Works of John Bunyan: The Greatness of The Soul And Unspeakableness of the Loss Thereof; The sincere Christian's coming to God by Christ, 220.

 

Third, I come now to the third man—to wit, to the sincere and upright man that cometh to God by Christ. And although this may, in some sense, apply to the two former, for his coming is not worthy to be counted coming to God, that is, not in sincerity and uprightness, yet by such an one I now mean, one that has been called to the faith, and that has in some good measure of sincerity and uprightness therein abode with God.

This man also comes to God by Christ, but his coming is to be distinguished, I mean, in the main of it, from the coming of the other two. The other comes for the knowledge of forgiveness, a thing that the upright and faithful Christian, for the most part, has a comfortable faith in and for which he is often helped to give thanks to God. I do not say he doubted not, or that he has not had his evidence sometimes clouded; nor do I say that the knowledge of his reconciliation to God by Christ Jesus is so high, so firm, so fixed, and steadfast, that it cannot be shaken, or that he needs no more. I will then explain myself. He comes not to God as an unconverted sinner comes; he comes not as a backslider comes when he is returning to God from his backslidings; but he comes as a son, as one of the household of God, and he comes as one that has not, since correction, wickedly departed from his God.

1. He then comes to God with that access and godly boldness that is only proper to such as himself, that is, to them that walk with God. (Rom 5:2) Thus, everyone that shall be saved doth not do; thus, every one that shall be saved cannot do—for instance, the two spoken of before.

2. He comes to God by Christ constantly, by prayer, by meditation, by every ordinance. For therefore he maketh use of ordinances, because by them through Christ he gutted into the presence of God. (Psa 27:4)

3. He comes to God through Christ, because he judges that God is only that good, that blessedness, that happiness that is worth looking after; that good and that blessedness that alone can fill the soul to the brim; that good and that happiness that is worthy of our hearts, souls, and spirits. Hence David expresses his coming to God by panting, thirsting, crying, and saying, ‘My soul panted after thee, O God.’ And again, ‘My soul thirsted for God, for the living God, when shall I come and appear before God?’ (Psa 42:1,2) And again, ‘I will go to the altar of God, unto God, my exceeding joy.’ (Psa 43:4) And hence it was that he so envied the swallow and sparrow, even because they could come to the altar of God, where he had promised to give his presence, when he, as I think, by the rage of Saul, was forced to abide remote. ‘My soul longed,’ saith he, ‘yea, even fainted for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cried out for the living God. Yea, the sparrow hath found a house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O Lord of hosts, my King, and my God: Blessed are they that dwell in thy house; they will be still praising thee.’ Then, after a few more words, he said, ‘For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper,’ I would choose rather to sit at the threshold of thy house, ‘than to dwell in the tents of wickedness’; and then renders the reason—’ For the Lord is a sun and shield; the Lord gives grace and glory,’ &c. (Psa 84)

The presence of God and the glory and soul-ravishing goodness of that presence are things that the world does not understand, nor can they, as such, desire to know what they are.

4. These good men come to God upon other accounts also; for so it is that they have many concerns with God.

[Concern for themselves.]—(1.) They come to him for a clearer discovery of themselves, for they desire to know how frail they are, because the more they know that, the more they are engaged in their souls to take heed to their ways and to fear lest they should tempt their God to leave them. (Psa 39:1-8)

(2.) They come to God by Christ for the weakening of their lusts and corruptions, for they are a sore, yea, a plague to a truly sanctified soul. Those, to be rid of which, if it might be, a godly man chooses rather to die than to live. This is what David meant when he cried. ‘Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me,’ (Psa 51:10), and Paul, when he cried out, ‘O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?’ (Rom 7:24)

(3.) They come to God by Christ for the renewing and strengthening of their graces. The graces that the godly have received are, and they feel they are, subject to decay; yea, they cannot live without a continual supply of grace. This is the meaning of ‘Let us have grace,’ and ‘Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.’ (Heb 4:16)

(4.) They come to God by Christ to be helped against those temptations that they may meet withal. (Matt 6:13) They know that every new temptation has a new snare and a new evil in it; but what snare and what evil do they not know at present? But they know that their God knows and can deliver us out of temptation when we are in it and keep us out while we are out.

(5.) They come to God by Christ for a blessing upon that means of grace which God has afforded for the succor of the soul and the building of it up in the faith, knowing that as the means, so a blessing upon it, is from God. (2 Thess 3:1) And for this, they have encouragement because God has said, ‘I will abundantly bless her provision; I will satisfy her poor with bread.’ (Psa 132:15)

(6.) They come to God by Christ for the forgiveness of daily infirmities (Psa 19:12) and for continuing them in the light of his countenance, notwithstanding. Thus he also always accepts them and their services and grants that an answer of peace may be returned from their Father into their bosoms, for this is the life of their souls. There are a great many such things that the sincere and upright man comes to God for—too many here to mention. But again,

[Concern for the church and others.]—(1.) This man also comes to God to beseech him for the flourishing of Christ’s kingdom, which he knows will never be until the Antichrist is dead, and till the Spirit be more plentifully poured upon us from on high. Therefore, he also cries to God for the downfall of the first and for the pouring out of the other.

