Andy Bowers
Katie Hanson
Barbara Moore
Shannon Newell
Ben Hackbarth
Ryan Hall
Bayley Galbreath
Jacob Herrington
Alicia Martin
Becca Butler
Stephanie Zimmer
Andi McAuliffe
Brandon Thompson
Nathaniel Lugg
Misty Hehe
Bethany Nielsen

Brandon Thompson
Autumn Huning
Caleb Larsen
Nick Lewis
Nathaniel Lugg
Jordan Rock
???
Jacob Herrington
Sarah Wennersten
Garrett Weinberg
Olivia Martin
Tim O’Kelly
Andi McAuliffe
Misty Hehe
Laila Bour
Enrique Kramer
Josh Bour
Ben Hackbarth
Kaitlyn Schuler
Katie Herrington
Maylinda Clark
Josiah Nielsen
Trevor Hansen
Chase Greene
Jonathan Sarr

This world is not our home. We are pilgrims on earth; we desire a better country, our homeland, the place of our citizenship. We are out of step, we don’t fit in, we are misunderstood and often mistreated. That was true of how our Lord was treated. And will they not treat us, His servants, even worse?

The Christian life, then, is one of suffering. Our pilgrimage is hard. Our outer man is wasting away; our clay pot is being banged up and worn out.

John Bunyan understood suffering. Before he became a believer he mourned the deaths of his mother and his sister, then watched his father remarry (probably) too quickly. In his twenties, he bore the burden of providing for a wife and four kids on a tinker’s income, with one of his daughters being blind. Then he was imprisoned for over a decade because of his preaching, separated from his family and his flock. He was criticized and demeaned and defamed. He knew suffering.

And he wrote about suffering. Though there are brief breaks in The Pilgrim’s Progress, Christian’s journey was much more dangerous than delightful from the outset. The religious and non-religious mocked him and sought his downfall. The journey was hard pressed all along.

Bunyan also wrote about suffering in other books. For example, he wrote The Greatness of the Soul and Unspeakableness of the Loss Thereof, based on Mark 13:13, “the one who endures to the end, he will be saved.” Writing as if quoting Jesus speaking to his disciples,

Following of me is not like following…some other masters. The wind sits always on my face and the foaming rage of the sea of this world, and the proud lofty waves thereof do continually beat upon the sides of the boat or ship that myself, my cause, and my followers are in; he therefore that will not run hazards, and that is afraid to venture a drowning, let him not set foot into this vessel. (Works, vol 1, 105)

The book I’ve found gloriously fruitful is, Seasonable Counsel, or, Advice to Sufferers. He wrote it to encourage persecuted believers in Bedford, taking his text as 1 Peter 4:19.

Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.

The entire epistle of 1 Peter applies. Peter wrote to persecuted believers as well. He encouraged them with the truths of their great salvation, exhorted them to submit to authorities, and counseled them for encountering and enduring trials. Peter addressed his readers as resident aliens, as pilgrims, providing instruction for their hard journey. [By the way, I trust you realize how apropos our study of 1 Peter on Wednesdays with Mr. Sarr is for our theme--Living on Unseen Things--and how well it fits with Bunyan's life and with The Pilgrim's Progress.]

We come to address the suffering of a pilgrim by considering the implications of 1 Peter 4:19 with Bunyan’s help.

The Benefits of Suffering

Only Christians have a category for consistently evaluating the profit of suffering. Only those who live on unseen things, who are being renewed in the inner man and who look forward to resurrection with Christ and the Celestial City can appreciate the advantages of adversity. For unbelievers, present suffering is only a precursor, a taste of much worse pain they’ll endure forever. They are eager to get out of difficulty as fast as they can and to avoid it altogether if possible. Pilgrim’s see benefits.

First, suffering humbles.

God only accepts broken hearts. Proud men receive no grace, no help. Trials remind us of our inabilities and inadequacies. They also, if we are spiritually sensitive, remind us that we actually deserved much greater suffering. Pain and persecution may be used by God to break up hard hearts and cause them to lean on Him. He “opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” (1 Peter 5:5).

I saw, that as God had his hand in all providences and dispensations that overtook his elect, so he had his hand in all the temptations that they had to sin against him, not to animate them unto wickedness, but to choose their temptations and troubles for them; and also to leave them, for a time, to such sins only as might not destroy, but humble them; as might not put them beyond, but lay them in the way of the renewing of his mercy. (Grace Abounding, #157)

We are apt to overshoot, in the days that are calm, and to think ourselves far higher, and more strong than we find we be, when the trying day is upon us. (Advice, in Works, 694)

Second, suffering purifies.

Suffering weans us from unrighteous loves. It unfastens us from seen things and turns the eyes of our faith toward Him. And like gold–though tested by fire–our faith is strengthened and our assurance increased even as we love the one whom we don’t see. (cf. 1 Peter 1:6-8)

How subject we are to dote upon and to be entangled with the snares that lye couched and hid in the things of this present world.

How kindly, therefore, doth God deal with us, when he chooses to afflict us but for little, that with everlasting kindness he may have mercy upon us. (cf. Isaiah 54:1-2) (Advice, 737)

Not only that,

We should be overgrown with flesh, if we had not our seasonable winters. It is said that in some countries trees will grow, but will be no fruit, because there is no winter there. (Advice to Sufferers, 694)

There is that of God to be seen in such a day as cannot be seen in another. His power in holding up some, his wrath in leaving of others; his making of shrubs to stand, and his suffering of cedars to fall; his infatuating of the counsel of men, and his making the devil to outwit himself; his giving of his presence to his people, and his leaving of his foes in the dark; his discovering the uprightness of the hearts of his sanctified ones, and laying open the hypocrisy of others, is a working of spiritual wonders in the day of his wrath, and of the whirlwind and the storm. (Advice, 694)

Third, suffering prepares.

Not only do trials break our hearts and then build our faith, they also build our anticipation for the salvation ready to be revealed in the last time (1 Peter 1:5). God is getting us ready for glory. As we saw from 2 Corinthians 4:17, God is super-sizing our joy bucket that we might enjoy an eternal weight of glory. We’re light weights, drinking from Dixie Cups. We can’t appreciate all that He has prepared for those who love Him, but suffering increases our capacity for eternal delight and heightens our anticipation.

[I]t hath…been my usual course, as always, so especially in the day of affliction, to endeavor to keep my interest in the life to come clear before my eyes. (Grace Abounding, #255)

It is also the will of God, that they that go to heaven should go thither hardly or with difficulty. The righteous shall scarcely be saved. That is, they shall, but yet with great difficulty, that it may be the sweeter. (Advice, 725)

Fourth, suffering proclaims.

That is, the pilgrim’s suffering is a testimony to the world. They will see our good works and glorify God in the day of visitation (1 Peter 2:12). They will see our good works and ask about the hope that is in us (1 Peter 3:15). They will bump into our clay pots and grace will slosh all over them; death is at work in us but life in others (2 Corinthians 4:11-12). Suffering builds a wide platform to witness to God’s being better than not-suffering.

A man, when he suffereth for Christ, is set upon a hill, upon a stage, as in a theatre, to play a part for God in the world. (Advice, 720)

Where can the excellency of our patience, of our meekness, of our long-suffering, of our love and of our faith appear, if it be not under trials, and in those things that run cross to our flesh? (Advice, 707)

Bunyan realized the truth in his imprisonment.

Thus I was tossed for many weeks, and knew not what to do; at last this consideration fell with weight upon me, That it was for the Word and way of God, that I was in this condition, wherefore I was engaged not to flinch a hair’s breadth from it. (Grace Abounding, #336)

In The Pilgrim’s Progress, Hopeful became hopeful, that is, he was moved to hope by the courageous example of Christian and Faithful in Vanity Fair. (101)

So in God’s economy, suffering is an investment that always pays off. John Owen worked hard to get Bunyan out of prison. The 12 years were brutal. Was Owen a failure? Yes and no. Was Bunyan’s imprisonment how it should have been? Yes and no. Our God is in control, and he walked out with a manuscript for The Pilgrim’s Progress that God formulated in him in suffering. It wasn’t better for Bunyan to be there, but it was beneficial, to him and to us.

Abounding afflictions lead to abounding grace that leads to abounding thanksgiving that leads to abounding glory.

The Types of Suffering

1 Peter 1:6 states that there are “various trials,” there are a multitude and plethora of trials. Suffering comes in all shapes and sizes. The apostle Paul seemed to regard all kinds of suffering in one pile when encountered in the path of a pilgrim, whether sickness or slander, beatings or burden.1

Those types of suffering are not what I want to discuss here. Especially in the context of 1 Peter 4:19, distinguishing the two types of suffering makes a large difference. Some suffering is deserved, some suffering (for the pilgrim) is undeserved.

Deserved Suffering

It it possible for Christians to behave in such a way that the pain or trouble they encounter was brought on by their own behavior. They pulled the bookshelf onto themselves. Being a pilgrim does not make it so that we don’t reap what we sow. If we sin, God will discipline us. If we make the bed in foolishness, it’s foolish to lay down in it and call it persecution. Enduring that type of suffering is not special. Neither is being punished by authorities because we disobeyed. Taking your punishment with patience is not praiseworthy. We are not to suffer for wrong doing, meaning, don’t do wrong that reaps suffering.

what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? (1 Peter 2:20)

For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil. (1 Peter 3:17)

let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler. (1 Peter 4:15)

It is a miserable testimony when pilgrim’s behave like their worldly neighbors, when their suffering is sin-inflicted. Neighbors will use it against Christ’s name. Bunyan knew it.

It is the greatest blemish that can be to a Christian, to suffer as an evil doer. To say nothing of the reproach that such do bring to the name of Christ, their Lord. … The man that suffereth as an evil doer, and yet weareth the name of a Christian, what stumbling blocks doth he lay in the way of the ignorant in the kingdom? (Advice, 706)

Undeserved Suffering

Because we are sinners, there is a sense in which we’re never beyond deserving some trial, even if it was for something we did a long time ago. But throughout the Bible, especially here in 1 Peter, it is possible to suffer unjustly.

this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly….If when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. (1 Peter 2:18, 20-21)

who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. (1 Peter 3:13-14)

rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. … If anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name. (1 Peter 4:13-14, 16)

This is the type of suffering that conforms us to Christ, as we follow in His steps. This is also the type of suffering that most stands out. We are missing opportunities when we fight for our rights just like everyone else. There is nothing supernatural about that, nothing Christlike about that (cf. 1 Peter 2:21-23). If someone puts scrambled eggs of injustice on your plate and you busily work to unscramble them, you’re more likely to get your hands messy than anything else. Work on what you can.

If thou wilt needs be a ruler, thou hast a tongue, rule that; lusts, rule them; affections, govern them; ye, thou has excellent graces, manage them, cherish them, strengthen and replenish them….Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth….Nor do I think that murmuring, shrinking, wincing, complaining and the like, when men, governors, lay a yoke upon our necks, flow from anything else, but love to our flesh, and distrust of the faithfulness of God to manage men, things, and actions for his church. (Advice, 706)

That doesn’t mean we can’t groan, cry, and even appeal. Bunyan appealed his imprisonment. He desires release. But his attitude showed that unseen things were more important to him than seen things.

Don’t walk into a beating with your mouth. (“A fool’s lips walk into a fight, and his mouth invites a beating” – Proverbs 18:6)

Here is a call not to meddle with the other, but to mind our own business; to walk in our Christian profession, and to adorn it with all good works; and if any man will meddle with me, and ask a reason of the hope that I have, to give it to him with meekness and fear, whatever follows thereupon. (Advice, 715)

Deserved suffering isn’t special, it’s a blight. Undeserved suffering shines brightly.

The Causes of Suffering

I’m thinking about the causes of undeserved suffering (since deserved suffering comes with it’s own answer as to cause). Why do pilgrims suffer apart from their own sin?

Men’s Irrational Hostility

The natural man, the unbeliever, wants nothing to do with the true pilgrim. The pilgrim irritates him and aggravates him. The pilgrim challenges his comfort and his ease. He confronts the sin and unbelief or false belief, and the sinner prefers to be left alone. By the pilgrim’s very presence, his anger is stirred.

Carnal men cannot endure to hear [about God's righteousness]; because it quite excludes them, as such, from a share in the kingdom of heaven. To this, again, the Christian stands and backs what he says by the Word of God. The game begins, and the men of the world are thoughtful how they may remove such troublesome fellows out of the way. But because the Christians love their neighbors, and will not let them thus easily die in their sins, therefore they content with them, both by reasonings, writings, sermons, and books of gospel divinity; and stand to what they say. The world, again, are very angry with these sayings…for that by them they are concluded to be persons that are without repentance, and the hope of eternal life. Here again, the carnal world judges that these people are proud, self-willed, pragmatical, contentious, self-conceited, and so unsufferable people. (Advice, 712)

However, man’s hostility is a secondary cause.

God’s Judicious Sovereignty

There is no suffering that occurs apart from the will of God. That comes straight from 1 Peter 4:19.

Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.

We read in 1 Peter 1:6 that heaviness in trials comes “if necessary.” Who determines that? Not the sufferer. Not the ones inflicting the troubles. God designs and God directs.

It will not help to say that God is not in control of our suffering. This is anything but fatalism or discouragement. The God who controls our suffering does so for our benefit. And He is the same God who loves us in Christ with incalculable and inscrutable love. Nothing happens to us, or doesn’t happen to us, that is not ordained by Him.

God has appointed WHO shall suffer. ‘Let no man,’ said Paul, ‘be moved by these afflictions, for yourselves know that we are appointed thereunto’ (2 Thessalonians 3:8). … He has appointed WHEN they shall suffer….It is also said concerning Jesus Christ, that even then when ‘they sought to take him, no man laid his hands on him, because his hour was not yet come’ (John 7:30). … He has appointed WHERE this, that, or the other good man shall suffer….Christ said, it could not be that a prophet should ‘perish out of Jerusalem’ (Luke 13:33). … He has also appointed WHAT KINDS of suffering….God said that he would show Paul beforehand how great things he should suffer for his sake (Acts 9:16). … It is also appointed FOR WHAT TRUTH this or that saint shall suffer…BY WHOSE HAND this or that man shall suffer…so HOW LONG [is] determined. (Advice, 723-724)

It is not what enemies will, nor what they are resolved upon, but what God will, and what God appoints, that shall be done….And as no enemy can bring suffering upon a man when the will of God is otherwise, so no man can save himself out of their hands when God will deliver them up for his glory….We shall or shall not suffer, even as it pleaseth him….Suffering comes not by chance or by the will of man, but by the will and appointment of God. (Advice, 722-723)

So we have no reason to fear men.

