Category: Richard Sibbes

A bride for Jesus

Richard Sibbes’ portrayal of faith was trinitarian and Christ-centered. An English Puritan (1577-1635), he shared a deep concern about a question still alive today. How do we engage God? Do we matter to him? And if so, what does he want from us?  Sibbes’ answer was biblical and personal. God the Father wants a bride …

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A Christian’s Charter

Our title is taken from a sermon series in Richard Sibbes’ Works (vol. 4) where “charter” spoke of a set of formal rights. The thought was inspired by a Bible text, 1 Corinthians 3:21-23, where Sibbes found a set of benefits for Christians who are “one with Christ” (p.29). Sibbes began with the promise, “all …

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Three unions

Richard Sibbes, my favorite English puritan (1577-1635), treated human salvation very much as Martin Luther had done in Saxony a century before—mainly as a function of ontology. It shifted the focus away from the more judicial notion of salvation common in his day. In the judicial view Jesus took up the Father’s judgment against sin—death—on …

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Our Ultimate End

In his lifetime Richard Sibbes’ (1577-1635) theology changed at some key points. For any who appreciate Sibbes the claim invites some attention. We know he was a lifelong learner and was ready to think for himself. As a pastor and teacher he read widely and explored the Bible both for his teaching and in his …

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The Feast

In “The Marriage Feast Between Christ and his Church”—a published sermon series by Richard Sibbes (1577-1635) in his Works, 2:437-518—the puritan preacher linked a promised feast in Isaiah 25:6-8 to the ultimate wedding feast of the Lamb promised in Revelation 19:9. Sibbes points to the main feature of this feast, the end of death: “the …

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