Sibbes Ch 11: Christ’s Judgment and Victory
Sibbes now looks ahead to that time when Christ has “set up an absolute government [perhaps better expressed as “heavenly restoration”] in which shall prevail over all corruptions.”
11.1 Christ’s Judgment Established in Us
Sibbes anticipates that time when our two natures, new and fallen, are reduced, upon death, to one, new only:
By judgment here is meant the kingdom of grace in us, that government whereby Christ sets up a throne in our hearts….Christ and we are of one judgment and of one will. He has his will in us, and his judgments are so invested with authority in us as that they are turned into our judgment, we carrying his law in our hearts, written there by his Spirit (Jer. 31:33). The law in the inner man and the law written answer to each other as counterparts.
Sibbes Ch 11, Sec 1 (emphasis mine)
There are two parts to this condition of our being: the falling away until death and the transformation, begun here and now, into new life made full(-er):
So, in spiritual life, it is most necessary that the Spirit should alter the taste of the soul so that it might savor the things of the Spirit so deeply that all other things should be out of relish….The kingdom of Christ in his ordinances serves but to bring Christ home into his own place, our hearts.
Ibid.
11.2 Christ’s Mildness and His Government
Now Sibbes expands on the above by considering further how this inner transformation can take place, and yet be our own desire and joy:
The same Spirit that convinces us of the necessity of his righteousness to cover us convinces us also of the necessity of his government to rule us. His love to us moves him to frame us to be like himself, and our love to him stirs us up to be such as he may take delight in, neither do we have faith or hope any further than we have a concern to be purged as he is pure.
Sibbes 11.2 (Emphasis mine)
At the beginning of Christ’s earthly ministry we have at the end of “The Lord’s Prayer” the phrase “Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matt 6:10) Then at the very end of His pre-Cross time He testifies before Pilate that He, Jesus standing there, is a King, which phrase may well have been the words of final condemnation before Pilate as indifferent as he might have been to religious matters he was not so with respect to political claims of authority.
11 Now Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus said, “You have said so.” 12 But when he was accused by the chief priests and elders, he gave no answer.
Matt 27 (ESV)
Christ’s claim of Kingship is prevalent throughout the Gospels:
And he said to them, “Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God after it has come with power.”
Mark 9:1 (ESV; emphasis mine)
8 Whenever you enter a town and they receive you, eat what is set before you. 9 Heal the sick in it and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ 10 But whenever you enter a town and they do not receive you, go into its streets and say,
Luke 10 (ESV; emphasis mine)
A word search on the occurrences of “king” is itself illustrative:
- OT 2272 times
- NT 255 times
- Matthew 72x
- Mark 30x
- Luke 56x
- John 16x
- Acts 28x
- Hebrews 8x
- Revelation 24x
- All the remaining Epistles total only: 21x, fewer than the single books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, Acts, and Revelation.
Many of these references are to individuals other than Christ or God the Father. But the issue of kingship, ultimate authority / ruler is the central one beginning in Genesis 1:1. The deception of Eve hinged on her framing her thoughts to exclude the idea that The King had Spoken with respect to the command not to eat of that particular tree. She did not see such spoken command as authoritative. (With Adam, the situation is less clear on this point as it appears he well understood that such command, now violated by Eve under deception, he would consciously, purposely, knowingly violate by making Eve’s choice but from a different inner source: willfulness).
In most places on the earth presently we do not have a “king” model of The Political Industry (TPI). Instead we see some form of divided authority between an executive function (President, Prime Minister, etc.), a law-making function (House of Lords, of Commons, Senate, House of Representatives, etc.), and a law-establishing / determining function (courts with judges of various titles). With the “king” model, there is one sovereign who is all of such distinguishable functions (and more).
11.3 Pardon Leads to Obedience
Here makes the point that it is insufficient, as the Elect of God, to desire only mercy, however much we recognize such need. Beyond mercy we need, and must recognize that we need “whole Christ…that will not divide Lord [Kingly Rule] from Jesus.”
To believe otherwise, is to “so make a Christ of their own,” meaning an invented Christ who only forgives, grants mercy but leaves in its wake autonomous beings who have wills independent of Christ. So such partitioning of Christ to non-Sovereignty is seeing God as merely a healer / restorer, not King.
11.4 Justification Leads to Sanctification
Sibbes cautions as to those who “misled that make Christ to be only righteousness to us and not sanctification.” Specifically the error Sibbes is addressing is to those who see Christ’s role as “imputation” only, that is being our Substitute, dealing with the sin corruption, making us thus acceptable in God’s sight.
Such recognition of imputation is a crucial distinction of the Reformation. Some, such as the late RC Sproul, thought a better term for the Elect-Believers than “Evangelicals,” a word that has lost almost all of its original meaning; instead he thought the better term was “Imputationists,” however unlikely it was to catch on.
