Works of John Bunyan: The Greatness of The Soul, And Unspeakableness of the Loss Thereof; Inferences From The Certainty of Benefit From Christ's Intercession, 239.

 

USE SECOND, As I would press you to an earnest study and search after this great truth, I would press you to diligently improve it for yourselves and others. To know the truth for knowledge sake is short of a gracious disposition of soul, and to communicate the truth out of a desire for praise and vain glory for so doing is also a swerving from godly simplicity, but to improve what I know for the good of myself and others is true Christianity. Now truths received may be improved concerning myself and others, and in several ways—

1. To myself, when I search for the power that belongs to those notions I have received of truth. There belongs to every true notion of truth a power; the notion is the shell—the power is the kernel and life. Without this last truth, I do no good, nor do those to whom I communicate it. Hence Paul said to the Corinthians, ‘When I come to you again, I will know not the speech of them that is puffed up, but the power. For the kingdom of God is not in word but in power.’ (1 Cor 4:19–20) Search, then, after the power of what thou knowest, for it is the power that will do thee good. Now this will not be got but by earnest prayer, and much attending to God; also, there must not be admitted by thee that thy heart be stuffed with cumbering cares of this world, for they are of a choking nature.

Take heed of slighting that little that thou hast; a good improvement of little is the way to make that little thrive, and the way to obtain additions to it: ‘He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much, and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much.’ (Luke 16:10)

2. Improve them to others, and that, (1.) By laboring to instill them in their hearts with good and wholesome words, presenting all to them with the authority of the Scriptures. (2.) Labor to enforce those instilling on them by showing them by thy life the peace, the glorious effects that they have upon thy soul.

Lastly, let this doctrine give you the boldness to come to God. Shall Jesus Christ be interceding in heaven? Oh, then, be thou a praying man on earth; yea, take courage to pray. Think thus with thyself—I go to God, before whose throne the Lord Jesus is ready to hand my petitions to him; yea, ‘he ever lives to make intercession for me.’ This is a great encouragement to come to God through prayers and supplications for ourselves, and by intercessions for our families, our neighbors, and our enemies. Farewell.

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Works of John Bunyan: The Greatness of The Soul, And Unspeakableness of the Loss Thereof; Inferences From The Certainty of Benefit From Christ's Intercession, 238.

 

THE USE. I come now to make some use of this discourse; and,

USE FIRST, Let me exhort you to study this, as well as the other truths of our Lord Jesus Christ. The priestly office of Christ is the first and greatest thing that is presented to us in the gospel—namely, how he died for our sins, and gave himself to the cross, that the blessing of Abraham might come upon us through him. (1 Cor 15:1-6, Gal 3:13-16) But now that this priestly office of his is divided into two parts, and because one of them—to wit, this of his intercession—is to be accomplished for us within the veil, therefore, as we say among men, out of sight, out of mind, he is too much as to be forgotten by us. We satisfy ourselves with the slaying of the sacrifice; we look not enough after our Aaron as he goes into the holiest, there to sprinkle the mercy seat with blood upon our account. God forbid that the last syllable of what I say should be intended by me, or construed by others as if I sought to diminish the price paid by Christ for our redemption in this world. But since his dying is his laying down his price, and his intercession is the urging and managing of its worthiness in the presence of God against Satan, there is glory to be found therein, and we should look after him in the holy place. 

The second part of the work of the high priests under the law had great glory and sanctity put upon it; forasmuch as the holy garments were provided for him to officiate in within the veil, also it as there that the altar stood on which he offered incense; also there was the mercy-seat and the cherubims of glory, which were figures of the angels, that love to be continually looking and prying into the management of this second part of the priesthood of Christ in the presence of God; for although themselves are not the persons so immediately concerned therein as we, yet the management of it, I say, is with so much grace, and glory, and wisdom, and effectualness, that it is a heaven to the angels to see it. Oh! to enjoy the odorous scent and sweet memorial, the heart-refreshing perfumes, that ascend continually from the mercy seat to the ‘above’ where God is; and also to behold how effective

it is to the end for which it is designed, is glorious; and he that is not somewhat let into this by the grace of God, there is a great thing lacking in his faith, and he missed of many a sweet bit that he might otherwise enjoy. 

Therefore, I say, be exhorted to study this part of Christ’s work in managing our salvation for us. And the ceremonies of the law may be a great help to you as to this, for though they be out of use now as to practice, yet the signification of them is rich, and that from which many gospellers have got much. Wherefore I advise that you read the five books of Moses often; yea, read, and read again, and do not despair of help to understand something of the will and mind of God therein, though you think they are fast locked up from you. Neither trouble your heads though you do not commentaries and expositions; pray and read, and read and pray; for a little from God is better than a great deal from men. Also, what is from men is uncertain, and is often lost and tumbled over and over by men; but what is from God is fixed as a nail in a sure place. I know there are [peculiar] times of temptation, but I speak now as to the common course of Christianity.  There is nothing that so abides with us as what we receive from God; and the reason why Christians this day are at such a loss as to some things is that they are content with what comes from men’s mouths, without searching and kneeling before God, to know of him the truth of things. Things that we receive at God’s hand come to us as things from the minting house, though old in themselves, yet new to us. Old truths are always new to us if they come to us with the smell of heaven upon them. I speak not this because I would have people despise their ministers, but to show that there is nowadays so much idleness among professors that hinders them from a diligent search after things, and makes them take up short of that that is sealed by the Spirit of testimony to the conscience. Witness the great decays at this day among us, and that strange revolting from truth once professed by us.

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Works of John Bunyan: The Greatness of The Soul, And Unspeakableness of the Loss Thereof; Inferences From The Certainty of Benefit From Christ's Intercession, 237.