(2.) He comes to God for the hastening of the gathering of his elect, for it is an affliction to him to think that so many of those for whom Christ died should be still in a posture of hostility against him. (Psa 122:6)

(3.) He comes to God for a spirit of unity to be poured out among believers, for for the divisions of Reuben he has great thoughts of heart.

(4.) He comes to God to pray for magistrates, and that God would make speed to set them all to that work that is so desirable to his church—that is, to ‘hate the whore,’ ‘to eat her flesh,’ to ‘make her desolate,’ ‘and burn her with fire.’ (1 Tim 2:1, Rev 17:16)

(5.) He comes to God to beg that he would hasten that great and notable day, the day of the coming of our Lord Jesus, for he knows that Christ will never be exalted as he must be till then; yea, he also knows that God’s church will never be as she would and shall be till then. (Rev 22:20)

(6.) But the main meaning, if I may so call it, of this high text is this: that they that come to God by him—that is, by Christ—are those that come by Christ to God to enjoy him by faith and spirit here, and by open vision and unspeakable possession of him in the next world. This is the great design of the soul in its coming to God by Jesus Christ, and it comes to him by Jesus Christ because it dares not come by itself and because God himself has made him the way, the new and living way. Here, as I said, the Father meets with that which pleases him, and the soul with that which saves her. Here is righteousness and merits to spare, even righteousness that can justify the ungodly. Here is always, how empty soever we are, a fullness of merit always presented to God by Christ for my obtaining of that which at any time I want, whether wisdom, grace, Spirit, or any good thing soever; only, since I was upon this subject, I thought a little to touch upon things in this order, for the enlarging of thy thoughts, for the conviction of thy spirit, for the stirring of thee up to God, and for the showing of the good signs of grace where it is, where is abused, and where any are seeking after it.

Ta

Works of John Bunyan: The Greatness of The Soul And Unspeakableness of the Loss Thereof; The Person Interested In The Intercession Of Christ, 219.

 

2. And as he gives us a second testimony, that the world and himself are so as at first he believed they were, so by this his returning he testifies that God and Christ are the same, and much more than ever he believed at first they were. This man has made a proof before and a proof after conviction of the evil of one and the good of the other. This man has proved it by feeling and seeing, and by receiving grace before and after. This man God has set up to be a witness; this man is two men, has the testimony of two men, and must serve in the place of two men. He knows what it is to be fetched from a state of nature by grace, but this is something all Christians know as well as he does. Ay, but he knows what it is to be fetched from the world, from the devil, and hell, the second time; and that, but few professors know, for few that fall away return to do again. (Heb 6:4-8) Ay, but this man comes again, wherefore there is news in his mouth, sad news, dreadful news, and news that is to make the standing saint take heed lest he falls. The returning backslider, therefore, is a rare man, a man of worth and intelligence, a man to whom the men of the world should flock and to whom they should learn to fear the Lord God. He also is a man of whom the saints should receive both caution, counsel, and strength in their present standing, and they should, by his harms, learn to serve the Lord with fear and to rejoice with trembling. (1 Cor 10:6–13, Isa 551:11–13 Luke 22:32)

This man has the second time also had a proof of God’s goodness in his Christ unto him, a proof which the standing Christian has not—I would not tempt him that stands to fall; but the good that a returning backslider has received at God’s hands, and at the hand of Christ, is a double good; he has been converted twice, fetched from the world, and from the devil, and from himself twice; oh, grace! and has been made to know the stability of God’s covenant, the unchangeableness of God’s mind, the sure and lasting truth of his promise in Christ, and of the sufficiency of the merits of Christ, over and over.

[The manner of a backslider’s return.]—In the manner of this man’s coming to God by Christ, I shall also speak a word or two. He comes as the newly-awakened sinner comes, and that from the same motives and the knowledge of things as he hath over and above (which he had as good have been without), that which the newly-awakened sinner has not; to wit, the guilt of his backsliding, which is a guilt of a worse complexion, of a deeper dye, and of a heavier nature than is any guilt else in the world. He is also attended to with fears and doubts that arise from other reasons and considerations than do the doubts and fears of the newly-awakened man; doubts build upon the vileness of his backsliding. He also has more dreadful scriptures to consider, and they will look more wishfully in his face, yea, and will also make him take notice of their grim physiognomy than has the newly-awakened man. Besides, as a punishment for his backsliding, God seems to withdraw the sweet influences of his Spirit as if he would not suffer him to pray nor to repent anymore (Psa 51:11), as if he would now take all away from him and leave him to those lusts and idols that he left his God to follow. Swarms of his new rogueries shall haunt him in every place, and that not only in the guilt but in the filth and pollution of them. (Prov 14:14) None know the things that haunt a backslider’s mind; his new sins are all turned into talking devils, threatening devils, and roaring devils within him. Besides, he doubts the truth of his first conversion; consequently, he has it lying upon him as a strong suspicion that there was nothing of truth in all his first experience; this also leads to his heels and makes him come to sense and feel heavier and with greater difficulty to God by Christ. As the faithfulness of other men kills him, he cannot see an honest, humble, holy, faithful servant of God, but he is pierced and wounded at the heart. Ay says within himself that man fears God, that man has faithfully followed God, that man, like the elect angels, has kept his place, but I have fallen from my station like a devil. That man honors God, edifies the saints, convinces the world to condemn them, and becomes the heir of righteousness, which is by faith.