But Sibbes’s central point in this section is that imputation only is incomplete as to understanding Christ’s necessary work in us. Sibbes uses various terms such as “judgment,” “government,” “rule” for this additional Role. “He is our Sanctifier as well as our Savior…” such that “Thence it is that Christ has [the] right to govern us…” and “then to the promise of His Spirit to govern us.” (Subsection 11.4.1 and 11.4.2).
We are warned that “it is not sufficient that we have motives and encouragements to love and obey.” More is required, specifically: “Christ’s Spirit must…subdue our hearts, and sanctify them…Our disposition myst be changed. We must be new creatures.” (Subsection 11.4.4).
To stop short of this, Sibbes says is to “seek for heaven in hell [those who] seek for spiritual love in an unchanged heart.”
Thinking More Deeply about “Change”
Everyday words, like “change,” have everyday meanings that obscure Biblical meanings.
Think of the following example. A husband tells his wife he’s got a Big Mac craving and is heading to McDonald’s for a “happy meal.” Later he comes home and the wife asks him how was his happy meal. The husband answers that he instead went to Chick-fil-A®️ and had a chicken sandwich. Wife then asks, why not the happy meal as he had planned. He replies, “I changed my mind.”
We use “change” is so many ordinary ways: “Do you have change for a dollar?” “Where’s the remote so I can change the channel?” Yet, “change” is used to translate a far deeper concept expressed in Scripture.
Biblical “Change” Translation of Koine Meta-noia
An important NT Greek / Koine word that is worth learning is μετάνοια metánoia (Strong’s G3341). It is a compound word comprised of: meta (G3326) and noús (“noose;” G3563). mind, “as the faculty of moral reflection” (Zodhaites, S; 2000). Nous can be thought of our “thought box” when it is employed for actually thinking, as opposed to be simply be the CPU (Central Processing Unit) processing sensory perceptions, memory retrieval, subconscious operation of our biological machinery, and so forth.
Meta is both a preposition and, as here, a prefix. It has a particular importance with metánoia. It is freighted with the meaning of thinking about one’s thinking, as in looking down upon one’s own process of making judgments, holding certain values and beliefs, unto a condition of changing them at some fundamental level. Metánoia is about something that rarely happens in the ordinary course of life and in Biblical constructs even cannot happen apart from something / someone outside ourselves causing it to happen. As a result, metánoia is commonly translated “repentance.” So we can think of “repentance” as a very particular, dramatic, and important category of “change.”
G3341. μετάνοια metánoia; gen. metanoías, fem. noun from metanoéō (3340), to repent. A change of mind, repentance (Heb. 12:17). Repentance, change of mind from evil to good or from good to better (Matt. 3:8, 11; 9:13 [TR]; Mark 2:17; Luke 3:8; 5:32; 15:7; Acts 5:31; 20:21; 26:20; Rom. 2:4; Heb. 6:6; 12:17; 2 Pet. 3:9). In the NT, used with reference to noús (3563), mind, as the faculty of moral reflection (Acts 11:18; 20:21; 2 Cor. 7:9, 10; 2 Tim. 2:25; Heb. 6:1). It is combined with áphesis (859), remission of sins (Luke 24:47 [cf. baptism of repentance Matt. 3:11; Mark 1:4; Luke 3:3; Acts 13:24; 19:4]) which identifies one as having repented….
While in the Synoptic Gospels, repentance as a rule covers the whole process of turning from sin to God (as in Luke 24:47), it also includes faith which is a part of the process, the last step of it. This application is also used in the discourses of the early chapters of Acts. In these, the comprehensive condition of admission to the brotherhood of believers and of participation in the life of the Spirit is repentance (Acts 2:38; 3:19; 5:31)…
Faith is the condition of entrance into the experience of salvation, the enjoyment of eternal life; but repentance is the psychological and moral condition of faith. As eternal life is unattainable without faith, faith is unattainable without repentance. If repentance means to change from the self–centered life to the God–centered life, then Jesus is the Author and Inspiration of repentance. No other was ever able to reach down deep enough into human nature to effect this change.
Zodhiates, S. (2000). In The complete word study dictionary: New Testament (electronic ed.). AMG Publishers.
Biblical Change and
Another important Biblical word, and idea, also derives from a similar sounding root as prefixed above in the word metánoia. This additional, and important word, uses the prefix “ana,” and it prefixes “neóō,” namely: Strong’s G365. ἀνανεόω ananeóō. “Ana” means “again,” though it can also mean “above,” and “neóō” means “new” as it is used as a prefix in many English words (e.g. neophyte). So ananeóō is usually translated as “renew.”