God’s bridle is upon them, God’s hook is in their nose: yea, and God has determined the bounds of their rage, and if he lets them drive his church into the sea of troubles, it shall be but up the the neck, and so far it may go, and not be drowned. (Advice, 725-726)

I love that as Christian reached the top of the Hill Difficulty, even though Timorous and Mistrust came running the opposite way in fear, Christian saw that the lions on either side of the path were chained; “no hurt shall come unto thee,” as long as we stay in the center of the path, even though they will roar and snarl.

I have, in a few words, handled this…to show you that our sufferings are ordered and disposed by him, that you might always, when you come into trouble for this name, not stagger nor be at a loss, but be stayed, composed, and settled in your minds, and say, ‘The will of the Lord be done.’ Acts 21:14. (Advice, )

The Counsel for Suffering

So how should we prepare? Bunyan knew he must live on unseen things. Peter provides similar counsel in 1 Peter 4:19 as a summary to 4:12-18.

The Sufferer’s Consignment

The ones suffering according to God’s will must entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good. The command is entrust. It means deliver over; deposit, as in a treasure into safe and trustworthy hands. That is what consignment means. You hand over to someone else in a permanent way. You give up, you relinquish control to the other person, and let them do as they please. We are to consign our souls. We deliver them up to God’s custody, for His whole disposal and care.

Christian and Faithful must have had 1 Peter in mind when they endured mockeries, beatings, and imprisonment in Vanity Fair.

But committing themselves to the all-wise dispose of him that ruleth all things, with much content they abode in the condition in which they were until they should be otherwise disposed of. (95)

Persecution is aimed at the soul. Peter’s exhortation is an awakening call to watchfulness. We are in danger, and we are so busy with other things that we forget our souls to their ruin. It may be that when you suffer, all you have left is your soul.

I had also this consideration, that if I should now venture all for God, I engaged God to take care of my concernments. (Grace Abounding, #329)

The Sufferer’s Caretaker

Entrust your souls to a faithful Creator. What a curious choice of adjective and title for God. Our confidence depends on the character of the caretaker. Peter emphasizes that He is faithful, that is, He is dependable, trustworthy. Count on Him to do the right thing. He won’t fail to care. He always fulfills His promises, that’s why it’s worth living on unseen things.

And He is a faithful Creator. This is the only time in the New Testament that this title is used for God, even though His work of creation is mentioned. It stresses that He is capable of our care. The power that created the universe is at His disposal in our sufferings. Nothing can separate us from His love, and nothing can keep Him from taking care of our souls. They are safe with Him.

When Christian and Hopeful “came to the delectable Mountains, which Mountains belong to the Lord of the Hill,” they asked some Shepherds about the direction to the Celestial City, the remaining distance, and if there were dangers ahead. The shepherds answered that the way is “safe for those for whom it is safe” (124). The security of our journey depends not on our strength or sense, but on our relation to the owner of the Land.

I should have believed his word; and not have put an IF upon the all-seeingness of God. (Grace Abounding, #243)

The Sufferer’s Conduct

The little phrase at the end of verse 19 is an electric charged goad. We consign our souls to the faithful Creator while doing good. We don’t shrink back and hide, licking our wounds. We are busy well-doers.

That’s part of the point in 1 Peter 2:11-12, so that others might see our good works. 1 Peter 3:9 is even more proactive.

Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing.

When we’re suffering unjustly, it’s not enough to not sin. We are called to bless those who persecute us. This is impossible for the poser pilgrim. It goes too far for him. But genuine pilgrims leave a fragrance when they are crushed. Pots don’t try to keep all the grace to themselves when they are bumped; they spill it out. Impact a dying world while dying ourselves.

This was Christian and Faithful in Vanity Fair. “The men being patient, and not rendering railing for railing, but contrawise blessing, and giving good words for bad, and kindness for injuries done.” What frees us to suffer, die, and spread blessing all the while, is faith.

See also Matthew 5:39-45 and Romans 12:14. “May this journey, bring a blessing. And at the end of my heart’s journey, with Your likeness, may I wake.”

This is what makes a man like Bunyan so powerfully used by God, because grace abounded through his hardships and suffering. He didn’t hole up in prison, he served his family and fellow prisoners and generations to follow.

This is Peter’s exhortation to every pilgrim. It is also Christ’s example.

For to this [unjust suffering] you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. (1 Peter 2:21-24)

The way Jesus suffered unjustly without sinning was to entrust Himself to Him who judges justly. He gave His care into His Father’s hands. The significance in chapter 2 is that God is the just judge, meaning that unrighteous treatment is not going unnoticed. All unrighteousness toward His Son, and His pilgrims, will be called to account. Either it was paid for by Christ or it will be punished in hell.

We are to live on unseen things; the Judge’s justice, the Creator’s power and faithfulness. The Father’s promise of glory, this is our calling as pilgrim,s to follow the footsteps of Christ and suffer according to the will of God.

Has thou escaped? Laugh. Art thou taken? Laugh. I mean, be pleased which soever things shall go, for that the scales are still in God’s hands. (Advice, 726)

Conclusion

Let me beg of thee, that thou wilt not be offended either with God, or men, if the cross is laid heavy upon thee. Not with God, for he doth nothing without a cause, nor with men, for…they are the servants of God to thee for good. (Advice, 694)

Jesus’ suffering was not only an example for us. It is an example, but it also provided forgiveness and healing. His death and resurrection guarantees our resurrection and receipt of all God has promised.

The cross is the pinnacle of unjust suffering, the pinnacle of God’s sovereignty over suffering, and the pinnacle of grace abounding through suffering.

As pilgrims, we celebrate Christ’s suffering for our sin and conquering of death in communion. As we consider His afflictions, and the grace that spreads because of Him, thanksgiving increases to the glory of God. At the Lord’s Table, we proclaim His death until He comes as the only way of salvation, and we see our own death to the things of this world and certain life with Him in the Celestial City.

It is only for pilgrims who have entered through the wicket-gate, who have repented from their sin and have had their burden removed at the cross.

Some of my favorite parts in The Pilgrim’s Progress are where Christ is in view. He’s not necessarily visible, but in He’s there in unseen, behind the scene ways. He is always watching over and caring for His pilgrims.

Christ is always “behind the wall,” fueling the fire of our faith. Though “it is hard for the tempted to see how this work of grace is maintained in the soul,” His work is so certain that “the souls of his people prove gracious still.” In other words, He is the efficient cause of our endurance, no matter how much the devil (through difficulties and discouragement) douses us.

Then I saw in my dream, that the Interpreter took Christian by the hand, and let him into a place where was a fire, burning against a wall, and one standing by it, always casting much water upon it to quench it, yet did the fire burn higher and hotter.

Then said Christian, What means this?

The Interpreter answered, This fire is the work of grace that is wrought in the heart; he that casts water upon it, to extinguish and put it out, is the Devil: that in that thou seest the fire notwithstanding burn higher and hotter, thou shalt also see the reason of that: so he had him about to the backside of the wall, where he saw a man with a vessel of oil in his hand, of the which he did also continually cast (but secretly) into the fire.

Then said Christian, what means this?

The Interpreter answered, This is Christ, who continually with the oil of his grace, maintains the work already begun in the heart; by the means of which, notwithstanding what the Devil can do, the souls of his people prove gracious still. And in that thou sawest, that the man stood behind the wall to maintain the fire; this is to teach thee, that it is hard for the tempted to see how this work of grace is maintained in the soul. (The Pilgrim’s Progress, 35)
In particular, Christ fuels our heart fires as He gives us a sense of His love.

Knowledge of Christ’s love was indispensable to Bunyan. His heart was stricken with guilt and he often despaired of being accepted by Christ. This seemed to be, according to Grace Abounding, one of the devil’s most used attacks, to rub his face in his unworthiness to receive any good thing from Christ. Bunyan had great need of knowing and living on the unseen love of Christ.

Every pilgrim on the hard path needs to comprehend Christ’s love. Those with truly broken hearts also need this encouragement, because they can spiral down beyond their true condition in Christ. They are loved.

Bunyan wrote a book to feed Christians with this knowledge titled, The Saint’s Knowledge of Christ’s Love, or, The Unsearchable Riches of Christ. It has also been published recently under the title, All Loves Excelling. The entire book is a forrest fire of goodness sparked by Ephesians 3:18-19.

These two verses are the final part of a paragraph of prayer which Paul began in verse 14. Having received God’s Spirit, having been rooted and grounded in love, the apostle prays that the Ephesian believers

may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

This isn’t a crutch or wheelchair for weary and wounded hearts, it’s two new legs. It’s part of the “inner man’s” makeover (cf. session one, 2 Corinthians 4:16), “strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being” (Ephesians 3:16).

The final part of Paul’s request is entirely about Christ’s love, but something about Christ’s love is not easy or obvious to know. We need an increase in bandwidth to download the full file of Christ’s love rather than the truncated version often transmitted today. Paul began by asking God to provide strength, that God would enable them to understand the unfathomable. Only God can give this insight and enable us to understand. Paul describes it like two arms of a vice grip clamping onto one object.

Christ’s Love is Incalculable (18)

The first phrase seeks strength that Christian pilgrims may apprehend the extent of Christ’s love.

to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,

The four terms refer to dimensions, to measurable, discoverable ideas that are here boundless. Each term suggests the outer limits.

BREADTH, and LENGTH, and DEPTH, and HEIGHT, are words that in themselves are both ambiguous, and to wonderment; ambiguous, because unexplained, and to wonderment, because they carry in them an unexpressible [sic] something; and that something which far out-goes all those things that can be found in this world. (Saint’s Knowledge, 3)

Before we go any farther, an important question to answer is, comprehend “the breadth and length and height and depth” of what? The object (or objects) that is so broad and long and high and deep is not mentioned in verse 18.

Various interpretations have been suggested. Maybe “the breadth and length and height and depth” refer to God’s power. Maybe they refer to God’s wisdom. Maybe they are in reference to the mystery of salvation. A long line of interpreters have suggested these, and other more fanciful options (e.g., the for arms of Christ’s cross, the heavenly Jerusalem, the cosmos). Bunyan himself seems, to me, to border on being carried away in his comments on these four words.

So what does “breadth and length and height and depth” refer to? The first clue is that, in Greek, one article (precedes and) governs all four. The article welds the four elements together in Paul’s mind. He wasn’t thinking about four things, but the immensity, the vastness, the incalculability of one thing. But what is that something?

I believe the one thing is Christ’s love. The ESV and NAS make it seem that verse 18 and verse 19 are two coordinating thoughts. They are connected, but in a way that the second phrase in verse 19 expands and explains the first phrase in verse 18. Context clarifies Paul’s concern. While the NIV may not be the most accurate translation, it does emphasize the appropriate sense.

may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

There are clear parallels between verses 18 and 19. In verse 18 Paul prays that they would comprehend, in verse 19 that they would know. It was rational, but also personal knowledge. In verse 18 it is “the breadth and length and height and depth,” and in verse 19 it “surpasses knowledge.” So the two verses are scratching at the same itch.

As for the terms themselves, breadth refers to area. Christ’s love covers the widest span. Length refers to distance, how far things are apart. Christ’s love reaches the farthest intervals.

Do not though go about to measure arms with God,…do not thou conclude, that because thou canst not reach God by thy short stump, therefore he cannot reach thee with his long arm. (The Saints’ Knowledge of Christ’s Love, 6)

Depth refers to the bottom. Christ’s love descends to the lowest levels. It is unfathomable. Height refers to the top. Christ’s love soars above the tallest.

The vastness of Christ’s love is emphasized first, and Paul wants them to comprehend it. This is impossible. Comprehend means grasp, get a hold of the whole matter. But the cosmic dimensions make it impossible to get our head around it. We can’t get to the bottom of it. We can’t see the whole picture of His love. His love is too large to frame, and even if it were, there isn’t a wall large enough to hold the frame. The magnitude of Christ’s love cannot be measured. Imagine the most oversized, mega-gargantuan container you can; now double-it; now multiply by the next number higher than you can conceive. You’ve just taken a mathematical baby step toward comprehending Christ’s incalculable love.

This is an encouragement, because there are times and circumstances that seem too large to get around or too deep to understand or too high to overcome. These difficulties are opportunities for us to see the unseen love of Christ.

God is high above all things and can do whatever it pleaseth him. But since he can do so, why doth he suffer this, and that thing to appear, to act, and do so horribly repugnant to his word? I answer, he admits of many things, to the end he may shew his wrath, and make his power known; and that all the world may see how he checks and overrules the most vile and unruly things, and can make them subservient to his holy will. And how would the breadth and the length, and the depth, and the height of the love and mercy of God in Christ to us-ward, be made to appear, so as in all things it doth, were there not admitted that there should be breadths, and lengths, and depths, and heights to oppose. Wherefore these oppositions are therefore suffered, that the greatness of the wisdom, the power, the mercy, and grace of God to us in Christ might appear and be made manifest. (Knowledge, 9)

We don’t always see it, but Christ’s love is “busily engaged for this and the other child of God, yet they themselves see nothing of them” (Knowledge, 10-11). Would that we were better expositors of providence. “Some shall suck honey out of that, at the which others tremble for fear it should poison them” (Knowledge, 11)

Come behold the works of the Lord towards me, may every Christian say. He hath set a Savior against sin; a heaven against hell; light against darkness; good against evil, and the breadth, and length, and depth, and height of the grace that is in himself, for my good, against all the power, and strength, and force, and subtlety of every enemy. (Knowledge, 9)

Would it not be amazing, should you see a man encompassed with chariots and horses, and weapons for his defense, and yet afraid of being sparrow blasted, or over-run by a grasshopper! (Knowledge, 13)

Christ’s love covers it all, and then some.

Christ’s Love is Inscrutable (19)

As I said, this is the second leg, not a second person. It’s the second arm of the pliers holding onto love. And the prayer is not that we would love Christ more, but rather that we would know His unknowable love for us.

and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge,

The paradox is profound. To try to get a handle on what is simply beyond us, let’s ask four scrutinizing questions.

First, what is Christ’s love?

We’re supposed to fill up the pages of our mental book with His love. So what is His love? Bunyan lets us copy from his work.