But I have dishonored God, stumbled and grieved saints, made the world blaspheme, and, for all I know, been the cause of the damnation of many! These are the things, I say, together with many more of the same kind, that come with him; yea, they will come with him, yea, and will stare him in the face, tell him of his baseness, and laugh him to scorn, all the way that he is coming to God by Christ—I know what I say!—and this makes his coming to God by Christ hard and difficult to him. Besides, he thinks saints will be aware of him, will be shy of him, will be afraid to trust him, yea, will tell his Father of him and make intercession against him, as Elias did against Israel (Rom 11:2), or as the men did that were fellow-servants with him that took his brother by the throat. (Matt 18:31) Shame covereth his face all the way he comes; he doth not know what to do; the God he is returning to is the God that he has slighted, the God before whom he has preferred the vilest lust; and he knows God knows it and has before him all his ways. The man who has been a backslider and is returning to God can tell strange stories, and yet such are very true. No man was in the whale’s belly and came out again alive, but backsliding and returning Jonah; consequently, no man could tell how he was there, what he felt there, what he saw there, and what workings of heart he had when he was there, as well as he.

Ta

Tagged Works o

Works of John Bunyan: The Greatness of The Soul And Unspeakableness of the Loss Thereof; The Person Interested In The Intercession Of Christ, 218.

 

Of the backslider's return to Christ.

Second, I shall now come to the second man mentioned, to wit, the man that is turning back from his backsliding, and speak something also about his coming again to God by Christ.

There are two things remarkable about the return of a backslider to God by Christ. 1. The first is, that he gives a second testimony to the truth of all things spoken of before. 2. He also gives a second testimony of the necessity of coming to God by Christ. Of the manner of his coming to God by Christ perhaps I may also speak a word or two. But,

1. The returning again of the backslider gives a second testimony to the truth of man's state being by nature miserable, of the vanity of this world, of the severity of the law, certainty of death, and terribleness of judgment to come. His first coming told them so, but his second coming told them so with a double confirmation of the truth. It is so, says his first coming. Oh, it is so, says his second. The backsliding of a Christian comes through the overmuch persuading of Satan and lust, that the man was mistaken, and that there was no such horror in the things from which he fled, nor so much good in the things to which he hasted. Turn again, fool, says the devil, turn again to thy former course; I wonder what frenzy it was that drove thee to thy heels, and that made thee leave so much good behind thee, as other men find in the lusts of the flesh and the good of the world. As for the law, death, and imagination of the day of judgment, they are but mere scarecrows, set up by political heads, to keep the ignorant in subjection. Well, says the backslider, I will go back again and see; so, fool as he is, he goes back, and has all things ready to entertain him; his conscience sleeps, the world smiles, the flesh is sweet, carnal company compliments him, and all that can be got is presented to this backslider to accommodate him. But, behold, he doth again begin to see his own nakedness, and he perceives that the law is whetting his axe. As for the world, he perceives it as a bubble; he also smells the smell of brimstone, for God hath scattered it upon his tabernacle, and it begins to burn within him. (Job 18:15) Oh! saith he, I am deluded; oh! I am ensnared. My first sight of things was true. I see it is so again. Now he begins to be for flying again to his first refuge; O God, saith he, I am undone, I have turned from thy truth to lies! I believed them such at first, and find them such at last. Have mercy upon me, O God!

This, I say, is a testimony, a second testimony, by the same man, as to the miserable state of man, the severity of the law, the emptiness of the world, the certainty of death, and the terribleness of judgment. This man hath seen it, and seen it again.

A returning backslider is a great blessing, I mean intended to be so, to two sorts of men—1. To the elect uncalled. 2. To the elect that are called, and that at present stand their ground. The uncalled are made to hear him, and consider; the called are made to hear him and are afraid of falling. Behold, therefore, the mystery of God's wisdom, and how willing he is that spectators should be warned and made to take heed. Yea, he will permit that some of his own shall fall into the fire, to convince the world that hell is hot, and to warn their brethren to take heed that they slip not with their feet. I have often said in my heart that this was the cause why God suffered so many of the believing Jews to fall; to wit, that the Gentiles might take heed. (Rom 11:21) O, brethren! saith the backslider that is returned, did you see how I left my God? did you see how I turned again to those vanities from which sometime before I fell? O! I was deluded, I was bewitched, I was deceived; for I found all things from which I fled at first still worse by far when I went to them the second time. Do not backslide. Oh! do not backslide. the first ground of your departing from them was good; never tempt God a second time.

Works of John Bunyan: The Greatness of The Soul And Unspeakableness of the Loss Thereof; The Person Interested In The Intercession Of Christ, 217.

