Tag Archives: Richard Sibbes

What is it to be God?

01 Saturday Apr 2017

Posted by in Theology, Uncategorized

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I answer, To be a God, take it in the general, is to give being to the creature that had no being of itself, and to protect and preserve the creature in its being: in a word, to be a creator; for providence is the perpetuity and continuance of creation. This is to be a God. The office of God, as God, is a most glorious function. To be a king is a great matter, but to be a God, to give being to the creature, to support it when it hath a being, to do all that God should do, this is a most glorious work. But this is but creation. This is not intended especially here, for thus he is the God of all his works. Thus by creation and preservation he is the God of all the men in the world out of the church.

Richard Sibbes, “The Faithful Covenanter” in The Complete Works of Richard Sibbes, ed. Alexander Balloch Grosart, vol. 6 (Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet and Co.; W. Robertson, 1863), 7.

Richard Sibbes: God is a Relationship

16 Thursday Mar 2017

Posted by in Biblical Counseling, Richard Sibbes, Sanctification, Sanctifictation, Uncategorized, Worship

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But you will say, How shall we know that this covenant belongeth to us? that we are such as we may say, God is our God?
I answer, first—to lay this for a ground—you must know that to be a God is a relation. Whosoever God is a God to, he persuadeth them by his Spirit that he is a God to. The same Spirit that persuadeth them that there is a God, that Spirit telleth them that God is their God, and works a qualification and disposition in them, as that they may know that they are in covenant with such a gracious God. The Spirit as it revealeth to them the love of God, and that he is theirs, so the Spirit enableth them to claim him for their God, to give up themselves to him as to their God.

Richard Sibbes, “The Faithful Covenanter” in The Complete Works of Richard Sibbes, ed. Alexander Balloch Grosart, vol. 6 (Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet and Co.; W. Robertson, 1863), 8.

This is a profound bit of theology and needs some thought to be understood.

Consider first, “you must know that to be a God is a relation”. We too easily abstract God: God is a being with a set of attributes. Another sort of one has an idea of a celestial butler, the god of moral therapeutic deism:

As described by Smith and his team, Moralistic Therapeutic Deism consists of beliefs like these: 1. “A god exists who created and ordered the world and watches over human life on earth.” 2. “God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions.” 3. “The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about ones self.” 4. “God does not need to be particularly involved in one’s life except when God is needed to resolve a problem.” 5. “Good people go to heaven when they die.” (As Dr. Mohler summarized Smith’s findings.)

Or some other god. But consider what Sibbes is saying: The “God” part of our understanding of God is relational. For instance, Moses speaks to Pharaoh of the “LORD our God.” There is a particular person(s) who is our God. Since He is God, we have a particular relationship toward him.

The abstract God is a powerful being, but we have little relationship to him. He have created us, but he may also have forgotten us: he is not God to us. The Therapeutic god is no God at all. He is a powerful helper, but he is not a God to anyone. That is why the Christian confession is that Christ is Lord.

The remainder of Sibbes’ discussion speaks about how God himself, God the Spirit, brings the human being into a right relation to God. God is there for everyone, but not everyone is God-worshipper relationship with God (indeed, one can think of sanctification as merely the process of turning human beings into right worshipers).

Whosoever God is a God to,
1) he persuadeth them by his Spirit that he is a God to.
2) The same Spirit that persuadeth them that there is a God,
3) that Spirit telleth them that God is their God,
4) and works a qualification and disposition in them,
5) as that they may know that they are in covenant with such a gracious God.
6) The Spirit as it revealeth to them the love of God, and that he is theirs,
7) so the Spirit enableth them to claim him for their God,
8) to give up themselves to him as to their God

Each of these elements makes plain what is in the relationship of “God”. There is a God. This God stands in some sort of relationship to the human being. The human being is in a covenantal relationship to this God. The human being’s affections, thoughts, dispositions, actions are brought into a correspondence to the covenant (that is also known as sanctification: note that sanctification is not merely morally appropriate behavior, although it is not less). Counseling/preaching is the process of using the Word of God (assisted by the Spirit of God) to bring about this relational process.

