time of sacramental communion when He who gave Himself for you gives Himself to you.

J. Duncan, The Pulpit and Communion Table,p. 159.

The going-out of every man's mind is after property. The keenest man of business and the devoutest Christian share this principle alike; both desire property. There is no rest in anything till it is property. This universal desire is the return of the mind to the original design of its creation. Man was made to be a proprietor. Sin broke the title-deeds; all property rose in rebellion against its proprietor, and death cancelled every tenure. From that time, man has nothing to do with any creature, but as with a loan. The heart that holds, and the treasure that is holden, are only upon a lease. Woe to the man who calls anything his own. He will wake up tomorrow and find it gone, Christ is the property the only property a man has, or ever can have, in any world. God never revokes that. And Christ carries with Him the universe, and carries with Him all that is of real value in this life. "My Beloved is mine, and I am His."

I. The communication of Christ to the Church is always called a gift."Unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given."

II. It is not only by a common deed of gift that Christ is made over to a believer, it has been made a matter of most solemn contract.

III. There is a property to which neither gift nor compact can reach. It is the property which a man holds in himself.Christ is actually in you, the very being, and framework, and constitution in every believer. There is no unity in any part of a man in himself more real than that which Christ holds with every member of His Church.

IV. "I am His." Possession depends upon the possessor. What were the best property if the possessor cannot keep it? There are two ways in which possession may be obtained. By an act on the part of the possessor, and by an act on the part of the possessed. On the part of the possessor, by purchase and conquest, and on the part of the possessed by surrender. It is by these three processes, united, that any soul becomes Christ's property.

J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons,10th series, p. 215.

References: Song of Solomon 2:16. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. vii., No. 374, and vol. xx., No. 1190; J. Duncan, The Pulpit and Communion Table,p. 172.Song of Solomon 2:16; Song of Solomon 2:17. Ibid., Evening by Evening,p. 171; J. M. Neale, Sermons on the Song of Songs,p. 118.