Christ’s love is steady and endless. Unlike our love waves that ebb and flow, unlike our love machines that rust and quit, Christ’s love stays strong and lasts forevers. “God is love; Christ is God; therefore Christ is love, love naturally. Love…is essential to his being. He may as well cease to be, as cease to love” (Knowledge, 16). The chain of His love never falls off the gears no matter how hard we pedal.

Christ’s love is impartial and righteous. Unlike our love glasses that look for loveliness, Christ’s love for others depends on Himself, not the others. That’s headline news, because our loveliness is buried on the last page in the smallest typeface–if printed at all, and certainly not worthy of His love. We wait to love until the person pleases us, and we withhold love when they hurt us. His love is unconditional, independent of the person. Also unlike our love that is often spent in the wrong direction, on things our flesh wants, on things that are contrary to God’s will, Christ’s love is always righteous. He’ll never be caught sneaking unlawful loves.

Christ’s love is personal and sacrificial. We put on our love coats to make us look good. His love serves and saves.

That a person so great, so high, so glorious, as this Jesus Christ was, should have love for us, that passes knowledge. It is common for equals to love, and for superiors to be beloved; but for the King of princes, for the Son of God, for Jesus Christ to love man thus: this is amazing. (Knowledge, 16)

It is amazing to consider that in God’s love, and in His plan to save, He did not throw His love at us from a distance. He Himself took on flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14). He Himself suffered and bled as our substitute, His enemies (Romans 5:6-11; 1 John 3:16). He Himself got involved and gave His own life.

Had this Christ of God, our friend, given all he had to save us, had not his love been wonderful? But when he shall give for us himself, this is more wonderful. (Knowledge, 19)

These are just a few ways to think of Christ’s love.

Second, why is Christ’s love inscrutable?

Paul states that the love of Christ surpasses knowledge. It is beyond our ability to comprehend. No saint can know it fully. All the saints together cannot know it fully. The saints in heaven don’t know it fully. The angels don’t know it fully. We could grow wings and plant a flag on the moon as soon as we could bolt down every corner of His love.

Were all the saints on earth, and all the saints in heaven to contribute all that they know of this love of Christ, and to put it into one sum of knowledge, they would greatly come short of knowing the utmost of this love, for that there is an indefinite deal of this love, yet unknown by them. (Knowledge, 23)

What is it about Christ’s love that goes beyond our knowing capacity? Among other reasons, here are a few.

Christ’s love is eternal. It is eternal, because as God, He is eternal. Therefore, His love had no beginning. It always was, and that means we’ve missed 6000 years of earth time, let alone the eternity before the beginning of time, of knowing His love. We also, of course, cannot track His love all the way out in the future. We can say the words, we can try to imagine the “no end” concept, but our time-bound, finite brains cannot see or hold that much.

It is as possible for a spirit to drink up the sea, as for the most enlarged saint that is or ever shall be in glory, so to see God as to know him altogether, to the utmost, or throughout. (Knowledge, 24)

Christ’s love covers our sin. The cross is the ultimate display of love, the atonement the greatest work of love. But we do not completely grasp the significance of His sacrifice because we do not know the extent of our odious offense to His holiness.

Besides, there are many sins committed by us, dropping from us, and that pollute us, that we are not at all aware of; how then should we know that love of Christ by which we are delivered from them? (Knowledge, 25)

We can’t fully know His love because we don’t fully see our sin for what it is. The lyrics are no modest exaggeration: “I’ll never know how much it cost, to see my sin upon that cross.”

Christ’s love protects us from the evil one. Satan, through his demons and through the world system that he controls, seeks our harm. He is a roaring, prowling lion seeking prey. But we don’t see him. Neither do we see the spiritual principalities and rulers that we wrestle. Therefore, we have no idea how many times and ways that Christ has guarded us and preserved us out of His love for us.

No “not-God” being, no finite Christian can fully comprehend the love.

Third, how then is Christ’s love knowable?

Paul is praying that we know Christ’s love, after all. That means God Himself, through the Spirit, can illuminate the truth to our minds.

Here is also a good place to poke the postmoderns in the eye, and remember that it is possible to know something correctly, even if we don’t know completely. 2 + 2 = 4 is always correct, though that doesn’t mean I know everything about math. In other words, we can know truly if not fully. A baby is truly human, though not fully developed. We depend on it every day. I know enough to know that my car doesn’t run unless there’s gas in the tank. I have an idea how some things work more than others.

We can appreciate the nature of God’s love even if not entirely. Loving through 40 years is different than 4 days. Seeing more of our sinfulness helps us appreciate more of His love. “People naturally think that the knowledge of their sins is the way to destroy them; when in very deed, it is the first step to salvation” (Knowledge, 28). Being sinned against helps us appreciate more how He was offended.

We grow in our understanding by degrees. That’s part of the pilgrim life, and our knowledge will increase eternally. We don’t know everything about the Bible yet. But we can work on it. We don’t see God’s holiness and abhor evil as He does, but we are being sanctified (and it’s a process). Our condition at conversion is not (hopefully) our continual condition. We saw in Psalm 51:17 that broken hearts want more and more of God’s graces, and we are being changed as we see Him. He is conforming us into the image of Christ, and the more we’re like Christ the more we’ll be able to appreciate His love.

Even in heaven we’ll never exhaust His love. His love excels all loves. The fact that we can’t fully understand is no problem with His love. What we don’t discern is no discouragement, just the opposite! I’m not less impressed with the ocean because I can’t see past the horizon. So while we can appreciate and grow in appreciation, we can always marvel and take courage in all the unseen love.

We don’t know Christ’s love exhaustively, and we’ll never exhaust Christ’s love. It may be inscrutable into infinity, but it is knowable in its certainty.

Fourth, what is the effect of knowing Christ’s unsearchable love?

Knowing that there is a breadth and length and height and depth that we don’t even know about enables peace when we feel unlovely. He has more love than your unloveliness can imagine. “We think Christ loves us no more than we think he can…but this love of Christ that we think is such, is indeed none of the love of Christ” (Knowledge, 32).

He is not close to using up all His love. Hopeful’s final excitement: “I thought that had I now 1000 gallons of blood in my body, I could spill it all for the sake of the Lord Jesus” (The Pilgrim’s Progress, 146). That should get our blood pumping, and it should get our grace sloshing.

Knowing love beyond comprehension also enables risk beyond comprehension. “By this knowledge, room is made for a Christian, and liberty is ministered unto him, to turn himself every way in all spiritual things” (Knowledge, 34). No opportunity to give, to serve, to sacrifice, to slosh grace, to die, is beyond the edges of the safety net of His love. By faith in this great love we have every reason for boldness because His love goes before us and beyond us. “By knowing of this a child of God has reserve for himself, at a day, when all that he otherwise knows, may be taken from him through the power of temptation” (Knowledge, 33).

Those are good effects, but verse 19 finishes the prayer with the intended purpose of knowledge.

that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Being filled means, at the least, that we are strengthened and that we are satisfied. There is no higher step that being filled with all the fulness of God. There is no more profound blessing. There is no way that He is more glorified.

It is not greater self-esteem or self-awareness or self-determination that makes a person more human or more mature. It is not being secure in our environment or our relationships that provides inner peace. The way to maturity, the way to peace, the path to being complete in Christ, is knowing Christ’s love for us. Through a growing grasp of Him and His love we are filled with His fulness.

Knowing more of Christ’s love now also effects greater anticipation for Christ’s love then.

The more a man knows, or understands of the greatness of [God's love] towards him…the better he will be able in his heart to conceive of the excellent glory and greatness of the [unseen] things that are laid up in the heavens….They that know nothing of this greatness, know nothing of them; they that think amiss of this greatness, thing amiss of them; they that know little of this greatness, know but little of them. (Knowledge, 14)

Conclusion

I love Bunyan’s question:

Couldst thou (sinner) if thou hadst been allowed, thyself express what thou wouldst have expressed, the greatness of the love thou wantest, with words that could have suited thee better? (Knowledge, 37)

In other words, if someone asked you to describe the kind of love you hoped for, could you have imagined it this good?

Such men are, at this day, wanting in the churches. These are the men that sweeten churches, and that bring glory to God and to religion. (Knowledge, 35)

Are you a stranger to Christ’s love?

How are you working to know His love more? I was convicted reading Bunyan’s book. I’m often studying and thinking and praying, paying more attention to the pliers than what the pliers are holding.

What is distracting you, causing you to doubt Christ’s love? We must live on the promise that “neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39).

The external religious system in England posed one of the greatest dangers John Bunyan faced. That system imprisoned him for 12 years in Bedford, keeping him away from his family and ministry. But even worse, that same system imprisoned men in their sins, keeping them away from freedom found in the gospel. Bunyan spent much of his ministry exposing the worthlessness of external shows and encouraging men to look to the hidden person of the heart (cf. 1 Peter 3:4).

Two tragic characters in The Pilgrim’s Progress were Envy and Superstition (I like to imagine they were cousins with Formalist and Hypocrisy). They were at home in Vanity Fair, and they testified against Christian and Faithful. They were angry that Christian and Faithful made their professions look weak. Non-fiction hostility of this sort was directed against Bunyan, as he was persecuted by, and burdened for, those who made ceremony and sacrifice their primary concern.

Sermon upon sermon and book after book by Bunyan confronted this bare religiosity, and exhorted men to see the heart of a pilgrim. God accepts only one type of pilgrim: the pilgrim with a broken and contrite heart. This emphasis recurred in Bunyan’s preaching and theology, namely, that “grace will not come without profound personal conviction of the utter worthlessness of one’s own endeavors” (Hill, 174). An unbroken heart before God is useless to God.

Bunyan’s most straightforward book on the subject was The Acceptable Sacrifice, or, The Excellency of a Broken Heart. It is a meditation and application of one verse, Psalm 51:17.

King David wrote Psalm 51 after the prophet Nathan confronted him over his sin with Bathsheba, against Uriah, and against God. The psalm is David’s sorrowful confession and plea for forgiveness. It is one of the most memorable psalms, and perhaps the clearest example of a broken heart in the Bible.

A broken heart isn’t a pleasant sensation. When a doctor breaks a bone to set it correctly, the sensation is not delightful. But it is necessary in order for the bone to heal. So breaking the heart to align it with God does delight God. David comforted himself with this truth in verse 17.

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

God looks at the heart (cf. 1 Samuel 16:7). External compliance to His own law does not please Him if a man’s heart is not internally conformed. Sacrifices refer to worship, and verse 17 reveals the worship that God does not despise, or in other words, the worship that is acceptable to Him, that He receives, that He esteems, in which He delights. It seems that this type of sacrifice is the sacrifice of sacrifices, the top of His favorites. Nothing pleases Him more than a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart.

The word broken is repeated; contrite is not too different, another way to say the same thing. God desires, God delights in, hearts before parts, and in particular, hearts that are humble, hearts that mourn over sin, hearts that bow.

A broken heart is “disabled.” A broken bone disables a man, so when the inner man is broken, he is not able to walk freely in the things that he did before. A contrite spirit is grieved, sorrowful, humble. All the senses are involved, especially as he sees his sin for what it is.1

Hearts that are not broken are not accepted by Him. He despises religious performance, no matter how steady or spectacular, that does not come from a soft heart. This is true by default among those who are unsaved, be they religious or not.

In fact, the religious may be in more danger. It is harder for them to recognize and admit.

The more righteous is in his own eyes before conversion, the more need he has of heart-breaking work, in order to his salvation; because a man is not by nature so easily convinced that his righteousness is to God abominable. … Wherefore, a self-righteous man is but a painted Satan, or a devil in fine clothes; but thinks he so of himself? No! no! he saith to others, Stand back, come not near me, I am holier than thou. (Sacrifice, in Works, 719)

The first reason I felt compelled to cover this book by Bunyan is because it focuses on what is acceptable to God. He’s concerned with heart condition, so the condition of our heart is always relevant. But the second reason is because most of you have been around the church and a Christian school your whole lives. You’ve been going through motions, but your heart has never been broken.

[C]onversion to God is not so easy and so smooth a thing as some would have men believe it is….Why is the conversion of the soul compared to the grafting of a tree, if that be done without cutting? The Word is the graft, the soul is the tree, and the Word, as the scion, must be let in by a wound; for to stick on the outside, or to be tied on with a string, will do no good here….I say, heart must be set to heart, and back to back, or the sap will not be conveyed from the root to the branch; and I say, this must be done by a wound. (720)

Maybe there is no real fruit because there is no real spiritual life.

Throughout his pastoral life, and especially in The Pilgrim’s Progress, Bunyan aimed his largest guns at hypocrisy. He knew the need for breaking of religious hypocrisy from personal experience.

I loved to be talked of as one that was truly godly. I was proud of my godliness, and, indeed, I did all I did, either to be seen of, or to be well spoken of by man. (Grace Abounding, #32)

He also knew the benefits of brokenness for sake of his sanctification. In the Preface to The Acceptable Sacrifice, Bunyan’s friend George Cokayn wrote:

God–who had much work for [Bunyan] to do–was still hewing and hammering him by his Word, and sometimes also by more than ordinary temptations and desertions….Indeed, [brokenness] is a most necessary qualification that should always be found in the disciples of Christ, who are most eminent, and as stars of the first magnitude in the firmament of the church. (686)

Sin blocks the arteries of a man’s heart, even when that man is a believer. David was a believer when he committed adultery, tried to cover that sin with murder, and tried to hide both sins from others. He wrote Psalm 51 from the perspective of one of God’s own. So we are always in need of a broken and contrite heart. That is what God accepts.

All of Bunyan’s book goes to this, and jumps from Psalm 51:17.

This is session four, and it is a session of fours. Four truths about broken hearts, with four sub-points each.

The Necessity of a Broken Heart

Because every man is a sinner, and because sin makes a man’s heart intolerable and obnoxious to God, it is essential that he approach God with a broken heart. There are at least four reasons the sinner’s heart must be broken.

First, an unbroken heart is unwise.

Hard hearts are likened to fools, and fools don’t listen. Fools believe that they know, but they are deceived. They express no fear of God or His judgements because they are ignorant. Their ears are shut; they’ve turned a blind eye. A man’s foolishness must be broken before he’ll be able to see the mess he’s in.

what an amazing thing this is, that a rational creature should make no better a bargain; that one that is so wise in all terrene (earthly) things, should be such a fool in the thing that is most weighty? (Acceptable Sacrifice, 714)

In other words, how smart is the man who lives on temporary, seen things? Who drinks from the dry, empty cistern?