 

Now, then, I advise thee that hast a mind to come to God by Christ, that thou seek the knowledge of God—’ If thou seek wisdom as silver, and search for her as for hid treasures, then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God.’ (Prov 2:4,5) And to encourage thee yet further, he is so desirous of communion with men, that he pardons sins for that. Hence he is called not only loving, but love. ‘God is love, and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.’ (1 John 4:16)

Methinks, when I consider what glory there is at times upon the creatures, and that all their glory is the workmanship of God; O Lord, say I, what is God himself? He may well be called the God of glory, as well as the glorious Lord; for as all glory is from him, so in him is an inconceivable well-spring of glory, of glory to be communicated to them that come by Christ to him. Wherefore, let the glory, and love, and bliss, and eternal happiness that is in God allure thee to come to him by Christ.

8. As thou shouldst, nay, must, have a good knowledge of all these, so thou must have it of judgment to come. They that come to God by Christ are said to ‘flee from the wrath to come’; to ‘flee for refuge, to lay hold on the hope set before them.’ (Matt 3:7, Heb 6:18)

This judgment to come is a warm thing to be thought of, an awakening thing to be thought of; it is called the eternal judgment because it is and will be God’s final conclusion with men. This day is called the ‘great and notable day of the Lord,’ (Acts 2:20); the day ‘that shall burn like an oven,’ (Mal 4:1); the day in which the angels shall gather the wicked together, as tares, into bundles, to burn them; but the rest, into his kingdom and glory. This day will be it in which all the bowels of love and compassion shall be shut up to the wicked, and that in which the floodgates of wrath shall be opened, by which shall a plentiful reward be given to evil-doers, but glory to the righteous. (Psa 31:23) This is the day in which men if they could, would creep into the ground for fear; but because they cannot, therefore, they will call and cry to the mountains to fall upon them, but they shall not; therefore, they stand bound to bear their judgment.

This day will be the day of breaking up closet councils, cabinet councils, secret purposes, and hidden thoughts; yea, ‘God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing.’ (Eccl 12:14) I say he shall do it then, for he will both ‘bring to light the hidden things of darkness and will make manifest the counsels of the heart.’ (1 Cor 4:5) This is the day that is appointed to put them to shame and contempt for having, in this world, been bold and audacious in their vile and beastly ways. On this day, God will cover all such bold and brazen faces with shame. Now they will blush till the blood is ready to burst through their cheeks. (Dan 12:2) Oh! the confusion and shame that will cover their faces while God is discovering what nasty, beastly, uncomely, and unreasonable life they lived in the world. They shall now see they contemned God, who fed them, that clothed them, that gave them life and limb, and that maintained their breath in their nostrils. But, oh, when they see the gulf before them, and all things ready to receive them in thither; then, they will know what sinning against God means!

And, I say, thou that art for coming to God by Christ must know this, and be well assured of this, or thou wilt never come to God by him.

What of the glory of God shall be put upon them that do indeed come to him will also help in this spiritual journey, if it be well considered by thee. But, perhaps, terror and unbelief will suffer thee to consider but little of that. However, the things afore-mentioned will be goads, and will serve to prick thee forward; if they do so, they will be God’s great blessing unto thee, and that for which thou wilt give him thy thanks forever. (Eccl 12:10,11) Thus I have, in few words, spoken something of the first sort of comers to God by Christ, namely, of the coming of the newly-awakened man. And I say again, if any of the things afore-named be wanting, and are not with his heart, it is a question whether, notwithstanding all the noise that he may make about religion, he will ever come to God by Christ.

1. If he knows not himself and the badness of his condition, wherefore should he come? 2. If he knows not the world, and the emptiness and vanity thereof, wherefore should he come? 3. Wherefore should he come if he knows not the law and the severity thereof? 4. Wherefore should he come if he knows not hell and the torments thereof? 5. If he knows not what death is, wherefore should he come? 6. And if he knows not the Father and the Son, how can he come? 7. And to know that there is a judgment to come is as necessary to his coming as most of the rest of the things propounded. Coming to God by Christ is for shelter, for safety, for advantage, and everlasting happiness. But he that knows not, that understands not the things afore-mentioned, sees not his need of taking shelter, of flying for safety, of coming for advantage to God by Christ. I know there are degrees of this knowledge, and he that has it most warm upon him, in all likelihood, will make most haste; or, as David saith, will hasten his escape ‘from the windy storm and tempest’; and he that sees least is in most danger of being the loiterer, and so of losing the prize; for all that run do not obtain it; all that fight do not win it; and ALL that strive for it have it not. (Psa 55:8, 1 Cor 9:24-26, 2 Tim 2:4,5)

Tagged Works o

Works of John Bunyan: The Greatness of The Soul And Unspeakableness of the Loss Thereof; The Person Interested In The Intercession Of Christ, 216.