 

Oh, how unworthy are we of this love! How little do we think of it! But, most of all, the angels may be astonished to see how little we are affected by that which we pretend to know. But neither can this prevail with him to put us out of the scroll in which all the names of them are written for whom he doth make intercession to God. Let us cry, Grace, Grace unto it.

Fourth, Hence again I infer that they shall be saved that come to God by Christ, when the devil and sin have done what they can to hinder it. This is clear, for that the strife is now, who shall be lord of all, whether Satan, the prince of this world, or Christ Jesus, the Son of God; or which can lay the best claim to God’s elect, he that produces their sins against them, or he that laid down his heart’s blood as a price of redemption for them? Who, then, shall condemn when Christ has died, and doth also make intercession? Stand still, angels, and behold how the Father divided his Son ‘a portion with the great; and how he divided ‘the spoil with the strong: because he hath poured out his soul unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors, and bared the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.’ (Isa 53:12) The grace of God and the blood of Christ will, before the end of the world, make brave work among the sons of men! They shall come to a wonderment to God by Christ, and be saved by a wonderment for Christ’s sake—’Behold these shall come from far: and lo, these from the north and from the west, and these from the land of Sinim.’ (Isa 49:12)

Behold, these, and these, and these shall come, and lo, these, and these, and these from the land of Sinim! This is to denote the abundance that shall come into God by Christ towards the latter end of the world—namely when Antichrist is gone to bed in the sides of the pit’s mouth; then shall nations come in and be saved, and shall walk in the light of the Lord. But, I say, what encouragement would there be for sinners thus to do if the Lord Jesus, by his intercession, were not able to save ‘even to the uttermost’ them that come unto God by him.

Fifth, hence again, I infer that there is ground for confidence in those who come to God through Christ. Confidence to the end becomes us who have such a High Priest, such an Intercessor as Jesus Christ; who would dishonor such a Jesus by doubting that all the devils in hell cannot be discouraged by all their wiles? He is a tried stone, he is a sure foundation; a man may confidently venture his soul into his hand, and not fear, but he will bring him safely home. Ability, love for the person, and faithfulness to trust committed to him will do all; and all these are with infinite fullness in him. He has been a savior these four thousand years already—two thousand before the law, two thousand in the time of the law—besides the sixteen hundred years he has in his flesh continued to make intercession for them that come unto God by him. Yet the day is to come, yea, will never come, that he can be charged with any fault, or neglect of the salvation of any of them that at any time have come unto God by him. What ground, then, is here for confidence that Christ will make a good end with me since I come unto God by him, and since he ever lived to make intercession for me. Let me, then, honor him, I say, by setting on his head the crown of his undertakings for me, by the believing that he can save me ‘even to the uttermost, seeing he ever lived to make intercession for me.’

Sixth, Hence also I infer that Christ ought to bear and wear the glory of our salvation forever. He has done it, he has wrought it out. ‘Give unto the Lord, O ye kindreds of the people, give unto the Lord glory and strength.’ Do not sacrifice your own inventions, do not give glory to the work of your own hands. Your reformations, your works, your good deeds, and all the glory of your doing, cast them at the feet of this High Priest, and confess that glory belongs unto him—’Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing.’ (Rev 5:12) ‘And they shall hang upon him all the glory of his Father’s house, and offspring and the issue, all vessels of small quantity, from the vessels of cups, even to all the vessels of flagons.’ (Isa 22:24) Oh! the work of our redemption by Christ is such as wanted, not provocation to us to bless, praise, and glorify Jesus Christ. Saints, set to the work and glorify him in your body and in your souls; him who has bought us with a price, and glorify God and the Father by him. (1 Cor 6:20)

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Works of John Bunyan: The Greatness of The Soul, And Unspeakableness of the Loss Thereof; Inferences From The Certainty of Benefit From Christ's Intercession, 236.

 

2. When he ascended to God, and so was out of his reach, yet how busily went he about to make war with his people? (Rev 12) Yea, what horrors and terrors, what troubles and temptations, has God’s church met with from that day till now! Nor is he content with persecutions and general troubles; but oh! how doth he haunt the spirits of the Christians with blasphemies and troubles, with darkness and frightful fears; sometimes to their distraction, and often to fill the church with outcries.

3. Yet his malice is in pursuit, and now his boldness will try what it can do with God, either to tempt him to reject his Son’s mediation or to reject them that come to God by him for mercy. And this is one cause among many why ‘he ever liveth to make intercession for them that come to God by him.’

4. And if he cannot overthrow, if he knows he cannot overthrow them, yet he cannot forbear but vex and perplex them, even as he did their Lord, from the day of their conversion to the day of their ascension to glory.

Third, Hence I infer that the love of Christ to his, is an unwearied love, and it must need to be so; an undaunted love, and it must needs be so. Who but Jesus Christ would have undertaken such a task as the salvation of the sinner is, if Jesus Christ had passed us by? It is true which is written of him, ‘He shall not fail, nor be discouraged, till he has set judgment in the earth,’ &c. If he had not set his ‘face like a flint,’ the greatness of this work would surely have daunted his mind. (Isa 42:1, 50:6-7)

For do but consider what sin is from which they must be saved; do but consider what the devil and the curse are from which they must be saved; and it will easily be concluded by you that it is he that full rightly deserves to have his name called Wonderful, and his love such as verily passed knowledge.

Consider, again, by what means these souls are saved, even with the loss of his life, and, together with it, the loss of the light of his Father’s face. I pass by here and forbear to speak of the matchless contradiction of sinners which he endured against himself, which could not but be a great grief, or, as himself doth word it, a breaking of heart unto him; but all this did not, could not, hinder.

