Welcome to a year of reading Richard Sibbes together! The reading plan for the entire year can be accessed here. I encourage you to stick with us, allow yourself time to read, and soak in the riches of this gifted and prolific Puritan preacher. You will be edified and encouraged.
If you have trouble with how Sibbes used words, check out the Lexicons of Early Modern English for definitions from the period.
Summary/Engagement
Speaking. Committing a crime. Loving the Yankees. What do these things have in common? They are irreversible. They can be amended, atoned for, changed, but they cannot be undone.
We live irreversible lives. As much as we talk about second chances, new lives in new cities, new jobs, they are new because there was something before. We cannot move backwards and what is done cannot be undone. This is true because we are temporal beings of finite nature, incapable of anything else. The new birth brought on by Christ, something we are incapable of creating, is a miracle. He brings life where there is death. He reverses the curse.
Living in light of this knowledge, as we all do, leads to the fear of death. We fear what we cannot see, what we do not know. It is a divide that cannot be reversed. There is no amending death. Once crossed, we cannot retrace our steps. That is why no man can tell you about death, outside of the revelation of Jesus Christ. God is the only one who has crossed or caused others to cross that divide. This is why the Bible has authority on the subject and not the latest best selling novel. Only one has died (three days dead, not seconds or minutes, that’s REALLY dead) and come back to speak with us.
Jesus Christ.
“Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”” (John 6:68–69)
Application / Further Discussion
What does this have to do with possessing all things as Sibbes wrote about? (1 Cor 3:21-23) In Christ we need not fear death. Stop, and think about death, your fear of it, and that in Christ you need not fear it anymore. (Really, stop. Think.) We’re afraid of what we don’t know. If we’re honest we’d like to hear from someone who’s been there what it’s like. Not the charlatan books, but people we trust and can talk to. Yes, we read it in the Bible, but our sin leads us to unbelief and doubt. Lord, help our unbelief!
Death has been defanged. That serpent who tempted mankind in to sin and death has had his venomous bite rendered useless by the cross of Christ.
“Death is ours every way. It is our greatest friend under the mask of an enemy. So that, whatever Satan may suggest to the contrary, death is ours; our friend that was our enemy; a good thing that was an ill.”
Sibbes says that “our death is our birthday.” Happy birthday. He’s entirely right, though. At our death we are finally freed from sin and its ruinous effects. We put off this mortal body, full of corruption and sin, and put on immortality, glory, and righteousness. Like any birthday there are gifts, which I have mentioned some, but the greatest is that we will behold God face to face.
The removal of sin and corruption and putting on the garment of righteousness that occurs in the death of a Christian is like the High Priests’ cleansing and washing before he entered the holy of holies. Only, his washing was a type of what was to come. Christ is the full and final cleansing of sin that enables us to stand before a holy God.
For the Christian death is no longer our enemy but our greatest friend. We stay here until our work for Christ is done. When it is done, and we don’t know when that is, we will go to be with him. “And I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” “Blessed indeed,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!”” (Revelation 14:13)
We have an end to this mortal pilgrimage. Like the exodus of Israel we are wandering in the desert for that promised land. Our life now is a barren desert of thirst and hardship compared to life in Heaven.
“Death is like Jordan. We go through the waters and waves of it to Canaan, the land of promise and happiness.”
Cheer up. You’ve got a birthday coming.
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Last week, we read A Glimpse of Glory.
Next week, we read A Spiritual Man’s Aim.
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