The challenge for us in our home English language at this time and in this place is that “new,” like “change” has an extremely elastic meaning. One can have a pile of pencils, use one down to its nub, and grab a “new” one. But, what’s “new” about it? Essentially nothing; it is just a near-perfect copy of the previous pencil as it was before it was worn down. It’s “new” only in the sense of being another of the same kind.
We can think of buying a “new” car. It may be the same manufacturer and model as the one being replaced, so it is “new” only in the sense it’s not the first one, the one it replaces, though it may be “new” with respect to certain features such as accessories or color. And it may not be “new” in the sense of just-manufactured. We commonly say we purchased a “new” car (to us) in reference to a “used” car (having been previously owned).
So, like “change” as discussed above, we need to rethink what “new” really distinguishes. Below are several definitions of ananeóō:
G365. ἀνανεόω ananeóō; …from aná (303), again, and neóō, to renew (n.f.), which is from néos (3501), new, another. To renew, make young. Used in Eph. 4:23, ananeóomai, and is to be taken in the pass. mid. To be renewed insofar as spiritual vitality is concerned.
Zodhiates, S. (2000). In The complete word study dictionary: New Testament (electronic ed.). AMG Publishers.
And, more extensively, we have the below expansion of meaning deriving from neóō. The discussion below is more technical but I’ve highlighted in bold the essential point relative to Eph. 4:23:
ἀνανεόω ananeóō
The rare basic word νεόω neóō means in the act. and mid. trans. “to make new,” “to renew,” … νεόω is used for νεάω, “to break or till new land.”
ἀνανεόω, “to renew (again),” is the same as the simple form even to the undifferentiated use of the act. and mid., the more common form. The act. occurs, e.g., in Job 33:24; … as νέος can contain an antithesis to something earlier…, so ἀνανεόω can denote a renewing activity which replaces an earlier state, i.e., “to renew what is old,” “to refresh or reinvigorate a tired being.” ἀνανεόω … is to be distinguished from ἀνακαινόω… as νέος is from καινός. It involves a new beginning in time as distinct from qualitative renewal.
Eph. 4:23, which occurs in the context of exhortation (vv. 17ff.), is to be taken with v. 22: ἀποθέσθαι ὑμᾶς … τὸν παλαιὸν ἄνθρωπον, and v. 24: ἐνδύσασθαι τὸν καινὸν ἄνθρωπον, as part of the doctrine of Christ (v. 21: ἐδιδάχθητε): ἀνανεοῦσθαι … τῷ → πνεύματι τοῦ → νοὸς ὑμῶν. Since the point here is not to describe a fact but to assert obligations this infinitive, like the others, has an imperative sense. The change which must be constantly brought about in the lives of Christians is finally accomplished on them rather than through them. It means that they are constantly set in the miraculous and mysterious magnetic field of this renewal which is effected in them. It is an inner “being renewed” or “letting themselves be renewed” which takes place in the centre of personal life. The effective subject of the renewal is obviously Christ Himself, cf. v. 20f., also R. 7:6, → III, 451, though this does not contradict Paul’s doctrine of the operation of the Spirit of God or of Christ in Christians, R. 8:9 ff.; 1 C. 12:13; Gl. 5:16 etc. The thought expressed by ἀνακαινοῦσθαι in the par. passage Col. 3:10 (cf. ἀνακαίνωσις in R. 12:2) is given by the ἀνανεοῦσθαι of Eph. 4:23 a nuance which characterises the connection with v. 22 and v. 24, namely, that through the operation of Christ upon him the Christian is constantly rejuvenated and begins afresh, free from the old being and free for the new.
Behm, J. (1964–). νέος, ἀνανεόω. In G. Kittel, G. W. Bromiley, & G. Friedrich (Eds.), Theological dictionary of the New Testament (electronic ed., Vol. 4, pp. 899–901). Eerdmans.
Sibbes Ch 11 and Metánoia
In Ch 11, Sibbes advances his exposition of the Christ as dealing with us broken reeds/smoking wicks (flax). Stopping at Ch 10, the story is primarily about our healing unto restoration. So such discussion should be a source of hope and comfort. But Sibbes now stresses that Christ’s Work cannot be rightly understood if it stops there. Christ must be recognized as “Judge” in the specific sense of Ruler / Lord. But, further, in order for such to occur within us, Christ also is the Changer, the one who makes the inner heart conform to, delight in, God’s Rule.
Sibbes uses the wonderful phrase “we are voluntaries” to describe such changed heart condition.
Christ’s sanctifying Work is not: (1) telling us what to do, behave, (2) imposing on us that which we are uninterested or unwilling to think or do, (3) perpetually shaming us for the gap between the rightful journey of sanctification and our actual course of life. There could of course be elements of all of the above in our experience but the central Work of Christ is heart change, metánoia.