Join to all this, his everlasting intercession for us, and the effectual management thereof with God for us; and, withal, the infinite number of times that we by sin provoke him to spew us out of his mouth, instead of interceding for us, and the many times also that his intercession is repeated by the repeating of our faults, and this love still passes knowledge, and is by us to be wondered at. What did, or what doth, the Lord Jesus see in us to be at all this care, and pains, and cost to save us? What will he get of us by the bargain but a small pittance of thanks and love? for so it is, and ever will be, when compared with his matchless and unspeakable love and kindness towards us.

Works of John Bunyan: The Greatness of The Soul, And Unspeakableness of the Loss Thereof; Inferences From The Certainty of Benefit From Christ's Intercession, 235.

 

I have now done what I intend on this subject, and I have drawn a few inferences from it as well.

First, then, I infer that the souls saved by Christ are themselves in a most deplorable condition. Oh, what ado, as I may say, is here before one sinner can be eternally saved! Christ must die, but that is not all; the Spirit of grace must be given to us; but that is not all; Christ must also ever live to make intercession for us. And as he doth this for all, so he doth it for each one. He interceded for me, before I was born, that I might, in time, at the set time, come into being. After that, he also made intercession for me, that I might be kept from hell in the time of my unregenerate state until the time of my call and conversion. Yet again, he then intercedes that the work now begun in my soul may be perfected, not only to the day of my dissolution but unto the day of Christ; that is until he comes to judgment. (Phil 1:6) So that, as he began to save me before I had been, he will go on to save me when

I am dead and gone, and he will never leave to save me until he has set me before his face forever.

But, I say, what a deplorable condition has our sin put us into, that there must be all this ado to save us. Oh, how hard is sin got out of the soul when once it is in! Blood takes away the guilt; inherent grace weakens the filth; but the grave is the place, at the mouth of which, sin, as to the being of sin, and the saved, must have a perfect and final parting. (Isa 38:10) Not that the grave of itself is of a sin-purging quality, but God will follow Satan home to his own door; for the grave is the door or gate of hell, and will there, where the devil thought to have swallowed us up, even there by the power of his mercy make us, at our coming thence, shine like the sun, and look like angels. Christ, all this while, ever lived to make intercession for us.

Second, Hence, also, I infer that as Satan thought he struck home at first, when he polluted our nature, and brought our souls to death, so he is marvelous loath to lose us and to suffer his lawful captives now to escape his hands. He is full of fire against us, full of the fire of malice, as is manifest 1. Not only by his first attempt upon our first parents but behold, when the Deliverer came into the world, how he roared. He sought his death while he was an infant; he hated him in his cradle; he persecuted him while he was but a bud and blossom. (Matt 2) When he was come to riper years, and began to manifest his glory, yet, lest the world should be taken with him, how politicly did this old serpent, called the Devil and Satan, work? He possessed people that he had a devil, and was mad, and a deceiver; that he wrought his miracles by magic art and by the devil; that the prophets spoke nothing of him, and that he sought to overthrow the government which was God’s ordinance. And, not being contented with all this, he pursued him to the death, and could never rest until he had spilled his blood upon the ground like water. Yea, so insatiable was his malice, that he set the soldiers to forge lies about him to the denial of his resurrection, and so managed that matter that what they said has become a stumbling block to the Jews to this very day. (John 10:20, 7:12, Matt 9:34, John 7:52, Luke 23:2, Matt 28:11-15).

Works of John Bunyan: The Greatness of The Soul, And Unspeakableness of the Loss Thereof; Every Sincere Comer Certain Of Salvation, 234.

 

Now, if by blood he entered there, by blood he must also make intercession there. His blood made way for his entrance there; his blood must make way for our entrance there. Though here again, we must beware; for his blood did make way for him as Priest to intercede; his blood makes way for us, as for those redeemed by it, that we might be saved. This, then, shows sufficiently the worth of the blood of Christ, even his ever living to make intercession for us; for the merit of his blood lasts all the while that he doth, and for all them for whom he ever lived to make intercession. Oh, precious blood! oh, lasting merit!

Blood must be pleaded in Christ’s intercession, because of justice, to stop the mouth of the enemy, and also to encourage us to come to God by him. Justice, since that is of the essence of God, must concur in the salvation of the sinner; but how can that be, since it is said at first, ‘In the day thou ate thereof, thou shalt surely die,’ unless a plenary satisfaction is made for sin to the pleasing of the mighty God. The enemy would also never let go of his opposition to our salvation. But now God has declared that our salvation is grounded in justice because it is merited by blood. And though God needed not to have given his Son to die for us that he might save us, and stop the mouth of the devil in so doing, yet this way of salvation has done both, and so it is declared, we are ‘justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past—to declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.’ (Rom 3:24,25) So, then, here is also a ground of intercession, even the blood shed for us before.

And that you may see it yet more for your comfort, God did, at Christ’s resurrection, to show what a price he set upon his blood, bid him ask of him the heathen, and he would give him the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession. (Psa 2:8) His blood, then, has value enough in it to ground intercession upon; yes, there is more worth in it than Christ will plead or improve for men by way of intercession. I do not at all doubt that there is virtue enough in the blood of Christ, would God Almighty so apply it, to save the souls of the whole world. But it is the blood of Christ, his own blood; and he may do what he will with his own. It is also the blood of God, and he may restrain its merits or apply it as he sees fit. But the coming soul, he shall find and feel the virtue thereof, even the soul that comes to God by Christ; for he is the man concerned in its worth, and he ever lived to make intercession for him. Now, seeing the intercession of Christ is grounded upon a covenant, an oath, a life, and also upon the validity of his merits, it must of necessity be prevalent, and so drive down all opposition before it. This, therefore, is the last part of the text, and that which demonstrates that he that comes to God by Christ shall be saved, seeing ‘he ever lived to make intercession for him.’