 

But thou must take heed of all these, for he justifies us by none of these means, and thou dost need to be justified. I say he justifies us, not either by giving laws unto us, or by becoming our example, or by our following of him in any sense, but by his blood shed for us. His blood is not laws, nor ordinances, nor commandments, but a price, a redeeming price. (Rom 5:7-9, Rev 1:5) He justifies us by bestowing upon us, not by expecting from us; he justifies us by his grace, not by our works. (Eph 1:7) In a word, thou must be well grounded in the knowledge of what Christ is, and how men are justified by him, or thou wilt not come unto God by him.

As thou must know him, and how men are justified by him, so thou must know the readiness in him to receive and do for those what they need that come unto God by him. Suppose his merits were never so efficacious, yet if it could be proved that there is a loathness in him that these merits should be bestowed upon the coming ones, there would be but few adventures to wait upon him. But now, as he is full, he is free. Nothing pleases him better than to give what he has away; than to bestow it upon the poor and needy. And it will be convenient that thou who art a coming soul shouldst know this for thy comfort to encourage thee to come to God by him. Take two or three sayings of his, for the confirming of what is now said. ‘Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.’ (Matt 11:28) ‘All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.’ (John 6:37) ‘I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.’ (Mark 2:17) ‘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.’ (1 Tim 1:15)

7. As a man that would come to God by Christ must, antecedent to his so coming, know himself, what he is; the world, how empty it is; the law, how severe it is; death, and what it is; and Christ, and what he is; so also he must know God. ‘He that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.’ (Heb 11:6) God must be known, else how can the sinner propound him as his ultimate end? For so doth everyone that indeed doth come to Christ aright; he comes to Christ because he is the way; he comes to God because he is the end. But, I say, if he knows him not, how can he propound him as the end? The end is that for the sake of which I propound to myself anything, and for the sake of which I use any means. Now, then, I would be saved; but why? Even because I would enjoy God. I use the means to be saved; and why? Because I would enjoy God. I am sensible that sin has made me come short of the glory of God, and that Christ Jesus is he, the only he, that can put me into a condition of obtaining the glory of God;, therefore, I come to God by him. (Rom 3:23, 5:1,2)

But, I say again, who will propound God for his end that knows him not, that knows him not aright? yea, that knows him not, to be worth being propounded as my end in coming to Jesus Christ; and he that thus knows him must know him to be above all, best of all, and him in whom the soul shall find that content, that bliss, that glory and happiness that can by no means be found elsewhere. And, I say, if this be not found in God, the soul will never propound him to itself as the only, highest, and ultimate end in its coming to Jesus Christ. But it will propound something else, even what it shall imagine to be the best good; perhaps heaven, ease from guilt, perhaps to be kept out of hell, or the like. I do not say but a man may propound all these to himself, in his coming to Jesus Christ; but if he propounds these as his ultimate end, as the chiefs good that he seeks; if the presence and enjoyment of God, of God’s glorious majesty, be not his chief design, he is not concerned in the salvation that is propounded in our text—’ He is able,’ and so will ‘save to the uttermost them that come unto God by him.’

What is heaven without God? what is ease without the peace and enjoyment of God? What is deliverance from hell without the enjoyment of God? The propounding, therefore, these, and only these, to thyself for thy happiness in thy coming to Jesus Christ is a proposal, not a hair’s breadth higher than what a man without grace can propound. What or who is he that would not go to heaven? What or who is he that would not also have eased from the guilt of sin? And where is the man who chooses to go to hell? But many there be that cannot abide God; no, they like not to go to heaven because God is there. If the devil had heaven to bestow upon men, a vicious and beastly heaven, if it be lawful thus to speak, I durst pawn my soul upon it, was it a thousand times better than it is, that, upon a bare invitation, the foul fiend would have twenty to God’s one. They, I say, cannot abide God; nay, for all, the devil has nothing but hell for them; yet how thick men go to him, but how thinly to God Almighty. The nature of God lieth cross to the lusts of men. This spoils all a holy God, a glorious holy God, an infinitely holy God. But to the soul that is awakened, and that is made to see things as they are; to him, God is what he is in himself, the blessed, the highest, the only eternal good, and he without the enjoyment of whom all things would sound but emptily in the ears of that soul.

Works of John Bunyan: The Greatness of The Soul And Unspeakableness of the Loss Thereof; The Person Interested In The Intercession Of Christ, 215.

 

5. It is also necessary that he who cometh to God by the Lord Jesus should know what death is and the uncertainty of its approach upon us. Death is, as I may call it, the feller, the cutter down. Death is that which puts a stop to further living here, and it is that which lays man where judgment finds him. If he is in faith in Jesus, it lays him down there to sleep till the Lord comes; if he is not, it lays him down in his sins till the Lord comes. (Heb 11:13, 1 Thess 4:14, Job 20:11) Again, if thou hast some beginnings that look like good and death should overtake thee before those beginnings are ripe, thy fruit will wither, and thou wilt fall short of being gathered into God’s barn. Some men are ‘cut off as the tops of the ears of corn,’ and some are even nipped by death in the very bud of their spring; but the safety is when a man is ripe and shall be gathered to his grave, as a shock of corn to the barn in its season. (Job 24:20–24, 5:26)

