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
Salvation is not merely an idea or a set of propositions which can be mentally understood, it is an act applied to every believer in Jesus Christ. Salvation by its very name is the act by which a sinner is saved. If it were mere idea it would be ineffectual in accomplishing the particular redemption of particular sinners. However, it is not merely an idea or set of beliefs, but the result of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection. More specifically he did not die for everyone, but for those who would believe. Thus, that salvation is applied, as Sibbes’ title this week illustrates, to those who believe.
This doctrine has been contentious at various points of history and in our present day. I have no intention of addressing any such controversy. Jesus said he did not pray for the world, but for those whom the Father gave him. (John 17:9) He did not atone for the sins of sinners in hell, this would be a failure on his part to satisfy the wrath of God for them. No, he died for those who would believe in him. He is sovereign, let us not shorten his hand by our inability to conceive of divine justice, sovereignty, or the providence of God.
“His love is only to those whom God gave him, for he looks upon all he died for as they were in his Father’s love.”
Application / Further Discussion
From this Sibbes springs in to the assurance of salvation. What does he mean by drawing out particular redemption and then expounding upon the assurance of salvation? Simply this, those whom Christ died for have assurance by that very truth, that he died to redeem a particular people, as such that particular people has assurance due to Christ’s action on their behalf and not their own.
If I arrive at salvation as a means of my intelligence, logic, or my wisdom, what assurance do I have that I have figured God out? What comfort do I have in trusting the decision of my sinful mind? How do I know that I have correctly deduced Christ and can therefore lay hold of his mercy?
I have no assurance, no comfort, if it depends on me. I am a sinner. My nature is broken. Paul’s stunning rebuke of humanity in Romans 3:9-20 hangs heavy on my neck. Yet, Sibbes also rightly points out that the commandment is on us to believe. There is no assurance of salvation where there is no belief. The conscience seared by sin with no regard for God is rightly under his condemnation.
However, those of us who have believed in Christ have the assurance that his sacrifice was effective. He accomplished something on calvary. God will not quench the smoldering wick. (Matt. 12:20) However small the flame of faith is that burns in a believer, it is not the strength and size of the heat, but the object upon which that faith is placed. Faith in Christ’s sacrifice saves, not the size of said faith.
Some have great zeal, a roaring flame of faith, that we may covet to have ourselves. Some have that smoldering wick, barely burning and seemingly always in danger of going out. Yet the salvation of both is no less applied. Sibbes observes something interesting between those of great gifts and those who don’t have them:
“Men of ordinary rank do many times die with more assurance than their great teachers. What is the reason it falls out that poor Christians of mean knowledge and gifts have a heaven upon earth, and enjoy a great deal of comfort when they end their days, men of greater parts dying more concealed?
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Christians are prone too much to value gifts.
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Men of excellent gifts have many times no grace at all … because they value these things, and neglect grace, humility, faith, and broken spirits, which things God values more than all gifts.”
Don’t depart from your first love in your desire for knowledge. In all your studies, let them be driven by the glory of God in Jesus Christ. Knowledge for the sake of knowledge will puff us up. Knowledge for the sake of glorifying Christ in obedience and humility builds up.
“When there is a great deal of good parts in knowledge, there is oftentimes great inquisition made after things which should not be looked after, and many impertinences, wanting knowledge and experience in that which they should more look after.”
Things which should not be looked after? This is, if we are honest, offending to our post-enlightenment minds. We want to know everything. I think Sibbes is right though that we often spend too much time on things which don’t deserve it. We bite and devour each other over issues that don’t warrant it. We spend more time arguing nuances to theology rather than rejoicing in salvation through Christ by his grace.
This damages our assurance.
Don’t spend your time learning how to win arguments with those who you should call brother or sister. A lost and dying world is right outside your door that doesn’t have the very words of life you have in your heart.
You have believed in Christ; be assured. You have concern for sin; be assured. Your soul is at times in anguish over your salvation; be assured. You weep over your sin; be assured.
Belief in Christ is assurance. Your concern for your sin evidences a new heart, else, why would you care? Similarly, why would the heart with no regard for God care one bit about their standing before him? So too with sorrow over sin.
Don’t waste your redemption. Don’t waste your assurance.
The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. These things are excellent and profitable for people. But avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless. (Titus 3:8-9 ESV)
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Last week, we read Christ’s Exaltation Purchased By Humiliation.
Next week, we read A Fountain Sealed. Part 1: Pages 412-432.
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