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Works of John Bunyan: The Greatness of The Soul, And Unspeakableness of the Loss Thereof; Every Sincere Comer Certain Of Salvation, 233.

 

God is just, and yet Christ lives, and yet Christ lives in heaven! God is just, and yet Christ, our Passover, lives there, Do what our foes can to the contrary!

And this note, by the way, that though the design of Satan against us, in his laboring continually to accuse us to God, and to prevail against our salvation, seems to terminate here, indeed it is also laid against the very life of Christ, and that his priesthood might be utterly overthrown; and, in conclusion, that God also might be found unjust in receiving of such whose sins have not been satisfied for, and so whose souls are yet under the power of the devil. For he that objects against him for whom Christ intercedes, objects against Christ and his merits; and he that objects against Christ’s intercession, objects against God, who has made him a priest forever. Behold you, therefore, how the cause of God, Christ, and the souls that come to God by him are interwoven; they are all wrapped up in one bottom. Mischief one, and your mischief all; overthrow that soul, and you overthrow his intercessor; and overthrow him, and you overthrow even him that made him a priest forever. For the text is without restriction: ‘He can save to the uttermost those that come unto God by him.’ He saith not, now and then one, or sinners of an inferior rank in sin, but them that come to God by him, how great soever their transgressions are, as is clear in that it added this clause, ‘to the uttermost.’ ‘He can save them to the uttermost.’ But if he were not, why did the King send, yea, come and lose him, and let him go free; yea, admit him into his presence; yea, make him Lord over all his people, and deliver all things into his hand?

But he lived, he ever lived, and is admitted to make intercession, yea, is ordained of God so to do; therefore he is ‘able to save to the uttermost those that come unto God by him.’ This, therefore, that he lived, seeing he lived to God and his judgment, and in justice is made so to do, it is chiefly concerning his life as Mediator for their sakes for whom he makes intercession. He lived to make intercession. And in that, it is said he lived ever, what is it but that he must live, and outlive all his enemies; for he must live, yea, reign, till all his enemies are put under his feet. (1 Cor 15:25) Yes, his very intercessions must live till they are all dead and gone. The devil and sin must not live forever, not forever to accuse. The time is coming when the due course of law will have an end, and all cavilers will be cast over the bar. But then and after that, Christ our high priest shall live, and so shall his intercessions; yea, and also all them for whom he makes intercession, seeing they come unto God by him.

Now if he lives, and outlives all, and if his intercession has the casting voice, since he also pleaded in his prayers for sufficient merit before a just God, against a lying, malicious, clamorous, and envious adversary, he must carry the cause, the cause for himself and his people, to the glory of God and their salvation. So, then, his life and intercession must prevail, there can be no withstanding of it. Is not this, then, a demonstration clear as the sun, that those who come to God by him shall be saved, seeing he ever lived to make intercession for them?

Fourth, the duration of Christ’s intercession, as it is grounded upon a covenant betwixt God and him, upon an oath also, and upon his life, so it is grounded upon the validity of his merits. This has been promiscuously touched before, but since it is essential to the lastingness of his intercession, it will be to the purpose to lay it down by itself.

Intercession, then, I mean Christ’s intercession, is that those for whom he died with full intention to save them, might be brought into that inheritance which he has purchased for them. Now, then, his intercession must, as to length and breadth, reach no further than his merits, for he may not pray for those for whom he died. Indeed, if we take in the utmost extent of his death, then we must beware, for his death is sufficient to save the whole world. But his intercessions are kept within a narrower compass. The altar of burnt offerings was a great deal bigger than the altar of incense, which was a figure of Christ’s intercession. (Exo 27:1, 30:1, Rev 8:3) But I say his intercession is for those for whom he died with full intention to save them; therefore, it must be grounded upon the validity of his sufferings. And, indeed, his intercession is nothing else, that I know of, but a presentation of what he did in the world for us unto God, and pressing the value of it for our salvation. The blood of sprinkling is that which speaks meritoriously, (Heb 12:24); it is by the value of that that God measures out and gives unto us grace and life eternal; wherefore Christ’s intercessions also must be ordered and governed by merit; ‘By his own blood, he entered into the holy place, having [before by it] obtained eternal redemption for us,’ for our souls. (Heb 9:12)

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Works of John Bunyan: The Greatness of The Soul, And Unspeakableness of the Loss Thereof; Every Sincere Comer Certain Of Salvation, 232.

 

Again; it is yet more manifest that Christ receiving of his life again was the death and destruction of the enemy of his people; and to manifest that it was so, he adds (after he had said, ‘And, behold, I am alive for evermore. Amen’), ‘And I have the keys of hell and of death.’ I have the power over them; I have them under me; I tread them down by being a victor, a conqueror, and one that has the dominion of life (for he now is the Prince of Life), one that lives for evermore. Amen. Hence it is repeated, He ‘hath abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.’ (2 Tim. 1:10) He hath abolished death by his death (by death he destroyed him that had the power of death, that is, the devil), and brought life (a very emphatical expression); and brought it from whence? From God, who raised him from the dead; and brought it to light, to our view and sight, by the word of the truth of the gospel.

So, then, the life that he now hath is a life once laid down as the price of our redemption; a life obtained and taken to him again as the effect of the merit that was in the laying down thereof; a life by the virtue of which death, sin, and the curse is overcome; and so a life that is above them forever. This is the life that he lives—to wit, this meriting, purchasing, victorious life—and that he improves while he ever so lives to make intercession for us.