The loss of God and the terrors of life

14 Tuesday Feb 2017

Posted by in Original Sin, Richard Sibbes, Sin, Uncategorized

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The loss of God results in all the terrors and troubles of this life. Therefore, it is a restored relationship to God that our “happiness” consists:

GOD having framed man an understanding creature, hath made him fit to have communion and intercourse with himself; because he can by his understanding discern that there is a better good out of himself, in communion and fellowship with which, happiness consists. Other creatures—wanting understanding to discern a better good out of than in themselves, their life being their good—desire only the continuance of their own being, without society and fellowship with others. But man, having the knowledge of God, the Creator of heaven and earth, but especially of God the Redeemer, providing for him a second being better than his first, understandeth that his best and chiefest good dependeth more in him than in himself; and because his happiness standeth in acquaintance and fellowship with this God, which is the chief good, he desireth a communion with him, that he may partake of his good.

Richard Sibbes, “The Faithful Covenanter”, The Complete Works of Richard Sibbes, ed. Alexander Balloch Grosart, vol. 6 (Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet and Co.; W. Robertson, 1863), 3.

Imagine it this way: a small child wanders into the forrest alone is not injured by the loss of his father, but his father’s absence is the ultimate cause of his loss. Conversely, the child finding his father does not directly make the forrest less dark, the wolves less dangerous, the night less cold. But return of the father makes it possible to be rescued from all these things.

The relation between trust & hope

09 Friday Sep 2016

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Trust and hope are often taken in the same sense, though a distinction betwixt them hath sometimes its use. Faith looks to the word promising, hope to the thing promised in the word; faith looks to the authority of the promiser, hope especially to the goodness of the promise; faith looks upon things as present, hope as to come hereafter. God as the first truth, is that which faith relies on; but God as the chief good is that which hope rests on. Trust or confidence is nothing else but the strength of hope. If the thing hoped for be deferred, then of necessity it enforces waiting, and waiting is nothing else but hope and trust lengthened.

Richard Sibbes, The Complete Works of Richard Sibbes, ed. Alexander Balloch Grosart, vol. 1 (Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet and Co.; W. Robertson, 1862), 203.

It is not for their confusion

15 Monday Aug 2016

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But albeit that God doth seem sometimes to forsake his servants, it is not for their confusion, but for their consolation; for by this means they come to be poor in spirit, and wonderfully emptied of themselves. And it is very observable that when such as are thoroughly wounded and afflicted inwardly come to recover strength and peace again, they often prove the most comfortable Christians of all others, walking with more care to avoid offence all their lives after.

Richard Sibbes, The Complete Works of Richard Sibbes, ed. Alexander Balloch Grosart, vol. 5 (Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet and Co.; W. Robertson, 1863), 258.

 

Strangers in a Strange Country

28 Sunday Jun 2015

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For the members, they are all predestinated to a conformity to Christ their head, as in grace and glory, so in abasement, Rom. 8:29. Neither is it a wonder for those that are born soldiers to meet with conflicts, for travellers to meet with hard usage, for seamen to meet with storms, for strangers in a strange country, especially amongst their enemies, to meet with strange entertainment.

A Christian is a man of another world, and here from home, which he would forget, if he were not exercised here, and would take his passage for his country. But though all Christians agree and meet in this, that ‘through many afflictions we must enter into heaven,’ Acts 14:22, yet according to the diversity of place, parts, and grace, there is a different cup measured to every one.

Richard Sibbes, The Soul’s Conflict With Itself

The Good of Meditation

26 Thursday Mar 2015

Posted by in Meditation, Richard Sibbes, Spiritual Disciplines

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It is therefore Christian wisdom, to fix our souls on good meditations, to have them wedded to good thoughts, to have those comforting thoughts, befitting Christians, that may lead us comfortably in our way to heaven. Let a man think of God’s deliverances past, and that will strengthen his faith for the future deliverances. Let him think of future deliverances, and that will lead him to a kingdom, to praise God; and this praising of God will stretch his soul, for ever and for ever; as if there were no time sufficient to glorify God, that is so excellent and glorious. What a blessed condition is this, to have God’s Spirit warming our souls and perfuming our spirits with holy thoughts, continually putting us upon the employment of heaven, till at length it hath safely brought us thither.

