Where Christ’s laws are written in the heart, all other good laws are obeyed the best. No one despises man’s law except those who despise Christ’s first. - Richard Sibbes (1577–1635)

All Should Side With Christ

The second use of the truth that Christ will have the victory, is to establish the fact that the best course for nations and states is to "kiss the Son" (Psa. 2:12), and to embrace Christ and his religion: to side with Christ and to own his cause in the world. His side will prove the stronger side in the end. We are happy if Christ so much as honors us by using our help to fight his battle "against the mighty" (Judg. 5:23). True religion in a state is like the main pillar of a house, or the post of a tent, which holds everything up. This is true for families too, if Christ is the chief governor of the family. And it is true for everyone who is like a house in which Christ dwells familiarly and rules. Where Christ is, all happiness must follow. If Christ goes, then all will go. Where Christ’s government is, in his ordinances and his Spirit, all subordinate government will prosper. Religion inspires life and grace in all other things. All other virtues without religion are like an attractive picture without a head. Where Christ’s laws are written in the heart, all other good laws are obeyed the best. No one despises man’s law except those who despise Christ’s first. Nemo humanam auctoritatem contemnit, nisi qui divinam prius contempsit (No one despises human authority unless he first despises divine authority).

Of all persons, a man guided by Christ is the best; and of all creatures in the world, next to the devil, a man guided merely by his will and affection is the worst. The happiness of weaker things consists in being ruled by stronger things. It is best for a blind man to be guided by one who has sight. It is best for sheep and other feckless creatures to be guided by man. And it is happiest for man to be guided by Christ. That is because his government is so victorious that it frees us from the fear and danger of our greatest enemies, and it tends to bring us to the greatest happiness that our nature is capable of enjoying. This should make us rejoice when Christ reigns in us. When Solomon was crowned, the people rejoiced so much that the city rang (1Kings 1:45); and we should we rejoice in Christ our king much more.

Source: Sibbes, Richard (1577-1635), The Bruised Reed, Chapter 14: Means to Make Grace Victorious, 1630.

Richard Sibbes (1577–1635) expounds on the differences between the covenant of works and the covenant of grace

Our Rule Is the Covenant of Grace

It will prove a special help to know distinctly the difference between the covenant of works and the covenant of grace, between Moses and Christ.  Moses, without any mercy, breaks all bruised reeds, and quenches all smoking flax.  For the law requires personal, perpetual and perfect obedience from the heart, and that under a most terrible curse, but gives no strength.  It is a severe task master, like Pharaoh's, requiring the whole tale of bricks and yet giving now straw.  Christ comes with blessing after blessing, even upon those whom Moses had cursed, and with healing balm for those wounds which Moses had made.

The same duties are required in both covenants, such as to love the Lord with all our hearts and with all our souls (Deut. 6:5).  In the covenant of works, this must be fulfilled absolutely, but under the covenant of grace it must have an evangelical mitigation.  A sincere endeavor proportionable to grace received is accepted (and so it must be understood of Josiah, and others, when it is said they did that which was right in the sight of the Lord).

(Note: Josiah was the King of Judah who reigned from around 641 BC to 609 BC and whose reign is documented in the Books of 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles.)

Source: Sibbes, Richard (1577-1635), The Bruised Reed, Chapter 6: Marks of the Smoking Flax, 1630.

Preachers Need to Stop Behaving Like a pope. The Spirit of Mercy Should Move Them - Richard Sibbes (1577-1635)

The Spirit of Mercy Should Move Us

Preachers need to take heed, therefore, how they deal with young believers. Let them be careful not to hold the standard too high, making things necessary evidences of grace which are not in agreement with the experience of many a good Christian, and making salvation and damnation depend on things that are not fit to bear so great a weight. In this way, men are needlessly torn down, and may not soon be built up again by themselves or others. The ambassadors of so gentle a Savior should not be overbearing, setting themselves up in the hearts of people where Christ alone should sit, as in his own temple. Giving too much respect to man was one of the inroads of popery. “Let a man so consider us: as ministers of Christ” (1 Cor 4:1), neither more nor less, just so much. How careful Paul was, in cases of conscience, not to lay a snare upon any weak conscience.

Source: Sibbes, Richard (1577-1635), The Bruised Reed, Chapter 5: The Spirit of Mercy Should Move Us, 1630.

"I was smoking pot the first time I heard the gospel." - C.J. Mahaney

I WAS SMOKING POT THE FIRST TIME I HEARD THE GOSPEL

People often ask me why I'm so confident in God's grace.  I explain that my understanding of Scripture and my own conversion experience leave me with no other explanation.

God came looking for me.

I'm a Christian because God showed mercy, not because I was worthy or wanting to be saved.  No, I wasn't searching for God.  I was stoned.

It was 1972.  I was sitting in my bedroom smoking a joint when my friend Bob began to share the simple story of Jesus dying for my sins.  I'd grown up in the Catholic church and had never head the gospel.

But that night as I listened, God revealed Himself and regenerated my heart.  I believed.  The cross was for me.  Jesus was my savior.  The worst of sinners, in the midst of his sin, was born again.

NEVER FORGET

I can relate to Paul's amazement at being shown mercy.  I've lived in the same part of Maryland since I was a boy.  Hardly a month goes by that I'm not reminded of who I once was.

Before God saved me in 1972, I too, was a blasphemer.  I lived for myself and my own pleasure.  I lived in rebellion against God and mocked those who followed Him.  I spent my high school and college years deeply immersed in the local drug culture.