This life, then, is a continual plea and argument with God for those that come to him by Christ, should he make no other intercession, but only show to God that he lived; because his thus living saith, that he has satisfied for the sins of them that come unto God by him. It testifies, moreover, that those—to wit, death, the grave, and hell—are overcome by him for them; because indeed he lived, and has their keys. But now, add to life, to a life meritorious, intercession, or urging of this meritorious life by way of prayer for his, and against all those that seek to destroy them, since they have already been overcome by his death, and what an encouraging consideration is here for all those that come to God by him, to hope for life eternal. But,

2. Let us speak a word to the second head—namely, for that, his living forever capacitates him to be the last in his own cause and to have the casting voice, and that is an advantage next to what is chiefs. His cause; what is his cause? but that the death that he died when he was in the world was and is of merit sufficient to secure all those from hell, or, as the text has it, to save them that come unto God by him, to save them to the uttermost. Now, if this cause is faulty, why does he live? Yes, he lived by the power of God, by the power of God towards us; or concerning our welfare, for he lived to make intercession, intercession against Satan, our accuser, for us. (2 Cor 13:4) Besides, he lived before God, to God, and after he had given his life as a ransom for us. What can follow more clearly from this, but that amends were made by him for those souls for whose sins he suffered upon the tree? Therefore, since his Father has given him his life and favor, and after he died for our sins, it cannot be thought that the life he now lives is a life that he received as the result of the merit of his passion for us.

Works of John Bunyan: The Greatness of The Soul, And Unspeakableness of the Loss Thereof; Every Sincere Comer Certain Of Salvation, 231.

 

Third, This unchangeableness of the priesthood of Christ depended also upon his own life: ‘This man, because he continued ever, had an unchangeable priesthood.’ (Heb 7:24) Now, although, perhaps, at first much may not appear in this text, the words that we are upon take their ground from them. ‘This man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood: wherefore he is able also’—that is, by his unchangeable priesthood—’ to save them to the uttermost that comes unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.’

The life of Christ, then, is a ground of the lastingness of his priesthood, and so a ground of the salvation of them that come unto God by him: ‘We shall be saved by his life.’ (Rom 5:10) Therefore, in another place, this life is spoken of with great emphasis—the power of an endless life. ‘He is made [a priest], not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life.’ (Heb 7:16) An endless life is a powerful thing; indeed, two things are very considerable in it: 1. It is above death, and so above him is the power of death, the devil. 2. In that, it capacitates him to be the last in his own cause, and so to have the casting voice.

1. We will speak to the first, and for the better setting of it forth, we will show what life it is of which the apostle here speaks; and then how, as to life, it comes to be so advantageous, both concerning his office of priesthood and us.

What life is it that is thus the ground of his priesthood? It is a life taken, his own life rescued from the power of the grave; a life that we had forfeited, he being our surety; and a life that he recovered again, he is the Captain of our salvation: I lay down my life that I may retake it: ‘this commandment have I received of my Father.’ (John 10:18) It is a life, then, that was once laid down as the price of man’s redemption, and life won, gained, taken, or recovered again, as the token or true effect of the completing, by so dying that redemption; wherefore it is said again, ‘In that, he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.’ (Rom 6:10) He lives as having pleased God by dying for our sins, as having merited his life by dying for our sins. Now if this life of his is a life merited and won under the death that he died, as Acts 2:24 doth clearly manifest; and if this life is the ground of the unchangeableness of this part of his priesthood, as we see it is, then it follows that this second part of his priesthood, which is called here intercession, is grounded upon the demonstrations of the virtue of his sacrifice, which is his life taken to live again; so, then, he holds this part of his priesthood, not by a carnal commandment, but by the power of an endless life; but by the power of a life rescued from death, and eternally exalted above all that anyways would yet assault it; for ‘Christ being raised from the dead, dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him.’ (Rom 6:9) Hence Christ brings in his life, the life that he won for himself by his death, to comfort John withal when he fainted under the view of that overcoming glory that he saw upon Christ in is visions of him at Patmos: ‘And he laid his right hand upon me,’ said he, ‘saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last: I am he that liveth and was dead, and, behold, I am alive for evermore. Amen.’ (Rev 1:17,18) Why should Christ bring in his life to comfort John, if it was not a life advantageous to him? But the advantageousness of it doth lie not merely in the being of life, but in that, it was a life laid down for his sins, and a life taken up again for his justification; a life lost to ransom him, and a life won to save him; as also the text affirmeth, saying, ‘He can save to the uttermost them that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.’

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Works of John Bunyan: The Greatness of The Soul, And Unspeakableness of the Loss Thereof; Every Sincere Comer Certain Of Salvation, 230.

And that God himself doth so understand this matter is evident; because he also, by his own act, giveth and imputes to us that good that we never did, that righteousness which we never wrought out; yea, and for the sake of that transmitted our sins unto Christ, as to one that had not only well satisfied for them, but could carry them so far, both from us and from God, that they should never again come to be charged on the committers, to death and damnation. (Rom 4:1-5) The Scriptures are so plentiful for this, that he must be a Turk, a Jew, or an atheist who denies it. Besides, God’s commanding that men should believe in his Son unto righteousness well enough proves things, and the reason for this command is to prove it with an over and above; to wit, ‘For he hath made him be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.’ (2 Cor 5:19-21) Hence comes out that proclamation from God, at the rising again of Christ from the dead: ‘Be it known unto you, therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins; and by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.’ (Acts 13:38,39)

If this be so, as indeed it is, then here lieth a great deal of this conclusion, ‘he ever lived to make intercession,’ and of the demonstration of the certain salvation of him that cometh to God by him, ‘seeing he ever lived to make intercession for them.’ For if Christ Jesus is a priest by covenant, and so abides as the covenant abides, and if, since the covenant is everlasting, his priesthood is unchangeable, then the man that cometh to God by him must needs be certainly saved; for if the covenant, the covenant of salvation, is not broken, none can show a reason why he that comes to Christ should be damned, or why the priesthood of Jesus Christ should cease. Hence, after the apostle had spoken of the excellency of his person and priesthood, he then showed that the benefit of the covenant of God remained with us, namely, that grace should be communicated unto us for his priesthood’s sake and that our sins and iniquities God would remember no more. (Heb 8:10-12; 10:16-22) Now, as I also have already hinted, if this covenant, of which the Lord Jesus is Mediator and High Priest, has in the bowels of it, not only grace and remission of sins, but a promise that we shall be partakers thereof, through the blood of his priesthood, for so it comes to us; then, why should not we have boldness, not only to come to God by him but to enter also ‘into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by that new and living way,’ &c.