Satan will use any means to keep the soul from Christ; he loveth not an awakened frame of spirit; security, blindness, darkness, and error is the very kingdom and habitation of the wicked one. (Grace Abounding, 25)

Satan loves unbroken hearts.

Second, an unbroken heart is unbelieving.

Hard hearts have no faith, and the unbelieving calls God’s character into question by his doubts and cynicism and criticism. He does not trust God, and that makes God appear unreliable, though nothing is further from the truth. A man’s unbelief must be broken before it can be molded into trust. Before being broken, calls to faith bounce off his hard heart.

When men are somewhat put to it, when reason and conscience shall begin a little to hearken to a preacher, or a judgment that shall begin to hung for iniquity, how many tricks, evasions, excuses, demurs, delays, and hiding-holes will they make, invent, and find, to hide and preserve their sweet sins with themselves and their souls, in the delights of them, to their own eternal perdition? (Acceptable Sacrifice, 706)

Third, an unbroken heart is unruly.

Hard hearts are proud. The only thing the proud man knows for sure is that he knows everything he needs to know. He acts like he needs no one else. Wrong again. This causes him to assess himself higher than he ought. His mind is set on the flesh, making him hostile to God (cf. Romans 8:7). He will not submit to God’s will or bow before God’s throne. A man’s arrogant, obstinate, unruly heart must be broken. Hard hearts fight against confrontation and counsel.

A wild or mad man gives no heed to good counsel…let him alone, and he will greatly busy himself all his life to accomplish that which, when it is completed, amounts to nothing. The work, the toil, the travel of such a one comes to nothing, save to declare that he was out of his wits that did it. (Acceptable Sacrifice, 707)

What’s really scary to consider is, “If there is so much in the pride of his countenance, what is there, think you, in the pride of his heart?” (Acceptable Sacrifice, 704)

Fourth, an unbroken heart is unappreciative.

Hard hearts are unthankful. Even as a fool, a doubter, and a rebel, he continues to enjoy God’s gifts to him, gifts such as breath, senses, family, temporal successes, sun and rain. He has nothing apart from God, and even though he can see God’s invisible attributes, namely, His eternal power and divine nature, he does not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him (cf. Romans 1:20-21). A man’s presumptuous heart must be broken.

[Christ] is indeed the great deliverer; but what is a deliverer to them that never saw themselves in bondage, as was said before?…He has sorely suffered, and been bruised for the transgression of man, that they might not receive the smart, and hell, which by their sins they have procured to themselves. But what is that to them that never saw ought but beauty, and that never tasted anything but sweetness in sin? It is he that holdeth by his intercession the hands of God, and that causes him to forbear to cut off the drunkard, the liar, and unclean person, even when they are in the very act and work of their abomination; but their hard heart, their stupefied heart, has no sense of such kindness as this, and therefore they take no notice of it….Wherefore such ungrateful, unthankful, inconsiderate wretches as these must needs be a continual eye-sore, as I may say, and great provocation to God; and yet thus men will do before their hearts are broken…. (Acceptable Sacrifice, 710-711)

These are all ways to say that an unbroken heart is spiritually dead, insensitive and hard as a diamond (cf. Ezekiel 36:26; Zechariah 7:12). The man with an unbroken heart deserves judgment, but does not even know it.

Man’s heart is fenced, it is grown gross; there is a skin that, like a coat of mail, has wrapped it up, and inclosed it on every side. This skin, this coat of mail, unless it be cut off and taken away, the heart remains untouched, whole; and so as unconcerned, whatever judgments or afflictions light upon the body. (Acceptable Sacrifice, 703)

The Acceptability of a Broken Heart

God does not accept an unbroken heart. But a broken and contrite heart He does not despise (Psalm 51:17). The LORD of heaven and earth looks to the broken-hearted.

Thus says the LORD:
“Heaven is my throne,
and the earth is my footstool;
what is the house that you would build for me,
and what is the place of my rest?
All these things my hand has made,
and so all these things came to be,
declares the LORD.
But this is the one to whom I will look:
he who is humble and contrite in spirit
and trembles at my word.
Isaiah 66:1-2

A man’s broken heart is an acceptable sacrifice to Him and we can see that in four arguments.

First, God Himself creates broken hearts.

Every broken heart is His own handiwork. A hard heart doesn’t know it’s own hardness; it must have outside help. Unless God transplants the heart of stone with a heart of flesh (cf. Ezekiel 36:26), man will never be acceptable to God. God grants repentance and He does not despise His own work.

We must still know that this broken tender heart is not a plant that grows in our own soil, but is the peculiar gift of God himself. He that made the heart must break the heart. (George Cokayn, Preface to Acceptable Sacrifice, 687)

God does this by His word.

Is not my word like fire, declares the LORD, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces? (Jeremiah 23:29)

The LORD sent Nathan David to preach. (2 Samuel 12:1-13)

Here is nought but open war, acts of hostility, and shameful rebellion, on the sinner’s side; and what delight can God take in that? Wherefore, if God will bend and buckle the spirit of such an one, he must shoot an arrow at him, a bearded arrow, such as may not be plucked out of the wound: an arrow that will stick fast, and cause that the sinner falls down as dead at God’s foot. Then will the sinner deliver up his arms, and surrender up himself as one conquered, into the had of, and beg for the Lord’s pardon, and not till then; I mean not sincerely. (Acceptable Sacrifice, 710)

Second, God Himself cares for broken hearts.

Again and again God reveals His tenderness toward tender hearts. His Son, in particular is given charge to keep the wounded and care for them. It is a key part of His mission. He will not crush or bruise broken hearts; He esteems them.

The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me,
because the LORD has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor;
he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, Isaiah 61:1; see also verses 2-3, and also Luke 4:18 (by Jesus Himself)

See Psalm 147:1-6, and how the LORD’s healing of the brokenhearted is immediately followed by His determining the number and names of the stars.

“A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not quench” (Isaiah 42:3; quoted in Matthew 12:20).

But that God, the high God, the God against whom we have sinned, should…give his Son a command, a charge, a commission to take care of, to bind up and heal the broken in heart; this is that which can never be sufficiently admired or wondered at by men or angels. (Acceptable Sacrifice, 692)

Third, God Himself communes with broken hearts.

He not only accepts, He also dwells in broken hearts. He comes near for intimate fellowship. His Spirit creates and then resides in hearts of flesh, as do God’s graces and gifts. He makes broken hearts into receptacles, into cabinets that hold His most excellent gifts.

For thus says the One who is high and lifted up,
who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy:
“I dwell in the high and holy place,
and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit,
to revive the spirit of the lowly,
and to revive the heart of the contrite.
Isaiah 57:15

The LORD is near to the brokenhearted
and saves the crushed in spirit.
Psalm 34:18

Of all the men in the world, none have acquaintance with God, none understand what communion with him, and what his teachings mean, but such as are of a broken and contrite heart. (Acceptable Sacrifice, 690-691)

Fourth, God Himself concurs with broken hearts.

Broken hearts are those that see their sin as God does. Broken hearts agree with God that they need His grace. Broken hearts value the person and work of the Son as the Father does. God does not despise a broken heart because it is a heart that longs for righteousness as He does.

a broken heart prizes Christ, and has a high esteem for him. The whole have no need of a physician, but the sick; this sick man is the broken-hearted in the text; for God makes men sick by smiting of them, by breaking of their hearts….Can any think that God should be pleased, when men despise his Son, saying, He hath no form nor comeliness, and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him? And yet so say they of him whose hearts God has not mollified; yea, the elect themselves confess, that before their hearts were broken, they set light by him also. (Acceptable Sacrifice, 710)

The Advantages of a Broken Heart

In addition to pleasing God, which is the most important consideration, a broken heart benefits us in (at least) four ways.

First, a broken heart is fearful.

A sensitive heart cares about God’s commands and is careful to keep them. As someone with an open wound goes to special lengths to avoid exposure to more pain, so a broken heart watches against offending God and incurring the hammer of His discipline. “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 1:7), “the fear of the LORD is hatred of evil” (Proverbs 8:13), “the fear of the LORD is a fountain of life, that one may turn way from the snares of death” (Proverbs 14:26).

All sorts of god things come to those who fear God.

By breaking of the heart he openeth it, and makes it a receptacle for the graces of his Spirit; that is the cabinet, when unlocked, where God lays up the jewels of the gospel; there he puts his fear. (Jer 32:39-41; Eze 36:26-27). The heart, I say, God chooses for his cabinet: there he hides his treasure; there is the seat of justice, mercy and every grace of God. (Acceptable Sacrifice, 709)

He doesn’t give the jewels and treasure of His graces to those who won’t rightly revere them.

Second, a broken heart is repentant.

Because we are still not delivered from the presence of sin, even in our saved condition, we do sin. But a broken heart is quick to sense conviction, to confess, and to repent. David took over a year before he repented because his heart was not broken.

In Psalm 51 David cries out: “blot out my transgressions” (v.1), “cleanse me from my sin” (v.2), “I know my transgressions, my sin is ever before me” (v.3), and “Against You and You only have I sinned” (v.4).

Third, a broken heart is prayerful.

A tender heart knows its own weakness and that it is prone to wander off the pilgrim’s path. It knows it needs help, and so it regularly asks God for help, moment by day. A broken heart desires communion with God, and seeks it in prayer.

All of Psalm 51 is a song of prayer. “Cast me not away from Your presence, take not Your Holy Spirit from me” (v.11).

Fourth, a broken heart is compassionate.

A tender heart is sympathetic with others who are wounded. It feels the hurt it sees in others, and it seeks to care for others and comfort them even at it has been comforted. We put on a soft heart like Christ and serve.

“Then I will teach transgressors Your way, and sinners will return to You” (v.13).

In other words, a broken heart is alive and sensitive, sensitive to God–His justice and His grace, and sensitive to others–their needs. Unlike a hard heart, a broken heart is busy thinking how to honor Him and help people.

The Maintenance of a Broken Heart

If a broken heart is so necessary, so accepted by God, so advantageous to us, so excellent, then how can we keep our hearts tender? Bunyan offers this (summarized and reorganized) list of dos and don’ts, four of each.

Dont’

1. Despise conviction and discipline.

It may not be pleasant at the time, but discipline is sparing you from much worse. God convicts and corrects those He loves (Hebrews 12:7-11; Revelation 3:19), so running away or rationalizing away sorrow over sin will desensitize us to sin.

2. Keep vain company or conversation.

Apathy toward God spreads like cancer. A person with a tender heart will have a measure of seriousness about him, and if he pursues silliness and lightness, he will soon forget and his heart will grow dull toward the important. “The companion of fools will suffer harm” (Proverbs 13:20; cf. Proverbs 18:7; 1 Corinthians 15:33).

3. Take a step toward unbelief or sin.

Don’t give doubt a foot in the door, and don’t give temptation a second glance. These wage war against your soul (cf. 1 Peter 2:11), so as a broken hearted pilgrim, fight.

Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. (Hebrews 3:12-13)

4. Use someone else as an excuse.

Sometimes Satan makes use of a good man’s bad ways, to spoil and harden the heart of them that come after. (Acceptable Sacrifice, 713) cf. Gal 2:11-13 and Peter leading Barnabas astray.

We should consider bad examples, not to condone our own sin, but to learn what path to steer clear of.

Do

1. Labor to know God.

Deepen your intimacy with Him by learning about Him. Bunyan recommended in particular, learn more about God’s omnis–the things that will awe you. (e.g., Proverbs 15:3–”The eyes of the LORD are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good.”) Learn more about His holiness and justice–the things that will humble you. (e.g., Hebrews 12:29–”our God is a consuming fire.”)

2. Seek to see sin for what it is.

Don’t allow temptation to deceive you from true pleasure and satisfaction by enticing you to drink from dry, empty cisterns. Think about sin’s effect on fallen angels, Adam, the flood, Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cross. “Be persuaded that it is the only enemy of God” (Acceptable Sacrifice, 714).

3. Think often about death and judgment.

The fact of death is certain, though the time of death is not. It is inevitable, this world is not the end. So think about the destination. The Puritans were said to live with one foot in the grave. That wasn’t because they were lugubrious or funereal, but because they wanted to be ready. “Just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment” (Hebrews 9:27)

When God shows a man the sin the sin he has committed, the hell he has deserved, the heaven he has lost; and yet that Christ, and grace, and pardon my be had; this will make him serious, this will make him melt, this will break his heart, this will show him that there is more than air, than a noise, than an empty sound in religion; and this is the man, whose heart, whose life, whose conversations and all, will be engaged in the matters of the eternal salvation of his precious and immortal soul. (Acceptable Sacrifice, 715)

4. Consider Christ’s tenderness.

He has spilled His own blood so that God could be both just and yet forgive our hard, proud, rebellious hearts. He sympathizes with us in our weakness, and He does not treat us as we deserve to be treated. (cf. Colossians 3:12-13) yeah

Conclusion

Maybe there is no real fruit because there is no real spiritual life. Your name may be Formalist or Hypocrisy, or maybe Sloth, Presumption.

I can hardly think enough about broken-heartedness. It puts me in a right frame before God, to consider His kindness and the mercy of His salvation. It also prepares me for meeting criticism and small minded, immature people. A broken heart keeps me tender, and enables pity rather than annoyance. A broken-hearted condition isn’t usual, but so much the worth fighting for in light of its benefit for worship and working with men. Keeping my mind on the broken heart channel keeps me watching unseen things.

Sinner, hast thou obtained a broken heart? has God bestowed a contrite spirit upon thee? He has given thee what himself is pleased with; he has given thee a cabinet to hold his grace in; he has given thee a heart that can heartily desire his salvation, an heart after his own heart, that is, such as suits his mind. True, it is painful now, sorrowful now, penitent now, grieved now; not it sighs, now it mourns and crieth unto God. Well, very well; all this is because he hath a mind to make thee laugh; he has made thee sorry on earth that thou mightest rejoice in heaven. (Acceptable Sacrifice, 715)

John Bunyan well-known throughout the world as the author of The Pilgrim’s Progress. His book is widely regarded not only as a literary classic, but, at least by some, as the single greatest work of English fiction ever. John Milton, a contemporary of Bunyan and author of Paradise Lost (which was written almost at the same time), never attained the heights of acclaim or the breadth of reach that Bunyan’s Pilgrim has.

The Pilgrim’s Progress: Penned and Published

The Pilgrim’s Progress was first published in 1678, soon after Bunyan’s brief (second) imprisonment. Though there is disagreement, he either started and finished, or at least finished the book during this time in jail. He had been a Christian and a pastor for quite a while, having published a number of other books before this one.