Sometimes, late at night, my friends and I would see out quiet, isolated places where we could come down safely from drug highs.  On more than a few occasions it was a D.C. monument.  Other times a peaceful street under thick, deep trees.  Or even the terminal at what was then a little-used airport called Dulles, where the doors stayed open long after the day's flights had ceased and we could move through the nearly deserted canyon of a building.

Someday soon I'll be near one of those place again, and the memories will flood back in.  I'll remember what I once was, and be reminded of what I now am.

Often my eyes fill with tears at the memories of my foolishness and sin.  And in the same instant, my heart will be filled with an unspeakable, holy joy.  I am no longer the same!  By the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross, I've been forgiven of the countless sins I've committed.

"Blessed is the man," David wrote, "whose sin the LORD does not count against him" (Psalm 32:2).  This truth echoes through my soul, resonating in place far deeper than any drug can go.

Many people try to run from the past.  I suppose I could try to as well, by leaving the hometown that holds so many reminders of my sinfulness.  But I consider living here a gift from God.  The regular reminders of my past are precious to me.

Why?  Because, like Paul, never want to forget the great mercy shown me.

WE ALL NEED THIS

If you're a Christian, you don't need to live in the same place all your life to remember who you once were.  And you don't need a background in drugs, or any other dramatic conversion experience, for the cross to be dear to you.

Regardless of our pasts, we've all sinned and fallen short of God's glory (Romans 3:23).  My nine-year-old son Chad's life is very different from mine.  He's being raised in a Christian home.  He has been taught God's Word.  And unlike his father, he is surrounded by people in a local church who respect godliness and humility, not worldliness and pride.

But as Chad enters young adulthood, the most important thing I can teach him is that, even though he's being raised in a Christian family and is leading a moral life, he's a sinner who desperately needs the substitutionary death of Christ to be forgiven by God.

And so I'm teaching him the gospel, day by day.  I tell him that he's a sinner just like his dad, and that sin is a serious problem.  I put it in words that his young mind can understand, but I don't ignore or minimize the seriousness of sin.  Through his actions and attitudes he has rebelled against his Maker.  And this great God is perfectly holy and must respond with fierce opposition to sin.  He must punish it.

Some might find it surprising that I would teach a nine-year-old about God's wrath toward sin.  But I find it surprising that any loving person would withhold this truth from another person they love.  Because only when we understand God's wrath toward sin can we realize that we need to be saved from it.  Only when we hear the very bad news that we're deserving of judgement can we appreciate the very good news that God has provided salvation through His Son.

And this is what I hold out to my young son as the hope of his life: that Jesus, God's perfect, righteous Son, died in his place for his sins.  Jesus took all the punishment; Jesus received all the wrath as He hung on the cross, so people like Chad and his sinful daddy could be completely forgiven.

Source: Mahaney, C.J., The Cross Centered Life, Colorado Springs, CO: Multnomah Books, 2001, pages 12-15 and 72-73.

John Calvin (1509-1564) Contrasts Obeying Kings with Obedience to God in Commenting on Daniel's World-Famous Prayer of 2,600 Years Ago

Daniel, Chapter 9, Verses 5 to 7

We have sinned and done wrong. We have been wicked and have rebelled; we have turned away from your commands and laws. We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes and our ancestors, and to all the people of the land.

Lord, you are righteous, but this day we are covered with shame—the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, both near and far, in all the countries where you have scattered us because of our unfaithfulness to you.

John Calvin (1509-1565) in his Commentary on Daniel, Daniel 9:5-7, says:

He afterwards adds, To our kings, our nobles, our fathers, and all the people of the land. Here Daniel lays prostrate every high thing in this world with the view of exalting God only, and to prevent any pride rising in the world to obscure his glory, as it otherwise would do. Here, then, he implicates kings, princes, and fathers in the same guilt; as if he had said, all are to be condemned without exception before God. This, again, must be diligently noticed. For we see how the common people think everything permitted to them which is approved by their kings and counselors. For in the common opinion of men, on what does the whole foundation of right and wrong rest, except on the arbitrary will and lust of kings? Whatever pleases kings and their counselors is esteemed lawful, sacred, and beyond all controversy; and thus God is excluded from his supreme dominion. As, therefore, men thus envelop themselves in clouds, and willingly involve themselves in darkness, and prevent their approach to God, Daniel here expresses how inexcusable all men are who do not obey the Prophets, even if a thousand kings should obstruct them, and the splendor of the whole world should dazzle them. By such clouds as these God’s majesty can never be obscured; nay more, this cannot offer the slightest impediment to God’s dominion or hinder the course of his doctrine. These points might be treated more copiously: I am only briefly explaining the Prophet’s meaning, and the kind of fruit which ought to be gathered from his words.

Finally, it is a remarkable testimony in favor of the Prophet’s doctrine, when kings and their counselors are compelled to submit, and all the loftiness of the world is brought under subjection to the prophets, as God says in Jeremiah, (Jeremiah 1:10) Behold! I have set thee above kingdoms, and above the empires of this world, to destroy and to build up, to plant and to root out. There God asserts the authority of his teaching, and shews its superiority to everything in the world; so that all who wish to be free from it, as if endowed with some peculiar privilege, are both foolish and ridiculous. This, then, must be noticed in the Prophet’s words, when he says, God spoke by his prophets to kings, princes, and fathers. Respecting the “fathers,” we see how frivolous is the excuse of those who use their fathers as a shield in opposing God. For here Daniel unites both fathers and children in the same guilt, and shews how all equally deserve condemnation, when they do not listen to God’s prophets, or rather to God speaking by means of his prophets.

Source: Calvin, John. Commentary on Daniel – Volume 2. Translated by Thomas Meyers, Grand Rapids: Christian Classics Ethereal Library, 1852, pages 148-149.