Richard Sibbes, The Complete Works of Richard Sibbes, ed. Alexander Balloch Grosart, vol. 1, “The Saint’s Safety in Evil Times” (Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet and Co.; W. Robertson, 1862), 329.

Learn to be Courageous

02 Monday Mar 2015

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Now learn to be courageous. Are afflictions upon thee? Be sensible of them, be humbled in them, but never shrink from thy hold of Christ or hope of mercy. Be of Paul’s resolution; ‘We are distressed,’ saith he, ‘but yet faint not.’ See God at thy right hand, as David did, and therefore be not moved. See what is gained by affliction, ‘the inward man grows.’ See what is laid up for these light and short afflictions, 2 Cor. 4:17, ‘even a far more excellent and eternal weight of glory.’ Art thou censured and scorned by men? Make use, of it, but not to discouragement.

Remember Christ was despised, counted a worm, judged wicked, and then say with the church, ‘Rejoice not against me, O my enemy, though I fall I shall rise again: When I am in darkness, the Lord he will be a light unto me,’ Micah 7:8. Art thou assaulted by Satan? Cry with Paul, and bemoan thyself; but know therewith that God’s ‘grace is, and shall be sufficient for thee,’ 2 Cor. 12:9; that he hath overcome, and therefore resolve, with Job, to receive from God what he will put upon thee, yea, to die at his feet, Job 13:15. Art thou led captive with thy corruptions? Mourn with Paul, but say withal, ‘It is not I, but sin in me; I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord,’ Romans 7:17, 25. It is a most worthy service to give Christ the glory of his riches in poverty, of his power in weakness, grace in sin, life in death. Then we live by faith, then we shew forth the strength of the Spirit.

To this purpose, first learn to know thyself, what thou art by nature, and all men else. The want of this knowledge breeds pride, discouragement, error in judgment, mistaking, misapplication of things. Secondly, know what Christ is, how lovely, how rich, how able, how true; how willing he is to help the distressed and miserable, never adding affliction unto affliction. Thirdly, see what he hath done for others, for thyself heretofore. Now lay graces by infirmities with the church here, and when the devil upbraids thee with thy maims, look on thy cures; when he sets before thee the tempestuous dark works of the first Adam, do thou oppose, and lay before thee the quiet fruit of righteousness and peace-making reconciliation and works of Christ, the second Adam, thy surety, who hath paid thy debts and satisfied divine justice to the full.

Richard Sibbes, The Complete Works of Richard Sibbes, ed. Alexander Balloch Grosart, vol. 7 “The Church’s Blackness” (Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet and Co.; W. Robertson, 1864), 100.

 

The Soul’s Conflict With Itself, 6.3

29 Saturday Nov 2014

Posted by in Biblical Counseling, Richard Sibbes

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In the midst of despair, we must realize that God has not left us without ability to respond. Sibbes next notes “that God hath made every man a governor over himself.” Observation 5.

We have a disposition to seek to rule, which is often misplaced. Say two persons are in conflict which leads them both (or one) to a troubled heart. The common move is to seek the government of the other. Yet, as Sibbes notes, that tendency must be put to its proper use:

It is the natural ambition of man’s heart to desire government, as we see in the bramble, Judges 9. Well then, let us make use of this disposition to rule ourselves.

This disposition and ability does not have its proper use, the result will be our hurt:

‘He that can govern himself,’ in the wise man’s judgment, ‘is better than he that can govern a city,’ Prov. 16:32. He that cannot, is like a city without a wall, where those that are in may go out, and the enemies without may come in at their pleasure. So where there is not a government set up, there sin breaks out, and Satan breaks in without control.

Thus, in our troubles, we must understand that much of our troubles lies in trouble we cause ourselves by (1) seeking to govern that outside of ourselves, and (2) failing to govern our own hearts.

The previous post in this series may be found here: https://memoirandremains.wordpress.com/2014/11/05/the-souls-conflict-with-itself-6-2/