[Many of you read The Pilgrim's Progress in preparation for the Snow Retreat.] The story is about the main character, named Graceless but changed to Christian, and his “progress from this world to that which is to come, delivered under the similitude of a dream. Wherein is discovered the manner of his setting out, his dangerous journey and safe arrival at the desired Country.” Even with the conclusion provided on the first page, the drama is thick all the way to the final page.

Christian is weighed down by a heavy burden: the guilt of his sin. He meets Evangelist who counsels him to leave his hometown, the City of Destruction, and enter through the Wicket-gate on the path for the Celestial City. Christian encounters trouble from the start, being mocked by his family, getting bogged down in the Slough of Despond, straying near Mt. Sinai and the village of Morality thanks to Mr. Worldly-wiseman, before being redirected by Evangelist. He does enter the wicket gate, soon passes by the cross where his burden is removed (that is, his guilt over sin is removed by faith in Christ).

The rest of the story records Christian’s difficulties, discouragements, and failures, along with not a few times of joy, fellowship, and visions of the Celestial City. He meets all sorts of men along the journey, many who encourage him such as Faithful and Hopeful who travel with him for good portions, and many others who ridicule him, disagree with him, and ignore his message.

There is a Part II of The Pilgrim’s Progress. Part II is the story of Christianna, Christian’s wife, and her setting out with their children toward heaven. Bunyan seems to have written the second part because of questions he received about a husband and father leaving his family, and also because copy cats wrote imitations and he was showing them as counterfeits. “Part II deals with a family, a community, on the way to the heavenly city. They are second-generation professors who have benefitted from the experience and example of the…pioneer pilgrim” (Hill, 200).

There are two obvious influences behind The Pilgrim’s Progress. First was a biographical influence. Having read Grace Abounding at the same time, it is impossible not to see the many parallels between Bunyan’s experience and Christian’s journey. The lingering guilt over sin (e.g., the Slough of Despond when Bunyan was “as on a miry bog that shook if I did but stir” [GA, ]), the relief when his burden was removed, the discouragements along the hard path, the encouragement from Christian fellowship, and the focus on biblical promises are straight out of Bunyan’s own experience. In addition, many of the locations along Christian’s journey seem to originate in the surroundings of Bedford. There was a three day fair in Elstow every May.

The second obvious influence is the Bible. The picture of the Christian life as a pilgrimage is common. Peter refers to believers as aliens and strangers.

To those who are elect exiles [aliens (NAS)] (1:1). Conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile (1:17). I urge you as sojourners and exiles [aliens and strangers (NAS, NIV), strangers and pilgrims (KJV)] (2:11).

The author of Hebrews refers to the pilgrimage of Abram (and some other Old Testament fathers) who recognized that they were “strangers and exiles (pilgrims-KJV) on earth” (Hebrews 11:13). “They desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city” (11:16).

So the primary plot line of The Pilgrim’s Progress is drawn with a Biblical ruler. The scenes are too, scenes such as Vanity Fair.

The book is entertaining, but also edifying and instructive as believers see themselves personified, able to relate to the struggles and successes of Pilgrim. It also convicts those who see their reflection in some of the less desirable characters.

The book went through at least 11 editions. Perhaps 100,000 copies had circulated during Bunyan’s own lifetime (Brown, 444). It has been translated into more than 200 languages. It was and is used by missionaries, studied by scholars, enjoyed by children. Charles Dickens (in Oliver Twist), Mark Twain (in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn), C.S. Lewis (in The Pilgrim’s Regress), and John Steinbeck (in The Grapes of Wrath) all refer to Bunyan’s allegory. George Bernard Shaw said Bunyan was a better character artist than Shakespeare (Sharrock). At one point it was said to be the second most published book after the Bible. If you’ve never read it for yourself, you’re missing a great story. According to English poet and literary critic, Samuel Coleridge

I know of no book, the Bible excepted, as above all comparison, which I, according to my judgment and experience, could so safely recommend as teaching and enforcing the whole saving truth according to the mind that was in Christ Jesus, as in The Pilgrim’s Progress. It is, in my conviction, incomparably the best Summa Theologiae Evangelicae [Summary of Evangelical Doctrine] ever produced by a writer not miraculously inspired. (Roger Sharrock, ed., Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress, a Casebook, 53)

The Pilgrim’s Progress: Described and Distinguished

I’m drawn to Bunyan and to The Pilgrim’s Progress because I connect with the sense that this world is not our home. I don’t feel comfortable, and no Christian should. Bunyan didn’t either, and it was not frivolous for him to speak of being a pilgrim. His life was not airy, foamy steamed milk. It was a quad shot espresso.

I’m also drawn to the book because of the popularity of “spiritual journey” language, especially by people who want nothing to do with Jesus. On this journey, two roads diverge and the one you take makes all the difference. Just any journey won’t do. That’s why I subtitled the retreat “The Key to John Bunyan’s Christian Journey” because I wanted to distinguish it from all the journey-speak that leads away from the Celestial City.

In fact, that was one of Bunyan’s goals in writing The Pilgrim’s Progress as well, to distinguish between the true Christian path and the rest, as well as to distinguish between genuine pilgrims and poser, Talkative pilgrims, those who might temporarily appear to be on the right path. He aimed to set forth truth to make travelers, to urge the lazy to action, and comfort the helpless. With Bunyan’s help, I’d like to describe and distinguish the path of the Christian pilgrim in four ways.

1. The Directions Provided for Christian Pilgrims

The path is marked for Christians. The directions differ from so-called spiritual journeys.

The Divine Source

God revealed directions for pilgrims in His Word. It was by reading the “book” that Christian recognized his sin, it was the “book” that told him about judgement coming upon the City of Destruction, and it was the “book” that pointed him to the Celestial City. He read, referred to, and prized the book throughout his entire journey.

The Christian path is is not self-directed, it is Scripture directed. We know it by illumination, not intuition. We know which way to go because of supernatural revelation, not homemade belief. Christians humbly receive these doctrinal and practical directions.

Spiritual journeyman are hostile to the book; they prefer to make it up as they go, to forge their own path, to choose their own adventure. In fact, the emphasis of spiritual journey speak is talking not listening. They create their own way rather than conform to God’s way.

Additionally, those on a spiritual journey have a dislike for structured truth and prefer fuzzy feeling. They are suspicious of truth claims and prefer mystery, suggesting that not knowing, that uncertainty, makes it more spiritual.

["Totally like whatever, you know?"
poem by Taylor Mali]

Early on Bunyan knew,

I saw clearly there was an exceeding difference betwixt the notions of flesh and blood, and the revelations of God in heaven; also a great different between that faith that is feigned, and according to man’s wisdom, and of that which comes by a man’s being born thereto of God. (Grace Abounding, #118)

It would be too long for me to stay, to tell you in particular how God did set me down in all the things of Christ, and how he did, that he might so so, lead me into his words; yeah, and also how did open them unto me, make them shine before me, and cause them to dwell with me, talk with me, and *comfort me over and over, both of his own being, and the being of his Son, and the Spirit, and Word, and gospel. (Grace Abounding #126)

The Christian realizes that he doesn’t know everything, that there are parts of an infinite God he cannot fully comprehend, but that God makes known “the path of life” (cf. Psalm 16:11; Pro 5:6, 15:24). The adventure is real because the path is hard, not because the path is hazy. Genuine pilgrims follow directions from a divine source, not from an internal one.

It is of no use to “look inside yourself” unless you’ve hidden His Word in your heart, as Bunyan did, as Christian did.

The Defined Course

In The Pilgrim’s Progress and in the Christian pilgrimage, entrance to the Celestial City starts in one place. The success at the end of the journey depends, at least in part, on the beginning of the journey. Unless a man enters the path at the wicket-gate he will not be allowed into heaven. In other words, a man must see his sin and repent. He must go by the cross to have the burden of sin removed. He can’t get to the Celestial City through Morality. And he must receive new clothes, white garments. The path of the pilgrim is defined by the gospel, and unless he follows the gospel course he will not be admitted into eternal glory.

Throughout the book (and life), Christian met men who did not enter the path at the wicket-gate. They thought it was inconvenient and unnecessary. Formalist and Hypocrisy tumbled over the wall onto the path, then left as they came. Ignorance, Christian warned him,

Christian: Thou camest not in at the wicket-gate that is at the head of this way; Though camest in hither through that same crooked Lane, and therefore I fear, however thou mayest think of thyself, when the reckoning-day shall come, thou wilt have laid to thy charge, that thou art a thief and a Robber, instead of getting admittance into the city.

Ignorance: Gentlemen, ye be utter strangers to me, I know you not; be content to follow the religion of your own country, and I will follow the Religion of mine. I hope all will be well. And as for the Gate that you talk of, all the world knows that is a great way off from our Country. I cannot think that any man in all our parts doth so much as know the way to it; nor need they matter whether they do or no, since we have, as you see, a fine, pleasant, green Lane, that comes down from our Country, the next way into the way. (TPP, 127-128)

The last scene in the book was Ignorance being denied entrance and dropped through a door to hell from the very gates of heaven.

The directions of the Christian journey are clear, and the concern is sin. A spiritual journey wants to be validated. The Christian journey seeks redemption. The spiritual journey endeavors to have boredom and emptiness relieved. The Christian journey is about having a guilty conscience cleansed. A spiritual journey desires therapy for inner healing and wholeness. The Christian journey desires salvation and eternal holiness.

It is a mistake for men to presume that access to God and His promises is always available and that they can take any path they choose.

The Bible defines the course; the Bible map to salvation must be followed. The Bible warned Christian to flee the City of Destruction. The Bible was the true source of direction. It was his sword against Apollyon. The key called Promise was in Christian’s “bosom,” meaning the Word was hid in his heart. We need to put those kind of verse keys on the chain before a stay at Doubting Castle.

Spurgeon, in reference to John Bunyan.

He had studied our Authorized Version…till his whole being was saturated with Scripture; and though his writings…continually make us feel and say, ‘Why, this man is a living Bible!’ Prick him anywhere; and you will find that his blood is Bibline, the very essence of the Bible flows from him. He cannot speak with out quoting a text, for his soul is full of the Word of God. (Autobiography, vol. 2. Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1973, 159)

He could nearly always out-text a disputant. The textual slogging match with Satan prepared him to become a great preacher and controversialist. (Hill, 68)

2. The Difficulties Encountered by Christian Pilgrims

George Whitefield said of The Pilgrim’s Progress,

It smells of the prison. It was written when the author was confined in Bedford jail. And ministers never write or preach so well as when under the cross: the Spirit of Christ and of Glory then rests upon them. (Quoted in Horner, The Pilgrim’s Progress: An Evangelical Apologetic, iii.)

Christian was in danger from day one. He had to leave his family (though as I mentioned earlier, in Part II they began their own journey). He almost got bogged down in the Slough of Despond. He was almost crushed by the rocks at Mt. Sinai. He had to climb Hill Difficulty on his hands and knees, though his only other option were the byways Danger and Destruction. He travelled through the Valley of Humiliation and the Valley of the Shadow of Death, “the way was all along set so full of snares, traps, gins [another word for trap], and nets here, and so full of pits, pitfalls, deep holes and shelvings….” He walked between two roaring lions. He was imprisoned and beaten in Vanity Fair (Faithful was killed). He was tempted to kill himself in Doubting Castle. He was lead astray by Flatterer. Though there were times of rest and encouragement on his journey, though he was always helped and protected by the Lord and His Shining Ones, Christian’s journey was hard.

Much of what makes it hard is the exclusive nature of the Christian life. Ours is the road less traveled, the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few (Matthew 7:13-14). Men don’t like being told that their way is wrong. The testimony against Christian and Faithful in Vanity Fair perfectly illustrates the point.

Envy (to the Judge): I heard him once my self affirm, That Christianity and the Customs of our town of Vanity, were diametrically opposite, and could not be reconciled. By which saying, my Lord, he doth at once, not only condemn our laudable doings, but us in the doing of them.

Superstition: I heard him say, That our Religion was nought, and such by which a man could by no means please God: Which saying of this, my Lord, your Lordship very well knows, that necessarily thence will follow to wit, that we still do worship in vain and are yet in our sins, and finally shall be damned.

Pickthank: He hath railed on our noble Prince Beelzebub, and hath spoken contemptible of his honorable Friends, whose Names are, the Lord Old-Man, the Lord Carnal delight, the Lord Luxurious, the Lord Desire of vain glory. (TPP, 97-98)

Many pleadings of Christian were rejected by men who did not want only one way, especially if that way was hard. The Christian journey is difficult because it is not popular or trendy; it confronts the popular and advances by unseen things.

The opposite is true for so-called spiritual journeys. It is cool to be “spiritual.” The goal of these journeys is immediate peace and happiness, not eventual heaven through persecution and hardship. Whatever leads to inner peace must be the right path. This journey is inclusive, take bits from everywhere, even the Bible, if it helps. And by helps, if it makes you feel good about yourself.

The world is seductive. Its allurements, proposals, and assaults require vigilance. Christian points out that the problem isn’t with wearing “silver slippers” per se, but with those who will only journey in silver slippers and who are unwilling to journey in rags. By-ends, Mr. Hold-the-World, Mr. Money-love, and Mr. Save-all were unwilling to join Christian and Hopeful under the possibility that it might get hard. Not only that, By-ends went further by criticizing them for their arrogant, elitist, non-listening approach. He exaggerated to the point of saying that they kicked him away when, in fact, he didn’t want to be with them. (104-105)

The Bible says “through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22). “We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness” (Ephesians 6:12). Our “adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). We learn by suffering, and spread grace through endured afflictions (2 Corinthians 4:7-15). Hopeful was drawn to the path because of Faithful’s faithfulness. “Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Timothy 3:12).

I would point out that however uncertain and dangerous the pilgrim’s path is, remaining in the City of Destruction is certainly more dangerous. While you may have some good times with your friends or be distracted for a while in Vanity Fair, the end is judgment. The Christian path is difficult, but it is the only path to deliverance.

3. The Community Embraced by Christian Pilgrims

No pilgrim is accepted into the Celestial City because he is related to Christians. The heavenly gate is opened for no pilgrim merely because he was a church member or regular attender. Every pilgrim stands on his own before the Judge and needs a personal relationship with Jesus as Lord and Savior.

However, though Christian pilgrims experience times of isolation, in general, Christians are usually surrounded by fellow pilgrims on the path. That’s how the Lord made it. We are saved into Christ’s body with many other members. We love one another, serve one another, and stimulate one another to love and good deeds.

