Works (Vol 1) - Sibbes - I - Description of Christ commenced

Required reading
The Works Volume 1 by Richard Sibbes  (Available from Amazon or free here) - Commence 'A description of Christ' by reading up to, but not including, the paragraph starting 'I will put my Spirit upon him.-Now we come to the qualification of Christ for his calling...'  Note this is a slightly shorter reading than the one I gave last week.

My summary
Today we begin to read Richard Sibbes on Fridays for the next year or so, starting with 'A description of Christ'.

This relatively short section of the first volume of his works is an exposition of Matthew 12:18: ''Behold my servant, whom I have chosen; my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased: I will put my spirit upon him, and he shall shew judgment to the Gentiles.  He shall not strive, nor cry; neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets'.

Firstly we see that the word 'Behold' is a beacon lighted up to all the rest.

Secondly Sibbes teaches us the significance of Jesus being 'my servant'.  He says that herein appears the admirable love and care of God to us wretched creatures and is matter of wonderment:
(i) if we look to him that was a servant;
(ii) if we look to that God and him, that made him stoop to be a servant;
(iii) if we look to the manner of the performance of this service;
(iv) if we look to the fruit of that service.

Thirdly we look at what is indicated by 'my Beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased'.  Sibbes says that Christ is beloved of God:
(i) as God;
(ii) as man;
(iii) as without sin;
(iv) as mediator.

What grabbed me
Sibbes gave us a good reminder of why God loves us: 'This is our comfort and our confidence, that God accepts us, because he accepts his beloved ; and when he shall cease to love Christ, he shall cease to love the members of Christ. They and Christ make one mystical Christ. 'This is our comfort in dejection for sin. We are so and so indeed, but Christ is the chosen servant of God, ' in whom he delighteth,' and delights in us in him. It is no matter what we are in ourselves, but what we are in Christ when we are once in him and continue in him. God loves us with that inseparable love wherewith he loves his own Son. Therefore St Paul triumphs, Rom. viii. 35, ' What shall separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus?' This love, it is founded in Christ, ' therefore neither things present, nor things to come (as he goes on there gloriously), shall be able to separate us.' You see what a wondrous confidence and comfort we have hence, if we labour to be in Christ, that then God loves and delights in us, because he loves and delights in Christ Jesus.'

When God stops loving Jesus, then he will he stop loving us.  And thankfully that's never going to happen!

Next week's reading
Conclude 'A description of Christ'.

Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.