Puritan Challenge – Bruised Reed by Richard Sibbes

This week I finished the Bruised Reed. I was impressed with Sibbes’ creative writing style. His comparisons remind me of reading Bunyan. Chapter 13 entitled Grace Will Reign, Sibbes gives several conclusions why Christ’s Government will be victorious. I want to focus on the objection, “Why the enemy seems victorious? We need to remember, firstly, that God’s children usually, in their troubles, overcome by suffering…this victory is by degrees.” Suffering is not a popular word in our culture today. However, suffering is essential to the Christian life. Sibbes suggests, “God often works by contraries: when he means to give victory, he will allow us to be foiled at first; when he means to comfort, he will terrify first; when he means to justify, he will condemn us first; when he means to make us glorious, he will abase us first. A Christian conquers, even when he is conquered…Christ’s work, both in the church and in the hearts of Christians, often goes backward so that it may go forward better.” Now is he suggesting that God is playing a game with our minds and lives. Certainly not. There is a greater good God will accomplish. It is the same in covenant theology. Every covenant the Lord gives comes with a blessing and a curse.

I am reminded of James 1:2-3, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.”

All believers are going to face trials and experience hardship. One key to remember is that God is with you even in the midst of the trial. He has never left you. It is through the trials that our faith is made stronger. “As seed rots in the ground in the winter time, but after comes up better, and the harder the winter the more flourishing the spring, so we learn to stand by falls and get strength by weakness discovered. We take deeper root by shaking…Let us assure ourselves that God’s grace, even in this imperfect state, is stronger than man’s free will in the state of original perfection. It is founded now in Christ who, as he is the author, so will he be the finisher of our faith (Heb 12:2). We are under a more gracious covenant.” He goes on to express that those who have weakness with watchfulness will stand and those who have strength and overconfidence in themselves will fail. It is those who acknowledge their weakness are great for God to perfect His strength in.

He gives several evidences of Christ’s rule in us but to summarize and “help us in our trial, we must know that there are three degrees of victory: first, when we resist through we are foiled; second, when grace gets the better, though with conflict; and third, when all corruption is perfectly subdued. When we have strength only to resist, we may know Christ’s government in us will be victorious, because what is said of the devil is true of all our spiritual enemies, ‘Resist the devil and he will flee from you’ (James 4:7); because ‘Greater is he that is in you, who takes the part of his own grace, than he that is in the world’” (1 John 4:4).

Suffering and trials can be difficult to overcome. However, it is through Christ that we have victory in Him.

Matthew 5:3, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

Psalm 46:10-11, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth. The LORD Almighty is with us the God of Jacob is our fortress.”

Questions to ponder
1. How do you respond when a trial or suffering comes?
2. Do you rest on your own strength to get you through?
3. Why do we seem to run from God or run to God during those times?
4. Has your faith been made stronger and how have you grown through the storm?
5. Have you expressed your thankfulness to God for bringing you through?