Think of those that helped Christian on his way. Evangelist directed Christian. Help helped in the Slough of Despond. Interpreter taught him about the Christian life. Watchful, Discretion, Prudence, Piety, and Charity encouraged him at the Palace Beautiful. Knowledge, Experience, Watchful and Sincere gave him counsel as shepherds on the Delectable Mountains.

For the epic (including a heroic figure) feel of The Pilgrim’s Progress, Christian rarely traveled alone. Most of the time he was with someone and his most glorious experiences, after having his burden removed, involved fellowship with other Christians, e.g., His time at Interpreter’s house and his time with those at the Palace Beautiful.

And other believers asked Christian a lot of questions about his pilgrimage. A lot. Sharing testimonies, giving soul reports so to speak, were opportunities for praising God and encouraging one another.

We’re reminded of Christian and Hopeful talking as they entered the enchanted ground.

Christian: Now the, to prevent drowsiness in this place, let us fall into good discourse.
Hopeful: With all my heart.
Christian: Where shall we begin?
Hopeful: Where God began with us.

Though Christian himself did much talking, some of his worst moments were brightened by encouraging brothers. Hopeful kept him hopeful in Doubting Castle. Christian and Hopeful kept each other awake as they walked through the Enchanted Grounds. Hopeful helped Christian keep his head up at the Jordan River.

God plants us next to each other on purpose.

Christians are like the several flowers in a garden, that have upon each of them the dew of heaven, which, being shaken with the wind, they let fall their dew at each other’s roots, whereby they are jointly nourished, and become nourishers of each other. (Christian Behavior, quoted in Brown, 173)

It was the false pilgrims who did not appreciate the questions and who had no desire to be with others. Christian’s convictions made it natural for him to open his mouth. It was as if he couldn’t help it. When he saw Simple, Sloth, and Presumption, he tried to rouse them from apathy and rescue them from danger. When he encountered Formalist and Hypocrisy, he questioned them and urged them to examine the end of their ways. Formalist and Hypocrisy told Christian, “he needed not trouble his head thereabout: for what they did they had custom for, and could produce (if need were) testimony that would witness it, for more than a thousand years” (TPP, 44). Sloth said, “Every fat must sit on his own bottom,” meaning, “mind your own business” (TPP, 44).

The character Ignorance is one of the primary examples. False pilgrims see the confrontation as judgmentalism, when their own conscience makes them guilty. Accountability is important. Ignorance is back, and prefers to be alone. “I take my pleasure in walking alone, even more a great deal than in company unless I like it the better.” Of course he would. Isolation enables him to enjoy his ignorance in more peace instead of putting him in need to defend himself. (TPP, 146) Christian said of him, “His house is as empty of Religion, as the white of an Egg is of savour” (TPP, 82).

It “helped” Talkative to go abroad, that is, to keep moving, because then no one knew him to pin him down. “Saint abroad, a Devil at home.” (82) Talkative didn’t much appreciate the personal pressing upon. He wanted none of the accountability, though he was fine with the conversation. He tells Faithful that he (Faithful) is in no position to ask. In other words, “Don’t judge me.” “Who are you to ask me these questions?” (TPP, 87)

[Professors] are as an open sepulcher, as full of dead men’s bones. Their minds and consciences are defiled; how can sweet and good proceed from thence? Their throat is filled with this stink; all their vocal duties therefore smell thereof…. (quoted in Hill, 308)

We should keep working toward this: that “the company of Saints would be too hot for them.” (TPP, 88)

It’s ironic that many who talk about their spiritual journey also talk about the importance of community. And yet, they often feel very alone. In their definition of community, people are allowed to be whoever they are and talk however they want. But true community is impossible in that context, because everyone is focused on themselves. They are isolated in the group.

Genuine pilgrims, enduring hardship as they travel the same path together, have a shared experience on a common path serving the same Lord living on the same unseen things. At times, because they care for each other, they do confront a wanderer. But it is for the wanderer’s good so that he might arrive safely. Pilgrim’s embrace community for their own good.

Christian was encouraged in the Valley of the Shadow of Death when he heard another pilgrim singing. This invigorated him because 1) he realized he wasn’t the only pilgrim in the Valley (cf. 1 Peter 5:9), 2) he recognized God is with pilgrims in the Valley, and 3) he regarded the possibility of companionship with another struggling pilgrim. You might be the singer today for another struggler. Sing loudly so they can hear you. If you’re a struggler today, know that you’re not alone.

4. The Destination Desired by Christian Pilgrims

The title of the book says so very much: The Pilgrim’s Progress from this World to That which is to come…Wherein is Discovered the manner of his setting out, His Dangerous Journey; and Safe Arrival at the Desired Country. The idea of being a pilgrim means we’re headed somewhere. Being exiles and sojourners means were moving in a direction. A pilgrim is a citizen in another place (Philippians 3:20), and the Christian pilgrim is a citizen of heaven. We live on unseen things in order to get to the eternal weight of glory.

Most spiritual journey speak is not really a journey, it is a wandering. It is leisurely and aimless. There is no hurry because their is no purpose other than meandering. The goal is a higher plane of consciousness or self-awareness or more peace, not holy happiness in heaven. It’s circular, merry-go-round movement without progress.

Man, while blind, doth wander, but wearieth himself with vanity, for he knoweth not the way to the city of God. (Grace Abounding, #19)

The Christian pilgrim is moving from point A to point B, onward and upward, up and to the right. The progress is spiritual, not geographical, but it is real progress. This is progressive sanctification.

The Christian journey starts in a particular place, follows a defined course, and seeks the destination.

It is possible to get close to heaven and not get in. Ignorance did. I thought it was anti-climactic, yet über–emphatic to end The Pilgrim’s Progress by focusing on Ignorance being cast into hell. It was Bunyan’s parting shot, urge his readers to get serious. It was not Bunyan’s only urging to this end.

Run for heaven, fight for heaven, labor for heaven, wrestle for heaven, or you are like to go without it. (The Straight Gate, )

Conclusion

What happens here doesn’t stay here; it has eternal consequences.

Are you on a spiritual journey or the Christian path? Have you entered the path through the wicket gate? Are you making progress toward Christlikeness? Are you making progress toward the Celestial City? Or have you gotten stuck in Vanity Fair?

I was struck by Evangelist’s unhurried yet urgent questions to Christian. On page 12 (in the Penguin edition), he encounters Christian who is convicted and concerned. Rather than make it easy, Evangelist pushes back and (basically) asks, “Why wouldn’t dying be better since life is so hard?” Christian responds, and rightly so, that he understood that the judgement after death would be worse. Even at that point Evangelist doesn’t let Christian off the hook by providing answers, but presses, “Then, shouldn’t you do something about it?”

John Bunyan took the psalmists call in Psalm 66:16 as his own.

Come and hear, all you who fear God,
and I will tell what he has done for my soul.

With that in mind, Bunyan composed his autobiography, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, or, a Brief Relation of the Exceeding Mercy of God in Christ, to His Poor Servant, John Bunyan. He wrote the first edition after being in prison for five years, and his final adds and edits were made near the end of his twelfth year in prison. Though he hadn’t been called officially as the pastor in Bedford, he had been preaching and taking more leadership for a couple years prior to being arrested. His wrote this book for those in the flock he cared about, especially to encourage those with doubts about salvation and struggles of assurance.

Grace Abounding reminds us of Augustine’s Confessions. Though Bunyan’s book isn’t in the form of a prayer, it does relate his intense struggles with unbelief as well as his slavery to sin. Bunyan’s tormented conscience also reminds the reader of Martin Luther, who, not coincidently, Bunyan refers to, and took Luther’s commentary on Galatians as a great comfort. Perhaps most of all, “grace abounding to the chief of sinners” channels the apostle Paul’s testimony in 1 Timothy 1:15.

This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. (KJV)

Like Luther, like Augustine, like Paul, Bunyan knew himself a great sinner who needed a great Savior. Also like them, Bunyan received great grace and was used by God to make a great impact on his generation and generations to come.

We’ll see both grace abounding in Bunyan’s history and grace abounding through Bunyan’s hardships.

Grace Abounding in Bunyan’s History (Timeline)

It’s challenging to get Bunyan’s timeline straight.

Grace Abounding is an unsatisfactory document for the biographer. It is a spiritual autobiography, describing the events which led up to Bunyan’s conversion. The chronology is at best imprecise, at worst chaotic. Any references to external events in Bunyan’s life during this period are quite accidental. (Hill, 63)

John Bunyan was born November 28, 1628, in the small village of Elstow, England. (About 50 miles from London. Less than a century after William Tyndale, and only 17 years after the King James Version was published). The Bunyan family had lived in Bedfordshire since at least 1199. We know very little about his parents except that his “father’s house [was] of that rank that is the meanest and most despised of all the families in the land” (GA, Works, 6), a fact affirmed by his father’s occupation of tinker. A tinker, or brasyer, was a metal worker, using hammer and forge as his tools. He would travel the countryside fixing farm equipment, such as plows and harnesses, or kitchen utensils, such as pots and pans. The name “tinker” comes from the sound made as the man walked between jobs with his tools and supplies on his back. “A tinker was an emblem of lower-class non-respectability and immorality” (Hill, 135).

Bunyan had virtually no formal education. “It pleased God to put into [my parents'] hearts to put me to school, to learn both to read and write; the which I also attained, according to the rate of other poor men’s children” (GA, 6); maybe he spent 2-4 years in study. But he went on to say, “to my shame, I confess, I did soon lose that little I had learned, and that even almost utterly” (GA, 6), and joined his father as a tinker.

The first bitter taste of suffering we know about is the death of his mother when he was 15 years old (in 1644). His 13 year old sister died a few months later, and the only thing that seemed to make those burdens worse was that his father remarried only one month later. Bunyan was not a believer, and no doubt resented his father.

As soon as he was able, he joined the Parliamentary army in nearby Newport Angell. He was 16 years years old and served until the army was disbanded three years later. The military exposed him to new people and new ideas. It also exposed him to danger and death. Bunyan provides a sense of how close to the action he was with a story of trading guard duty shifts with another soldier. “When I consented, he took my place; and coming to the siege, as he stood sentinel, he was shot into the head with a musket bullet, and died” (GA, 7).

He moved back to Elstow and married within a couple years, though we never learn the name of his wife. Presumably John looked forward to the comforts and joys of marriage after his difficulties, but within a year their first daughter was born, Mary, who was blind. It’s hard to imagine the struggle and stress of caring for a blind child in 1650, and the maturity required of a 22 year old.

His first wife brought very little with her into the marriage. “This woman and I, came together as poor as poor might be, not having so much household stuff as a dish or spoon betwixt us both” (GA). But what she did bring proved very precious. She possessed two books, inherited from her father: The Plain Man’s Pathway to Heaven by Arthur Dent and The Practice of Piety by Lewis Bayly. She often spoke of her father’s great Christian example.

Around this time Bunyan began to experience violent conviction. He looked back on his earlier years with grief. “I had but few equals…both for cursing, swearing, and blaspheming the holy name of God….Until I came to the state of marriage, I was the very ringleader of all the youth that kept me company, in all manner of vice and ungodliness” (GA, 6). Very Augustinian. Though he may have been exaggerating the extent of his wickedness, we do know from other sources that he was known around town as a fantastic swearer.

As he thought about his sin, he couldn’t escape his tormented conscience and fear of God’s just judgment. He knew enough Scripture to fight himself for only so long, as the passages of law and condemnation won out over passages of grace and forgiveness.

This is why he came to love Luther so much. He went in search of someone older, someone who understood his pain.

I did greatly long to see some ancient godly man’s experience, who had writ some hundreds of years before I was born….After many such longings in my mind, the God in whose hands are all our days and ways, did cast into my hand, one day, a book of Martin Luther; it was his comment on the Galatians–it also was so old that it was ready to fall piece to piece if I did but turn it over….I found my condition, in his experience, so largely and profoundly handled, as if his book had been written after my heart….I do prefer this book of Martin Luther upon the Galatians, excepting the Holy Bible, before all the books that I have ever seen, as most fit for a wounded conscience. (GA, 22)

Yet he continued to struggle for at least four of five more years. A few of us read through Grace Abounding together, and I admitted that I was growing weary of his cycles. Every time it seemed he turned a corner, or finally got his head above the waters of despair, he’d plunge down again, over and over and over. But God was preparing him, and somewhere during this time he was genuinely converted.

Bunyan joined the Bedford church in 1655. His soul conflicts didn’t go away, but he did enjoy more of grace, and within a couple years, he was invited to speak. He began preaching in small meetings and in country settings. His fervor for the preaching task was only exceeded by his fervor for men to believe in Christ.

His wife died in 1658, leaving him to care for four children. In 1659 he married again. 1659 is pivotal in English history, and is a decisive turn in Bunyan’s testimony. In 1659 Oliver Cromwell died. Cromwell was the Lord Protectorate of the English Commonwealth, a republic that was largely tolerant of religious freedom. There had been an ongoing battle between Parliament and monarchy. Before Cromwell, Charles I, the king and proponent of the Church of England, was opposed and then beheaded. But when Cromwell died, and when his son Richard replaced him and couldn’t hack it, Parliament invited Charles II back from France. So monarchy was restored in 1660, and with the Restoration came new laws that prohibited any non-conformity with the state church.1

It became illegal to preach without a state license and conduct meetings without the Book of Common Prayer. Anglicanism was religion, external and ceremonial, but not gospel. Bunyan had no appreciation for externals and went on preaching. He was arrested and imprisoned in 1660, less than one year after remarrying, with his oldest daughter 10 years old.

In his prison account, Bunyan relates how Elizabeth, his wife, went before the court to plead for her husband’s release. We usually focus on the guys more than their wives, so it won’t hurt to take a moment and share some of his Elizabeth’s courage.

“Would he stop preaching?” “My lord, he dares not leave off preaching as long as he can speak.” “What is the need of talking?” “There is need for this, my lord, for I have four small children that cannot help themselves, of which one is blind, and we have nothing to live upon but the charity of good people.”
Matthew Hale, with pity, asks if she really has four children being so young. “My lord, I am but mother-in-law [stepmother] to them, having not been married to him yet full two years. Indeed, I was with child when my husband was first apprehended; but being young and unaccustomed to such things, I being smayed at the news, fell into labor, and so continued for eight days, and then was delivered; but my child died.”
Hale is moved, but other judges are hardened and speak against him. “He is a mere tinker!” “Yes, and because he is a tinker and a poor man, therefore he is despised and cannot have justice.”
One Mr. Chester is enraged and says Bunyan will preach and do as he wishes. “He preacheth nothing but the word of God!” she says.
Mr. Twisden, in a rage: “He runneth up and down and doeth harm.” “No, my lord, it is not so; God hath owned him and done much good by him.” The angry man continues, “His doctrine is the doctrine of the devil.” She replies, “My lord, when the righteous Judge shall appear, it will be known that his doctrine is not the doc- trine of the devil!” (The Hidden Smile of God)

Since he had limited freedom in prison, he wrote about the leaving of his family from visits.