Now if death should surprise and seize thee before thou art fit to die, all is lost; for there is no repentance in the grave, or rather, as the wise man has it, ‘Whatsoever thy hand find to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goes.’ (Eccl 9:10)

Death is God’s sergeant, God’s bailiff, and he arrests in God’s name when he comes, but seldom gives warning before he clapped us on the shoulder; and when he arrests us, though he may stay a little while and give us leave to pant, tumble, and toss ourselves for a while upon a bed of languishing, yet, at last, he will prick our bladder and let out our life. Then our souls will be poured upon the ground, yea, into hell, if we are not ready and prepared for the life everlasting. He who does not watch for and is not afraid that death should prevent him will not make haste to God by Christ. What Job said of temporal afflictions: such a one will death be if thou art not aware—’ When I looked for good, then evil came—The days of affliction prevented me.’ (Job 30:26,27) If thou looks, or beginners to look for good, and the day of death shall cut thee off before thou hast found that good thou looks for, all is lost, soul, and life, and heaven, and all. Therefore, it is convenient that thou conclude the grave is thy house and that thou make thy bed once a day in the grave; also, that thou say unto corruption, ‘Thou art my father; to the worm, thou art my mother and my sister.’ (Job 17:13,14) I say, be acquainted with the grave and death. The fool puts the evil day far away, but the wise man brings it near. Better be ready to die seven years before death comes than want one day, one hour, one moment, one tear, and one sorrowful sigh at the remembrance of the ill-spent life that I have lived. This, then, is that which I admonish thee of; namely, that thou know death, what it is, and what it doth when it comes. Also, thou consider well the danger that death leaves that man in, to whom he comes before he is ready and prepared to be laid by it in the grave.

6. Thou must also be made by thy awakenings to see what Christ is. This is of absolute necessity; for how can or shall a man be willing to come to Christ who knows not what he is or what God has appointed him to do? He is the Saviour, every man will say so; but to sense, smell, and taste what saving is, and so to understand the nature of the office and work of a Saviour, is a rare thing, kept close from most, known but by some. Jesus of Nazareth is the Savior, or reconciler, of men to God in the body of his flesh through death. (Col 1:19-21) This is he whose business in coming from heaven to earth was to save his people from their sins. Now, as was said, to know how he doth this is that which is needful to be inquired into; for some say he doth it one way, some, he doth it another; and it must be remembered that we are now speaking of the salvation of that man that from new or first awakenings, is coming to God by Christ for life. (1.) Some say he doth it, by giving of us precepts and laws to keep, that we might be justified thereby. (2.) Some say that he does it, by setting himself a pattern for us to follow him. (3.) Some again hold, that he doth it by our following the light within.

Works of John Bunyan: The Greatness of The Soul And Unspeakableness of the Loss Thereof; The Person Interested In The Intercession Of Christ, 214.

 

(3.) There are the terrors of the world; if a man stands in fear of them, he also will not come to God by Christ. The fear of man brings a snare. How many have, in all ages, been kept from coming to God aright by the terrors of the world? Yea, how many are there to one’s thinking who have almost got to the gates of heaven and have been scared and driven quite back again by nothing but the terrors of this world? This is that which Christ so cautioned his disciples about, for he knew it was a deadly thing. Peter also warns the saints to beware of this as something very destructive. (Luke 12:4-6, 1 Peter 3:14,15)

(4.) There is also the glory of the world, an absolute hindrance to convictions and awakenings, to wit, honors, greatness, and preferences: ‘How can ye believe,’ said Christ, ‘which receive honor one of another, and seek not the honor that cometh from God only.’ (John 5:44) If therefore a man is not in his affections crucified to these, it will keep him from coming to God aright.

3. As a man must know himself, how vile he is, and the world, how empty it is, he must also know the law, how severe it is; otherwise, he will not come to God by Jesus Christ, our Lord.

A man who is under awakening is in double danger of falling short of coming to God by Christ. If he knows not the severity of the law, he is either in danger of slighting its penalty or of seeking to make amends to it by doing good works, and nothing can keep him from splitting his soul upon one of these two rocks, but a sound knowledge of the severity of the law.

(1.) He is in danger of slighting the penalty. This is seen in the practice of all the profane in the world. Do they not know the law? Verily, many of them can say the Ten Commandments without a book. But they do not know the severity of the law; therefore, when awakenings come upon their consciences at any time, they strive to drive away the guilt of one sin by wallowing in the filth of another.

But would they do this if they knew the severity of the law? They would as soon eat fire. The severity of the law would be an intolerable, insupportable burden to their consciences; it would drive them and make them fly for refuge, to lay hold on the hope set before them.

(2.) Or if he slights the penalty, he will seek to make amends to it by doing good works for the sins he has committed. This is manifested by the practice of the Jews and Turks and all that swerve on that hand—to wit, to seek life and happiness by the law. Paul was also here before he met Jesus on the way. This is natural to consciences that are awakened unless also they have given to them to see the true severity of the law; the which that thou mayest do, if my mite helps, I will cast in for thy conviction these four things—

(a.) The law charges thee with its curse, as well for the pollution of thy nature, as for the defilements of thy life; yea, and if thou hadst never committed sinful acts, thy pollution of nature must stand in thy way to live, if thou comes not to God for mercy by Christ.