Second, But, further, this priesthood, as to the unchangeableness of it, is confirmed unto him ‘with an oath, by him that said unto him, the Lord swore, and will not repent, Thou art a priest forever.’ This oath seems to me to be for the confirmation of the covenant, as it is worded before by Paul to the Galatians, (Gal 3:15-17), when he speaks of it concerning that establishment that it also had on Christ’s part by the sacrifice which he offered to God for us; yea, he then speaks of the mutual confirmation of it both by the Father and the Son. Now, I say, since, by this covenant, he stands and abides a Priest, and since ‘the Lord swore, and will not repent, saying, Thou art a priest forever,’ we are still further confirmed in the certain salvation of him that cometh to God by Christ.

The Lord, by swearing, confirmed to Christ, and so to us in him, the immutability of his counsel, (Heb 6:16-18), and that he is utterly unchangeable in his resolutions ‘to save them to the uttermost that comes to God by Christ.’ And this also shows that this covenant, and so the promise of remission of sins, is steadfast and unmovable. And it is worth your noting the manner and nature of this oath, ‘The Lord swore, and will not repent.’ It is as much as to say, What I have now sworn I bind me forever to stand to, or, I determine never to revoke; and that is, ‘That thou art a priest forever.’ Now, as was said before, since his priesthood stands by covenant, and this covenant of his priesthood is confirmed by this oath, it cannot be but that he that comes by him to God must be accepted of him; for should such a one be rejected, it must be either for the greatness of his sins, or for want of merit in the sacrifice he presented and urged, as to the merit of it, before the mercy-seat. But let the reason specified be what it will, the consequence falls harder upon the sacrifice of Christ than it can do anywhere else, and so also upon the covenant, and at last upon God himself, who has sworn, and will not repent, that he is a Priest forever. I thus discourse, to show you what dangerous conclusions follow from a conceit that some that come to God by Christ shall not be saved, though ‘he ever lived to make intercession for them.’ And this I have further to say, that the Lord’s swearing since the manner of the oath is such as it is, and that it also tended to establish to Christ his priesthood to be unchangeable, it declared that, as to the excellency of his sacrifice, he is eternally satisfied in the goodness and merit of it; and that he will never deny him anything that he shall ask for at his hands for his sufferings’ sake. For this oath doth not only show God’s firm resolution to keep his part of the covenant, in giving to Christ that which was covenanted for by him, but it declared that, in the judgment of God, Christ’s blood can save any sinner, and that he will never put stop nor check to his intercession, how great soever the sinners be that at any time he shall intercede for; so that the demonstration is clearer and clearer, ‘He can save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever lived to make intercession for them.’

 

Works of John Bunyan: The Greatness of The Soul, And Unspeakableness of the Loss Thereof; Every Sincere Comer Certain Of Salvation, 229.

Wherefore now I come to the fourth and last head, and that is, TO SHOW YOU THE CERTAINTY OF THEIR REAPING THE BENEFIT OF HIS INTERCESSION. ‘Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever lived to make intercession for them.’

The certainty of their reaping the benefit of being saved that come unto God by Christ is thus expressed: ‘Seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.’ The intercession of Christ, and the lastingness of it, are sure tokens of the salvation of those who come unto God by him.

Of his intercession, what it is, and for whom, we have spoken already; of the success and prevalence of it, we have also spoken before; but the reason for its success of that we are to speak now. And that reason, as the apostle suggested, lies in the continuance of it, ‘Seeing he ever liveth to make intercession.’ The apostle also makes very much of the continuation of the priesthood of Christ in other places of this epistle: he abides a priest continually, ‘Thou art a priest forever.’ He ‘hath an unchangeable priesthood.’ (Heb 7:3,17,21,24) And here he ‘ever liveth to make intercession.’

Now, by the text is showed the reason why he so continually harpeth upon the durableness of it, namely, for that by the unchangeableness of this priesthood we are saved; nay, saved demonstratively, apparently; it is evident we are. ‘He is also able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.’ For,

First, The durableness of his intercession proves that the covenant in which those who come to God by him are concerned and wrap up is not shaken, broken, or made invalid by all their weaknesses and infirmities.

Christ is a priest according to covenant, and in all his acts of mediation he has regard to that covenant; so long as that covenant abides in its strength, so long Christ’s intercession is of worth. Hence, when God cast the old high priest out of doors, he renders this reason for his so doing: ‘Because they continued not in my covenant’; that is, neither priests nor people. Therefore, they were cast out of the priesthood, and the people were pulled down as a church-state. (Heb 7:6-9) Now, the covenant by which Christ acts, as a priest, so far as we are concerned therein, he also himself acts our part, being, indeed, the Head and Mediator of the body; wherefore, God doth not count that the covenant is broken, though we sin if Christ Jesus our Lord is found to do by it what by law is required of us. Therefore he saith, ‘If his children break my law, and keep not my commandments, I will visit their sins with a rod,’ &c. But their sins shall not shake my covenant with my Beloved, nor cause that I forever should reject them. ‘My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips. His seed will I make to endure forever, his seed shall endure forever.’ (Psa 89:30-36) Hence, it is clear that the covenant stands good to us as long as Christ stands good to God, or before his face; for he is not only our Mediator by covenant, but he is our conditions to God-ward; therefore he is said to be ‘a covenant of the people,’ or that which the holy God, by law, required of us. (Isa 42:6) Hence, again, he is said to be our justice or righteousness; to wit, which answereth to what is required of us by the law. 