But notwithstanding these helps, I found myself a man, and compassed with infirmities; the parting with my wife and poor children hath oft been to me in this place as the pulling of the flesh from my bones, and that not only because I am somewhat too fond of those great mercies, but also because I should have often brought to my mind the many hardships, miseries and wants that my poor family was to meet with, should I be taken from them, especially my poor blind child, who lay nearer my hear that all I had besides; O the thoughts of the hardship I thought my blind one might go under, would break my heart to pieces. (GA, 47-48)

He was released briefly in 1666, then taken back for another six years. He wrote nine books during the first six years, but only two that we know of during the second stint. Perhaps he was busy making boot laces to help support his family (Brown, 166). “Or was it that he was become more broken-spirited and for a time at least had lost something of his elasticity of mind” (Brown, 182).

Jails were run by private citizens, and the conditions depended chiefly on the person in charge. In the 17th century “insanitary conditions, lack of heating, and overcrowding, led to jail fever and other diseases.” 40 persons were killed in the Bedford jail in 1665 due to the plague. (Hill, 121)

Cynical pooh-poohing of painful facts on the one side is just as foolish and as needless as eloquent declamation on the other. Bunyan himself never whines over his sufferings; he was too manly for that. He deliberately made his choice, and as deliberately he accepted the consequences of his choice. (Brown, 165)

He wasn’t a celebrity prisoner. He was a “mechanic-preacher,” a man who worked with his hands six day a week. He wasn’t yet the pastor of the church in Bedford, so even though he had the support of the church, he (and his) family weren’t cared for as if he were their leader.

Eventually, the laws relaxed with the “Declaration of Religious Indulgence” in 1672 and Bunyan was released. Shortly afterward he was officially called as pastor in Bedford where he served the next 16 years. He went back to prison in the winter and spring of 1676-77, significant because he probably wrote, or at least finished, The Pilgrim’s Progress during that time. His remainder of his life was filled with preaching (as far away as London), writing, and serving.

That’s a quick pencil sketch of Bunyan’s history.

Grace Abounding through Bunyan’s Hardships (Trials)

John Bunyan was a clay pot, and having received his ministry by the mercy of God, he did not lose heart in his hardships. His weakness and troubles, as he served his flock and proclaimed Jesus Christ as Lord, showed that the surpassing power belongs to God.

Like any pastor, his life was filled with ironies. For example, it is sort of ironic that the man who wrote The Pilgrim’s Progress never traveled out of his home country and probably never journeyed more than 50 or so miles from his home town.

But there are bigger and more consequential ironies, gospel ironies, that as Bunyan focused on unseen things, grace was seen spreading all over the place.

1. Out of Bunyan’s limited education spilled literary genius.

For a man who learned only the basics of reading and writing, he didn’t do too poorly. There are at least 58 books authored by Bunyan, of all sorts. He wrote allegories such as The Pilgrim’s Progress, The Holy War (the conflict between God and Satan over the town Mansoul, with its Ear-gate, Eye-gate, Mouth-gate, Nose-gate, and Feel-gate. Though initially captured by Diabolus, it is regained by the assault of King Shaddai through the victorious campaign of his son, Emmanuel), The Life and Death of Mr. Badman (a contrasting journey with Pilgrim). He wrote poetry and children’s books. He wrote doctrinal papers defending truths such as justification by faith alone and clarifying his views on baptism. Most of his writings were practical expositions for the growth of his sheep, taking a single verse and exploding for 150 pages (like many Puritans).

We’ll look at it in detail tonight, but The Pilgrim’s Progress is perhaps the most well-known and highly-esteemed work of English fiction EVER! Many consider Bunyan be be the father of the novel. Not a novel, but of the novel genre!

It’s impossible to know for sure, but it seems to me that maybe Bunyan read 100 books in his life. His first wife brought two. In prison, according to a friend who visited, Bunyan only had a Bible and a copy of Foxe’s Book of Martyrs (Brown, 159). He knew no Greek or Hebrew. He hardly every quoted anyone. He said, “I never endeavored to, nor durst make use of other men’s lines” (GA, 43). “I have not for these things fished in other men’s waters; my Bible and Concordance are my only library in my writings” (Brown, 364) “If he had read as much as other men Bunyan might have written as little” (Hill, 143).

Yet he was prolific, profound, and picturesque. His language is colorful and unmistakable. One editor of his works commented,

He spoke as he felt; and, while he copied no sentence from others, no man that ever wrote has been so copied from by others. (Offor, GA, fn)

That’s not to say that everyone appreciated Bunyan. He was a tinker, and not accepted by most among the cultured crowd. He seems to defend not only his style (of allegory) in The Pilgrim’s Progress, but even his usefulness as an author. One book written against him was titled, Dirt Wip’t Off: or a manifest Discovery of the Gross Ignorance, Erroneousness, and most Unchristian and Wicked Spirit of one John Bunyan, Lay-Preacher in Bedford.2

Nevertheless, God uses the foolish to confound the wise, and much grace spilled of of this tinker.

His college was a dungeon, his library the Bible, and he came forth with gigantic powers to grapple with the prince of darkness. No human learning could have so fitted him for this terrible and mysterious warfare. (Offor, GA, 41 fn)

2. Out of Bunyan’s soul conflicts spilled spiritual comforts.

Perhaps the only way to penetrate deeper into Bunyan’s tormented conscience than reading Grace Abounding is to see Christian in The Pilgrim’s Progress as a personification of Bunyan. Fear of destruction and fear of God gripped Christian. That’s what motivated him to escape the City of Destruction.

Bunyan was convinced he had committed the unpardonable sin. He was overwhelmed with guilt and sure he was beyond God’s saving reach for about five years. He was ignorant about the Bible had virtually no spiritual guidance. Some of his greatest enemies were “phantoms of his own heated imagination, the result of his own misinterpretation of the book of God” (Brown, 59)

But, soul conflict is better than no conflict.

If it is distressing to feel discontent with one’s self, it is dangerous to feel content; aspiration and not self-complacency is the law of a healthful life; and He who was leading Bunyan by a way that he knew not, mercifully shook him out of this unwholesome self-satisfaction. (Brown, 62)

Simple, Sloth, and Presumption couldn’t be wakened from sleep, with fetters on their heels. “Simple said, ‘I see no danger.’ Sloth said, ‘Every fat must stand on his own bottom.’ And so they lay down to sleep again.” (TPP, 43) That said, how one resolves their soul conflict makes a huge difference.

I had seen some, who, though they were under wounds of conscience, then they would cry and pray; but they seeking rather present ease from their trouble, than pardon for their sin, cared not how they lost their guilt, so they got it out of their mind; and therefore, having got it off the wrong way, it was not sanctified unto them; but they grew harder and blinder, and more wicked after their trouble. (Grace Abounding, #86)

Both the struggles, and the resolution of his struggles in Christ, were necessary. Without the internal struggles, he might have been harsh and impatient with others who struggled. Without the resolution in Christ, he could offer no actual help beyond commiseration.

God prepared Bunyan thoroughly before using him greatly. His “overwhelming horror of sin was accompanied by pity for the sinner…[he] again and again expresses pity and desire to help: his contempt is reserved for the hypocritical” (Hill, 270). Many of his books were written to comfort and encourage weary, wounded souls. While he was in prison, a lady was sent to him for counsel since she was stricken in her conscience.

Like the apostle Paul, the God of all comforts enabled Bunyan to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which was comforted by God (2 Corinthians 1:3-7). Much grace and comfort spilled out of this once-troubled soul.

3. Out of Bunyan’s long imprisonment spilled larger (and lasting) influence.

We probably wouldn’t be talking about John Bunyan or reading his material with such care apart from his long imprisonment. It is the severe degree of separation from his family, the steep, voluntary cost he paid for the gospel, that makes his story so compelling.

His imprisonment brought insight for later ministry. Much of what he had to say was learned during that time, as his character was tempered in the trial.

I never had in all my life so great an inlet into the Word of God as now; those Scriptures that I saw nothing in before, are made in this place and state to shine upon me. (GA, 47)

His imprisonment emboldened his convictions for ministry. When he thought he might get out near the end of 12 years, he said,

If nothing will do unless I make of my conscience a continual butchery and slaughtershop, unless putting out my own eyes, I commit me to the blind to lead me, as I doubt not is desired by some, I have determined, the Almighty God being my help and shield, yet to suffer, if frail life might continue so long, even till the moss shall grow on mine eyebrows, rather than thus to violate my faith and principles. (A Confesion of my Faith, and a Reason of my Practice, quoted in John Brown, John Bunyan, 231)3

His imprisonment built a platform for ministry. He knew that how he did not shrink back would be witnessed.

When I have [preached], it hath gone to my heart to think the Word should now fall as rain on stony places, still wishing from my heart, O that they who have heard me speak this day did but see as I do what sin, death, hell, and the curse of God is; and also what the grace, and love, and mercy of God is, through Christ, to men in such a case as they are, who are yet estranged from him. And, indeed, I did often say in my heart before the Lord, That if to be hanged up presently before their eyes would be a means to awaken them, and confirm them in the truth, I gladly should be contented. (GA, 42)

He had much opportunity to shepherd and preach in jail, as members of his church joined him often, the number reaching as high as 60 (Brown, 156-157). But his influence extended outside the walls. It is a gospel irony that putting a man in prison cell opens up the world to him. Again, he is like Paul, who though he was in chains, knew that the word of god is not bound (2 Timothy 2:9). Bunyan’s enemies, intending to suppress his voice by putting him in prison, accomplished the opposite.

Grace spilled to locations and generations as his pot was put up in prison.

4. Out of Bunyan’s daily deaths spilled eternal lives.

Abounding afflictions, endured for Christ and His elect, spread abounding grace in the gospel, that when believed, brings life. It’s a gospel irony that hurting brings healing, suffering produces strength, and death brings life.

It isn’t only the one time event of death, it is the dying process. It is death by a thousand paper cuts, daily deaths and sacrifices. “Life from death” is one of God’s unseen promises, but it is a crucial promise that enables us, like Bunyan, not to lose heart.

Bunyan suffered. He sacrificed. Even the occasion of his physical death demonstrates the reality to the very end. He didn’t die a martyr’s death. He wasn’t burned at the stake or beheaded. He had traveled to London, and took a preaching assignment, the main reason for his trip was to help reconcile a son to his angry father. He wasn’t ministering to a crowd of thousands, or hundreds; it was two men. Returning to the place he was staying from an outer borough, pouring rain soaked him, he got sick, and died of fever, August 31, 1688. He was alone; his family probably didn’t even know until he was dead. He was buried in Bunhill Fields (the Dissenters’ cemetery) alongside John Owen.

The point is, out of Bunyan’s weak and afflicted clay pot sloshed abounding grace, grace that increased the thanksgiving of many to the glory of God (cf. 2 Corinthians 4:13-15). He endured by living on unseen things.

John Owen, a contemporary, a fellow non-conformist, and friend of Bunyan, when asked by King Charles why he, a great scholar, would go to hear an uneducated tinker preach said,

Could I posses the tinker’s ability for preaching, please your majesty, I would gladly relinquish all my learning. (Peter Toon, God’s Statesman: Life and Work of John Owen, 162)

Conclusion

I understand that I’ve presented a lopsided perspective on Bunyan. There must also be some bad things. It’s has to be true; he was a sinner. There are times he seems a bit defensive about his lack of education and acceptance.4 He battled pride. There are times I wonder if he was as winsome as he could have been with his enemies, though he was so tender and appealing to broken hearts that he couldn’t be called gruff. He may have had an overactive imagination, much like Martin Luther, when it came to exaggerating his sin. Of course, without that imagination, we may not have The Pilgrim’s Progress. He may not have treated the women around him as kindly as he could, yet we also don’t read about sexual failure.

It’s tempting to study a life, ministry, and influence like Bunyan as if he were in a glass case. But of all the biographies we’ve considered, Bunyan is proof that God doesn’t need great men to work with.

Let all men therefore prize a little with the fear of the Lord; gifts indeed are desirable, but yet great grace and small gifts are better than great gifts and no grace. (Grace Abounding, #305)

He makes great heroes from uneducated, sinful, broken men who surrender to Him and bank on His promises. Men who would rather have Jesus than anything this world affords. Men and women like Mr. and Mrs. Bunyan who live on unseen things.

Christian life and ministry is hard. The saved are out of step, out of touch, out of place in this world. Saints walk in light while the world walks in darkness. Disciples of Jesus serve, while the world waits to be served. Believers endure suffering while the world runs away and hides from suffering. The resurrected are happy dying while the world loves the idea of not dying. Obedient children set their hope fully on the future while the world lives for now. Christians don’t belong here; they are foreign citizens, pilgrims headed for another country. They live on unseen things.

Or at least they should.

Many professing Christians in our day appear to be conformed to this world; they are at home here, or at least that’s what it seems like as they seek to make a nicer and more comfortable place for themselves. Their dress, their talk, their pursuits and entertainments are indistinguishable. They are trying to establish themselves, find a place for themselves, put down roots, and fit in. They are living on seen things.

But, it’s bizarro world. They are walking around on their heads. They are riding blindly, or maybe, riding backwards, facing the wrong direction, focusing on the wrong things. They spend their time and effort on the outer man, pampering a not quite dead corpse. They give themselves to superficial, silly, vain games (literal and figurative). They chase the wind and grasp oil in their hands. They live for the now, for the new, and they miss the truly meaningful and lasting.

It’s hard to blame them, because it is hard to stay the narrow course. Alternate routes abound everywhere on the pilgrim’s path. The entire journey requires faith, repentance, and humility. It often includes criticism. We face others who don’t understand what we’re doing, some who oppose what we’re doing, some who hate us for it. They would have us relax, quiet down, or even leave off the journey altogether.

And like we’ve bought a GPS unit with a faulty chip unknown to us, we keep trucking down the wrong road.