(b.) The law takes notice of and charges you with its curse, as well for sinful thoughts as for vile and sinful actions. ‘The [very] thought of foolishness is sin,’ (Prov 24:9), though it never breaks out into act, and will as surely merit the damnation of the soul as will the greatest transgression in the world.

(c.) If now thou could keep all the commandments, that will do thee no good at all, because thou hast sinned first: ‘The soul that sinned shall die.’ Unless, then, thou canst endure the curse and so legally overcome it for the sins that thou hast committed, thou art gone, if thou comes not to God by Christ for mercy and pardon.

(d.) And never think of repentance, thereby to stop the mouth of the law; for the law calleth not for repentance, but life; nor will it accept of any, shouldst thou mourn and weep for thy sins till thou hast made a sea of blood with tears. This, I say, thou must know, or thou wilt not come to God by Christ for life. For the knowledge of this will cause that thou shalt neither slight the severity of the law nor trust in the works thereof for life. Now, when thou does neither of these, thou canst not but speed thee to God by Christ for life; for now, thou hast no stay; pleasures are gone; all hope in thyself is gone. Thou now dies, and that is the way to love, for this inward death is, or feels like, a hunger-bitten stomach that cannot but crave and gape for meat and drink. Now it will be as possible for you to sleep with your finger in the fire as to forbear cravings of mercy so long as this knowledge remains.

4. As a man must know himself, the emptiness of this world, and the law, so he must know that there is a hell and how insupportable the torments of it are; for all threats, curses, and determinations to punish in the next world will prove but fictions and scarecrows if there be no woeful place, no woeful state, for the sinner to receive his wages in for sin when his days are ended in this world. Therefore, the word ‘saved’ is supposed such a place and state. He can save from hell, from the woeful place, from the woeful state of hell, them that come unto God.

Christ, therefore, often insinuated the truth of hell in his invitations to the sinners of this world to come to him; as where he tells them they shall be saved if they do, they shall be damned if they do not. As if he had said, there is a hell, a terrible hell, and they that come to me I will save them from it; but they that come not, the law will damn them in it. Therefore, that thou mayest indeed come to God by Christ for mercy, believe there is a hell, a woeful, terrible place. Hell is God’s creature, ‘he hath made it deep and large’! The punishments are by the lashes of his wrath, which will issue from his mouth like a stream of burning brimstone, ever kindling itself upon the soul. (Isa 30:33) Thou must know this by the Word, and fly from it, or thou shalt know it by thy sins, and lie and cry in it. I might enlarge, but if I did, I should be swallowed up; for we are while here no more able to set forth the torments of hell, than we are whole here to set forth the joys of heaven; only this may, and ought to be said, that God is able, as to save, so to cast into hell. (Luke 12:5) And as he can make heaven sweet, good, pleasurable, and glorious beyond thought; so he can make the torments of hell so exquisite, so hot, so sharp, so intolerable, that no tongue can utter it, no, not the damned in hell themselves. (Isa 64:4) If thou loves thy soul, slight not the knowledge of hell, for that, with the law, are the spurs which Christ used to prick souls forward to himself withal. What is the cause that sinners can play so delightfully with sin? It is that they forget there is a hell for them to descend into for their so doing when they go out of this world. For here usually, he gives our stop to a sinful course; we perceive that hell hath opened her mouth before us. Lest thou should forget, I beseech thee, another time, to retain the knowledge of hell in thine understanding, and apply the burning-hot thoughts thereof to thy conscience; this is one way to make thee gather up thy heels, and mend thy pace in thy coming to Jesus Christ, and to God the Father by him.

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Works of John Bunyan: The Greatness of The Soul And Unspeakableness of the Loss Thereof; The Person Interested In The Intercession Of Christ 213.

 

Who are the people that come to Christ?”

There are, therefore, three sorts of people that come to God through Christ. First, Men newly awakened. Second, men turned away from backsliding. Third, The sincere and upright man.

Of the newly awakened coming to Christ.

First, Men newly awakened. By awakened, I mean awakened thoroughly. So awakened as to be made to see themselves, what they are; the world, what it is; the law, what it is; hell, what it is; death, what it is; Christ, what he is; and God, what he is; and also what judgment is.

A man who will come to God by Christ aright must, before he comes, have competent knowledge of things of this kind.

1. He must know himself—what a wretched and miserable sinner he is—before he will take one step forward to his coming to God through Christ. This is plain from a great many scriptures, such as the parable of the prodigal (Luke 15), that of the three thousand (Acts 2), that of the jailer (Acts 16), and many more. The whole family has no need for a physician. They were not the sound and whole, but the lame and diseased that came to him to be cured of their infirmities; and it is not the righteous, but the sinners that do well know themselves to be such, that come to God by Christ.