He is made unto us of God so, and in our room and in our stead presenteth himself to God. So, then, if any ask me by what Christ’s priesthood is continued, I answer, by covenant; for that the covenant by which he is made priest abideth of full force. If any ask whether the church is concerned in that covenant, I answer, yea; yet so as that all points and parts thereof, that concern life and death everlasting, is laid upon his shoulders, and he alone is the doer of it. He is the Lord our righteousness, and he is the Saviour of the body so that my sins break not the covenant; but them notwithstanding, God’s covenant stands fast with him, for evermore. And good reason, if no fault can be found with Christ, who is the person that did strike hands with his Father upon our account and for us; to wit, to do what was meet should be found upon us when we came to appear before God by him.

Works of John Bunyan: The Greatness of The Soul, And Unspeakableness of the Loss Thereof; Inferences from Thus Coming to God by Christ, 228.

 

Repentance will not be found in heaven among them that come to God by Christ; no, hell is the place of untimely repentance; it is there where the tears will be mixed with gnashing of teeth, while they consider how mad, and worse, they were in not coming to God by Jesus Christ.

Then will their hearts and mouths be full of, ‘Lord, Lord, open unto us.’ But the answer will be, Ye shut me out of doors; ‘I was a stranger, and ye took me not in’; besides, you refused to come to my Father by me, wherefore now you must go from my Father by me. (Matt 25)

Those who will not be saved by Christ must be damned by Christ; no man can escape one of the two. Refuse the first they may, but shun the second they cannot. And now those who would not come to God by Christ will have leisure and time enough, if I may call it time, to consider what they have done in refusing to come to God by Christ. Now they will meditate warmly on this thing, now their thoughts will be burning hot about it, and it is too late, There will be, in each thought, such a sting, that, like a bow of steel, it will continually strike him through.

Now they will bless those whom they once despised, and commend those they once considered. Now would the rich man willingly change places with poor Lazarus, though he preferred his own condition before his in the world. The day of judgment will bring the worst to rights in their opinions; they will not be capable of misapprehending anymore. They will never after that day put bitter for sweet, or darkness for light, or evil for good anymore. Their madness will now be gone. Hell will be the unbeliever’s bedlam house, and there God will tame them as to all those bedlam tricks and pranks which they played in this world, but not at all to their profit nor advantage; the gulf that God has placed and fixed betwixt heaven and hell will spoil all as to that. (Luke 16:23-26)

But what a joy will it be to the truly godly to think now that they have come to God by Christ! It was their mercy to begin to come, it was their happiness that they continued coming; but it is their glory that they are come, that they are come to God by Christ. To God! Why, he is all! all that is good, essentially good, and eternally good. To God! The infinite ocean of good. To God, in friendly-wise, by the means of reconciliation; for the other now will become to him to receive his anger, because they come not to him by Jesus Christ. Oh! that I could imagine; oh! that I could think, that I might write more effectually to thee of the happy estate of them that come to God by Christ.

But thus have I passed through the three former things, namely, 1. That of the intercession of Christ. 2. That of the benefit of intercession. 3. That of the persons that are interested in this intercession.

Works of John Bunyan: The Greatness of The Soul, And Unspeakableness of the Loss Thereof; Inferences from Thus Coming to God by Christ, 227.

 

Fifth, A fifth inference that I gather from this text is, that the end that God will make with men will be according as they come or come not to God by Christ. They that come to God by Christ have taken shelter and have hidden themselves, but they that come not to God by Christ lay open to the windy storm and tempest that will be in that day. And the wind then will be high, and the tempest strong, that will blow upon them that shall be found in themselves; ‘Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence: a fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him. He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that he may judge his people.’ (Psa 50:3,4) And now, what will be found in that day to be the portion of them that, in this day, do not come to God by Christ? None knows but God, with whom the reward of unbelievers is.

But writing and preaching are in vain as to such; let men say what they will, what they can, to persuade to come, to dissuade from neglecting to come, they are resolved not to stir. They will try to see if God will be so faithful to himself and to his Word, as to dare to condemn them to hell fire that have refused to hear and comply with the voice of him that speaks from heaven.

But this is a desperate venture. Several things declare that He is determined to be at a point in this matter.

1. The gallows are built—hell is prepared for the wicked. 2. There are those already in chains, and standing bound over to the judgment of that day, that are, as to creation, higher and greater than men, to wit, the angels that sinned. (2 Peter 2:4) Let sinners, then, look to themselves. 3. The Judge is prepared and appointed, and it hath fallen out to be HE that thou hast refused to come to God by, and that predicts no good to thee; for then will he say of all such, ‘Those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me.’ (Luke 19:27)

But what a surprise will it be to them that they have now come to God by Christ to see themselves in heaven, saved, and possessed of everlasting life. For alas! what is faith to possession? Faith that is mixed with many fears, that is opposed with many assaults, and that seems sometimes to be quite extinguished; I say, what is that to a seeing of myself in heaven? Hence it is said, that he shall then come to be admired in them that now believe, because they did here believe the testimony; then they shall admire that it was their lot to believe when they were in the world. (2 Thess 1:10) They shall also admire to think, to see, and behold, what believing has brought them to, while the rest, for refusing to come to God by Christ, drink their tears mixed with burning brimstone.

