Archive for October 15th, 2007
Sibbes:
Limited redemption:
1) First, He redeems us by paying the price, and so he only redeemeth, for he paid the price to divine justice. We are in bondage to the wrath of God under his justice; and so there must be satisfaction to justice before we can be free.
Then, secondly, We are in bondage to Satan, as God’s executioner and jailor. Now from him we are freed by strong hand. So Christ freeth us by his Holy Spirit, working such graces in us as makes us see the loathsomeness of that bondage; working likewise grace in us to be in love with a better condition, that the Spirit discovers to us. So that the Spirit brings us out by discovery and by power. All that Christ freeth by virtue of redemption, paying the price for, all those he frees likewise by his Spirit, discovering to them their bondage, and the blessed condition whereunto they are to be brought to a state of freedom, which freedom he perfects by little and little, till he bring them to a glorious freedom in heaven.
And the reason of this, that where Christ doth free by way of redemption, to die and satisfy God’s justice for any, to those he gives his Spirit, by which Spirit they are set at liberty the reasons are manifold. To name one or two. Sibbes, “Excellency of the Gospel,” in Works, 4:218.
2) Fourth, Again, Christ gave that that was his own, his own body, his own life, for his sheep; and his own endeavour, whatsoever he gave, was his own. So if we will be kind to others, we must do it of our own; we must not do good with that that we have gotten from others by unjust means. For the ‘sacrifice of the wicked,’ in this kind, ‘is an abomination to the Lord,’ Isa. i. 13. Let us have interest in that we give. Christ gave his own life, and God gave his own Son for us. Sibbes, “The Church’s Riches,” in Works, 4:523.
3) “Believed on in the world.” By ‘world,’ especially here in this place, is meant the world taken out of the world, the world of elect. There is a world in the world, as one saith well in unfolding this point; as we see, man is called a little world in the great world. Christ was preached to the world of wicked men, that by preaching, a world might be taken out of the world, which is the world of believers. Hence we may clear our judgments in that point, that when Christ is said to redeem the world, it must not be understood generally of all mankind. We see here, the world is said to believe in Christ. Did all mankind believe in Christ? was there not a world of un believers? Sibbes, “The Fountain Opened,” in Works, 5:516-517.