John Bunyan, a 17th century Puritan, lived and wrote about the pilgrim’s progress, about the dangers and difficulties of traveling to a better country, the Christian’s final home, the Celestial City. He wrote for pilgrims as a pilgrim, enduring slander and imprisonment and all sorts of trouble on his Christian journey. As he sought strength for the journey in the promises of God, he looked to 2 Corinthians 4:16-18.

We, like Bunyan, are threatened to despair, to give up, to lose heart. This is a paragraph of promise for every pilgrim.

The Pilgrim’s Confidence (16a)

Christians do not despair no matter how hard it gets.

So we do not lose heart.

This sentence starts the final paragraph of chapter four just as it launched the first paragraph of the chapter. The repetition claps for our attention. The phrase bookends the entire chapter about the apostle Paul’s life and work, and his was a hard, often ineffective, often afflicted ministry. For the sake of the gospel, Paul slaved for others (v.5), he endured difficulties to bring grace to others (vv. 7-10, 15), he died to bring life to others (vv. 10-12).

He considered himself a weak, clay pot (v. 7), carrying the treasure of the gospel ministry, suffering for and speaking about the truth of the Lord Jesus. He was afflicted, perplexed, persecuted, and struck down (vv. 8-9). He was bumped and banged around. He was worn out in his work for the Lord. Through all of it he maintained his confidence, We do not lose heart.

He means that his soul was secure. Though threatened, he couldn’t be defeated. Though tempted to wander, he wouldn’t go AWOL. He wasn’t crushed, or driven to despair, or forsaken, or destroyed. His daily dying brought grace and life to others. He wasn’t going to stop.

In the first paragraph (4:1-6) Paul explained that he didn’t lose heart because his ministry was driven by the Spirit and because it was a privileged calling. Now he highlights the promises that kept him on course.

The Pilgrim’s Concession (16b)

Even though there are great promises, even though we have confidence, it doesn’t always appear that things are okay.

Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.

Paul concedes, that is, he acknowledges and admits, that it’s not a glorious life, not now, and not visibly. He says, but (even if) our outer self is wasting away, (and it is). He yields the point as if he were in an argument, that the outer self, the exterior, the part of us that can be seen, has pain. This isn’t the “old man’ of the flesh, but it is connected to our bodies and the struggles we have in life. It recalls the earlier descriptions in chapter 4: “jars of clay” (v. 7) and “mortal flesh” (v.11).

We are wasting away, being destroyed, “decaying” (NAS), “perishing” (NKJV). The word could describe the effects of rust, slowly eating away and ruining. We are being worn out constantly. It is the aging, decaying, dying process in view here, a process always at work, however that dying might be happening. It isn’t necessarily and enemy scheming to kill us, though that would bring a sooner end. Our bodies and physical lives are being ruined.

It’s true. Our confidence doesn’t come because we escape pain and affliction. Christian pilgrims concede that it’s hard. For the pilgrim, however, for the one who has the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ in their heart, the ruin of the outer ma isn’t the only process at work. Even as the outer man is wasting away (and it is), our inner self is being renewed day by day. The inner man, the soul of a man, is being renewed, and that renewal is as constant as the sunrise, day by day. It is the resurrection of Jesus at work in every believer. It is a hidden strengthening in visible suffering.

A pilgrim’s life is hard. The pilgrim’s Lord takes care of the most important thing: his eternal soul.

Even the concession about the reality of afflictions can’t cause us to lose heart. And there is more to say, as verses 17-18 explain the renewal process.

The Pilgrim’s Consideration (17-18)

There are things taking place behind the scenes that not everyone seeks or knows about. There are principles at work in the universe, principles established by the Creator of the universe that show afflictions and hardships in this life lead to something better. Clay pot pilgrims have three considerations about afflictions.

First, consider the NATURE of afflictions. (17a)

That is, the essence, the characteristics of difficulties, are light and momentary.

For this light momentary affliction

There is no doubt that pilgrims encounter afflictions. Paul chronicled his abounding afflictions through 2 Corinthians, including being brought to the breaking point over and over (vv. 8-9). He just conceded that the outer man is wasting away. But afflictions can only do so much.

“The momentary lightness of afflictions” is a good translation. The primary focus is on the adjective light, what kind of lightness? Light afflictions. We normally feel light when we’re not afflicted. Difficulties weigh on us; they burden us. But Paul claims that they are light. How can he possibly say that?

Afflictions are not slight (insignificant, or inconsiderable), but they are light in comparison to the weight (the heaviness) of glory that is coming. So, that does not mean that our trouble is insignificant. It does bring us to our breaking point. It’s not a game; it’s not semantics. It will feel like we can’t take any more. The burden is too heavy. The point is that the pilgrim’s heavy and hard way is light and easy when put on the balance with the glory we’ll receive later.

Our afflictions are also momentary. The best they can do is consume consecutive moments. But they are confined to moments. And again, by comparison, these are short compared to the eternal weight of glory. No clock or calendar can measure the infinite duration of our coming experience. Afflictions for the pilgrim are light and momentary.

Second, consider the EFFECT of afflictions. (17b)

Afflictions are not useless or vain. They are working hard on our behalf.

this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,

Present trouble is preparing for us an inexhaustible future of joy. The infinite and eternal glory is real. We can’t see it now, but it exists. Not only is it real, it is almost unbelievable. It is an exaggeration. Paul says it is far beyond all comparison, “far more exceeding” (KJV), a glory that “far outweighs them all” (NIV). The Greek word is ὑπερβολὴν, from which we get our English word hyperbole. It means to take something to an extraordinary degree. The glory is “according to hyperbole unto hyperbole,” one hyperbole heaped on another, meaning that it is exceeding exceedingly glorious in the highest possible degree. “You may pass from one degree to another; from one sublime height to another; but still an infinity remains beyond. Nothing can describe the uppermost height of that glory, nothing can express its infinitude” (Barns, quoted in Calvin, 213).

Our joy buckets are so small, so easily filled. We are easily satisfied. In order to know and enjoy this kind of glory, God is increasing the size of our joy thimbles, by afflictions, into honker buckets for joy. The afflictions are working for us a greater experience of glory. No pain, no glory.

It is the will of God, that they that go to heaven should go thither hardly or with difficulty. The righteous shall scarcely be saved. That is, they shall, but yet with great difficulty, that it may be the sweeter. (Seasonable Counsel, Advice to Sufferers, in The Works of John Bunyan, vol. 2, p. 725)

It is painful for the thimble to be broken, melted, hammered and shaped into a bigger bowl. It is stretching for a kettle to be heated and beaten into a cauldron. But if we would enjoy an exceeding weight of glory forever, the suffering of the present life prepares us.

Comparatively, afflictions are light and momentary. Effectively, afflictions work infinite and eternal joy for us.

Third, consider the FOCUS of afflictions. (18)

How do we know that our inner man is being renewed day by day, especially since we see the outer man being ruined? How do we know that brutal, constant suffering is for our good, and relatively short and painless? How do we not lose heart? By living on unseen things.

as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

The pilgrim either carries on or quits depending on his focus. We’re not looking on the things that are seen. “Looking” includes more intention than simply seeing what’s in the periphery. The word is σκοπέω, paying attention to, watching closely for. It is to fix the eyes upon watchfully.

The things that are seen are the things of this world. Afflictions and comforts, the outer man issues, circumstances and situations, people and problems, the clay pot being smashed and bashed. Seen things are sicknesses, bills, broken appliances, recessions, and earthquakes. Seen things aren’t only troubling things, but could also be good things such as health, resources, friendships, and family. Bunyan said of his family:

I am somewhat too fond of these great Mercies. (Grace Abounding, Works, 123)

The reason that pilgrim’s don’t look to or depend on “seen things” is because they consider that the things that are seen are transient (“temporal” NAS, “temporary” NIV). The seen things only last for a time. They are transitory, meaning they are impermanent, passing, fleeting, here today and gone tomorrow. We live on so many short-term investments, yet “the world is passing away along with its desires” (1 John 2:17).

The pilgrim can’t afford to spend his money on that which isn’t bread or his labor for that which doesn’t satisfy. Losing heart is at stake. His eternal glory is at stake. He must look to something else.

He looks to the things that are unseen. There is irony in “looking for” things that can’t be “looked at,” but what are the unseen things?

The immediate unseen thing is our soul, and the souls of men. It is the inner man. As “sojourners and exiles” we must “abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against [our] souls” (1 Peter 2:11). We ought to be sober-minded and watchful for sake of the most important unseen thing in us: our souls.

The ultimate unseen thing is God Himself. Paul wrote at the end of his testimony, “To the King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God” (1 Timothy 1:17). The author of Hebrews wrote that “(Moses) left Egypt by faith, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible” (Hebrews 11:27).

Bunyan himself understood God as the primary unseen thing in 2 Corinthians 4:18. In his autobiography, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, he wrote about his two-step plan to prepare his soul for prison.

Before I came to prison, I saw what was a-coming, and had especially two considerations warm upon my heart; the first was how to be able to endure, should my imprisonment be long and tedious; the second was how to be able to encounter death, should that be here my portion….[T]hat saying in 2 Co. 1:9 was of great use to me, “But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but God which raiseth the dead.” By this scripture I was made to see, that if I would ever suffer rightly, I must pass a sentence of death upon everything that can properly be called a thing of this life, even to reckon myself, my wife, my children, my health, my enjoyments, and all, as dead to me, and myself as dead to them. . . .

The second was, to live upon God that is invisible; as Paul said in another place, the way not to faint, is to “look not at the things which are seen, but at the things that are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.” 2 Co. 4:18. . . .

That was the key to John Buynan’s Christian journey: not to look to the seen, but “to live upon God that is invisible.” In other words, Buynan survived by living on unseen things.

“Live on” is close to “look to”; it expresses the same idea. To “live on” something is to survive solely by consuming a certain thing. Paul calls us to look to, to live on, to survive and endure by depending solely on unseen things, starting with the invisible God.

I’d like to add, though, that Paul could have said, “not looking at the seen things, but looking to the unseen God.” That’s true, but that’s not exactly what he said. I’m okay with understanding God as part, or even the primary part, of unseen things, but I think we can be more precise. When we live on unseen things, I think Paul is referring to gospel promises.

The the things that are unseen are eternal, God is eternal, but so are the promises He makes to His pilgrims. Every word of God is “living and abiding” and “remains forever” (1 Peter 1:23-25), and the promises in 2 Corinthians 4 alone are enough to live on. The promised weight of glory is eternal, and that promise keeps us going even though we’re weary now. He promises a resurrected life that is eternal, contrasted with our mortal flesh (4:11) that’s wasting away. He promises that we’ll be brought into God’s presence, and that promise is as certain as God’s Son is alive (4:14).

The gospel promises of spiritual sight, life, resurrection, fellowship with Jesus, and weight of glory are not seen now, but they are eternal. They last. They are without equal and without end. His promises are everlasting, indelible. Pilgrim’s will not work, pray, lose heart, suffer, sojourn and die unless they live on these unseen things.

Over and over in The Pilgrim’s Progress, Christian (along with his fellow pilgrims) was given faith glimpses of the Celestial City to spur his journey. Maybe the most fantastic and understated scene in The Pilgrim’s Progress finds Christian and Hopeful chained by Giant Despair in the dungeon of Doubting Castle. Despair has beaten them almost to death. They feared for their lives, and were tempted to take their lives. Then Christian remembered the key “in his bosom.”

Now a little before it was day, good Christian, as one half amazed, brake out in this passionate speech, What a fool (quoth he) am I, thus to lie in a stinking Dungeon when I may as well walk at liberty? I have a key in my bosom, called Promise, that will (I am persuaded) open any Lock in Doubting Castle. Then said Hopeful, That’s good news; good Brother pluck it out of thy bosom and try. Then Christian pulled it out of his bosom and began to try at the Dungeon door, whose bolt (as he turned the Key) gave back, and the door flew open with ease, and Christian and Hopeful both went out. (The Pilgrim’s Progress, 121)

“That’s good news;” Are you kidding? That’s good-tastic news! That needs an exclamation point not a semicolon. That noise you hear is Mr. Goose-bump knocking on the door. Giant Despair can do his worst, but there is a key called promise that unlocks all the thick doors out of the dungeon and enables our escape.

Bunyan knew the importance of promises. He said,

I tell thee, friend, there are some promises that the Lord hath helped me to lay hold of Jesus Christ through and by, that I would not have out of the Bible for as much gold and silver as can lie between York and London piled up to the stars. (Sighs from Hell, in The Works of John Bunyan, vol. 3, 721)

I’m afraid that if some of you had your choice, you would choose stacks of gold rather than the promises of God. But seen things won’t deliver anyone out of doubts and despair.

Bunyan also said,

God hath strewed all the way from the gate of hell, where thou wast, to the gate of heaven, whither thou art going, with flowers out of his own garden. Behold how the promises, invitations, calls, and encouragements, like lilies, lie round about thee! Take heed that thou dost not tread them under thy foot. (Come and Welcome to Jesus Christ, in Brown, John Bunyan, 300)

Conclusion

Are we living on unseen things, or ignoring them, or worse, despising them?

The survival of a pilgrim requires that he live on unseen things, that is, that he pay close attention to his soul, to God, and to God’s promises. Clay pots will look to get out of the rotation unless they’re held up by promises. We will lose heart if we do not live on unseen things.

One crucial clarification needs be made. According to 2 Corinthians 4, afflictions are light and momentary only for those looking on unseen things. In other words, only for those who believe the gospel promises. Those who are blinded by the god of this world to the gospel of the glory of Christ, those who remain in spiritual darkness, have “light and momentary afflictions” compared to the eternal weight of guilt and wrath being stored up for them on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed (cf. Romans 2:5). Their outer self is wasting away, and there is no renewal of the inner man. The inner man is rotting and being ruined right alongside the outer man. Your pain is but a taste of more pain unless you follow Christ by faith.

For pilgrims, our pain is but preparation for eternal glory, as we live on unseen things. We sang, “What hope is in our heavenly home.” That’s not a question, that’s an exclamation. Is that true of us?

The Interpreter introduced Christian to two characters in The Pilgrim’s Progress, Passion or Patience. Passion was irritated that Passion wasn’t getting what he wanted when he wanted it. Passion was temporarily pacified, but Patience wanted for something better. Which child do we see most in ourselves? Are we whining for the now things, the visible things, the this-worldly things? Or are we happy to wait by faith for the unseen things, the lasting things, and the infinitely joyful things?