Works of John Bunyan: The Greatness of The Soul, And Unspeakableness of the Loss Thereof; Inferences from Thus Coming to God by Christ, 226.

 

Fourth, if there be a world to come, and such a way to it that it is safe and good, and if God is there to be enjoyed by them that come to him by Christ; then this shows the great madness of the most of men, madness, I say, of the highest degree, for that they come not to God by Christ that they may be inheritors of the world to come. It is a right character which Solomon gives of them, ‘The heart,’ saith he, ‘of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead.’ (Eccl 9:3) A madman is intent upon his toys, upon anything but that about which he should be intent; and so are they that come not to God by Jesus Christ. A madman has neither ears to hear, nor a heart to do, what they that are in their right wits advise him for the best, no more have they that come not to God by Christ. A madman sets more by the straws and cock’s feathers by which he decks himself than he does by all the pearls and jewels in the world. And they that come not to God by Christ set more by the vanishing bubbles of this life than they do by that glory that the wise man shall inherit; ‘The wise shall inherit glory, but shame,’ says Solomon, ‘shall be the promotion of fools.’ What a shame it is to see God’s jewels lie unregarded by those who yet think none are wiser than themselves.

I know the wise men of this world will scorn; one should think of them as mad; but verily it is so, the more wise for this world, the more fool in God’s matters; and the more obstinately they stand in their way, the more mad. When Solomon gave himself to backsliding, he said he gave himself to folly and madness. (Eccl 1:17, 2:12) And when he went about to search out what man has been since the fall, he went about to search out foolishness and madness. (Eccl 7:25-29) And is it not said, that when the Jews were angry with Jesus for that he did good on the Sabbath, that that anger did flow from their being filled with madness? Doth not Paul also, while he opposed himself against Christ, the gospel, and professors thereof, plainly tell us that he did it even from the highest pitch of madness? ‘And being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities.’ (Acts 26:11) Now if it is exceeding madness to do this, how many at this day must be counted exceeding mad, who yet count themselves the only sober men? They oppose themselves, they stand in their own light, they are against their own happiness, they cherish and nourish cockatrices in their own bosoms; they choose to themselves those paths which have written upon them in large characters, These are the ways of death and damnation. They are offended with them that endeavor to pull them out of their ditch, and choose rather lie and die there than to go to God by Christ that they may be saved from wrath through him; yea, so mad are they, that they count the soberest, the godliest, the holiest man, the mad one; the more earnest for life, the more mad; the more in the Spirit, the more mad; the more desirous to promote the salvation of others, the more mad. But is not this a sign of madness, of madness unto perfection? And yet thus mad are many, and mad are all they that while it is called to-day, while their door is open, and while the golden scepter of the golden grace of the blessed God is held forth, stand in their own light, and come not to God by Christ. (John 10:20, Acts 26:24) That is the fourth inference.

Works of John Bunyan: The Greatness of The Soul, And Unspeakableness of the Loss Thereof; Inferences from Thus Coming to God by Christ, 225.

 

1. That is the world that God commands, but this is the one that he slights and considers. (2 Thess 1:5,6) Hence, that is called the kingdom of God, but this is an ‘evil world.’ (Gal 1:4) Now let us conclude, that since God made both, he can judge which of the two is best; yea, best able to judge thereof. I would rather refer you to the judgment of God in this matter, for should I put you upon asking of him as to this, that is, coming to God by Christ, perhaps you would say, he is as little able to give an account of this matter as yourselves. But I hope you think God knows, and therefore I refer you to the judgment of God, which you have in the Scriptures of truth—’ Heaven is his throne, and the earth is his footstool.’ I hope you will say there is some difference. The Lord is the God of that, the devil is the god and prince of this. Thus, it appears there is some difference between them.

2. That world, and those that are counted worthy of it, shall all be everlasting; but so shall not this, nor the inhibitors of it. The earth with the works thereof shall be burned up, and the men that are of it shall die in like manner. (2 Peter 3) ‘But Israel shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation: ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded in the world without end.’ (Isa 45:17) This world, with its lovers, will end in a burning hell; but the world to come has not faded away. (1 Peter 1:3,4)

3. The world that we are now in, has its best comforts mixed either with crosses or curses; but that comes with neither. There shall be no more curse: and as for crosses, all tears shall be wiped from the eyes of those that dwell there. There will be nothing but ravishing pleasures, and holy; there will be no cessation of joys, nor any speck of pollution. ‘In thy presence is fullness of joy, at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.’ (Psa 16:11)

4. Their men shall be made like angels, ‘neither can they die anymore.’ (Luke 20:35,36) There shall they behold the face of God and his Son, and swim in the enjoyment forever.

5. There men shall see themselves beyond all misery and shall know that it will be utterly impossible that anything like sorrow, grief, sickness, or discontent, should touch them more.

6. There men shall be rewarded by God for what they have done and suffered according to his will for his sake; there they shall eat and drink their comforts, and wear them to their everlasting consolation.

7. They are all kings that go to that world, and so shall be proclaimed there. They shall also be crowned with crowns, and they shall wear crowns of life and glory, crowns of everlasting joy, and crowns of lovingkindness; yea, ‘In that day the Lord of hosts himself shall be for a crown of glory to those that are his people.’ (Heb 2:7, Isa 28:5, 35:10, Psa 103:4) Now, if this world, though no more could be said of it than is said in these few lines, is not infinitely far better than what the present world is, I have missed it in my thoughts. But the coming man, the man that comes to God by Christ, is satisfied, knows what he does; and if his way, all his way thither, were strewed with burning coals, he would choose, God helping him, to tread that path rather than to have his portion with them that perish.