It is not in the power of all the men on earth to make one man come to God by Christ, because it is not in their power to make men see their state by nature. And what should a man come to God for if he can live in the world without him? Reason says so, experience says so, and the Scripture bears witness that it is the truth. It is a sight of who I am that must unroot me, shake my soul, and make me leave my present rest. No man comes to God by Christ but he that knows himself and what sin hath done to him; that is the first. (Job 21:7-15)

2. As he must know himself and what a wretch he is, so he must know the world and what an empty thing it is. Cain did see himself, but saw not the emptiness of this world; therefore, instead of going to God by Christ, he went to the world, and there did take up to his dying day. (Gen 4:16) The world is a great snare to the soul, even to the souls of awakened sinners, because of its big looks and the fair promises that it makes to those that will please entertain it. It will also make as though it could do as much to quiet the spirit as either a sermon, Bible, or preacher. Yeah, and it has its followers ready at its heels continually to blow its applause abroad, saying, ‘Who will show us any [other] good?’ (Psa 4:6) and though ‘this their way is their folly: yet their posterity approve their sayings.’ (Psa 49:13) So that unless a man, under some awakenings, sees the emptiness of the world, he will take up in the good things thereof, and not come to God by Christ. Many there be now in hell that can seal to this for truth. It was the world that awakened Cain, awakened Judas, awakened Demas. Yea, Balaam, though he had some kind of visions of God, yet was kept by the world from coming to him aright. See with what earnestness the young man in the gospel came to Jesus Christ, and that for eternal life. He ran to him, he kneeled down to him, and asked, and that before a multitude, ‘Good master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?’ (Mark 10:17-24) And yet when he was told he could not come, the world soon stepped betwixt that life and him, and persuaded him to take up in itself; and so, for aught we know, he never looked after life more.

Four things in the world have a tendency to lull an awakened man asleep if God also makes him not afraid of the world.

(1.) There is the bustle and cumber of the world, that will call a man off from looking after the salvation of his soul. This is intimated by the parable of the thorny ground. (Luke 8:14) Worldly cumber is a devilish thing; it will hurry a man from his bed without prayer; to a sermon, and from it again, without prayer; it will choke prayer, it will choke the Word, it will choke convictions, it will choke the soul, and cause that awakening shall be to no saving purpose.

(2.) There is the friendship of this world, to which, if a man is not mortified, there is no coming for him to God by Christ. And a man can never be mortified by it unless he shall see the emptiness and vanity of it. Whosoever makes himself a friend of this world is the enemy of God. And how, then, can he come to him by Christ? (James 4:4)

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Works of John Bunyan: The Greatness of The Soul And Unspeakableness of the Loss Thereof; The Person Interested In The Intercession Of Christ, 212.

 

1. Of God. God is the chief good. Good so, as nothing is but himself. He is in himself most happy; yea, all good; and all true happiness is only to be found in God, as that which is essential to his nature; nor is there any good or any happiness in or with any creature or thing but what is communicated to it by God. God is the only desirable good; nothing without him is worthy of our hearts. Right thoughts of God can ravish the heart; how much happier is the man who has an interest in God? God alone can put the soul into a more blessed, comfortable, and happy condition than can the whole world; yes, and more than if all the happiness created by all the angels of heaven did dwell in one man’s bosom. God is the upholder of all creatures, and whatever they have that is a suitable good for their kind, it is from God; by God, all things have their subsistence and all the good that they enjoy. I cannot tell you what to say; I am drowning! The life, the glory, the blessedness, and the soul-satisfying goodness that are in God are beyond all expression.

2. Now there must be in us something of a suitableness of spirit for this God before we can be willing to come to him.

Therefore, if God has been with a man and has left some impression of his glory upon him, that man cannot be willing to come to him aright. Hence it is said concerning Abraham that, to his coming to God and following of him aright, the Lord himself did show himself unto him—’ Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken; The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran, and said unto him, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall show thee.’ (Acts 7:2, 3, Gen 12:1)

This God of Glory, the sight and visions of this God of Glory, provoked Abraham to leave his country and kindred to come after God. The reason why men are so careless and indifferent about their coming to God is because they have their eyes blinded. After all, they do not perceive his glory. God is so blessed that if he did not hide himself and his glory, the whole world would be ravished with him. But he has, I will not say reasons of state, but reasons of glory, glorious reasons why he hid himself from the world and appeared but to particular ones. Now, by thus appearing to Abraham, down fell Abraham’s vanity and his idolatrous fancies and affections, and his heart began to turn unto God, for there was in this appearance an alluring and soul-instructing voice. Hence that which Moses calls here an appearing, Christ calls a hearing, a teaching, and a learning—’ It is written in the prophets, and they shall be all taught of God. Every man, therefore, that hath heard and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me,’ that is, to God by me. But, I say, what must they hear and learn of the Father but that Christ is the way to glory, the way to the God of glory? This is a drawing doctrine, wherefore that which in this verse is called teaching and learning is called, in the verse before, the drawing of the Father—’ No man can come to me except the Father who hath sent me to draw him’; that is, with powerful proposals, alluring conclusions, and heart-subduing influences. (John 6:44,45)

Having thus touched upon this, we will now show you what kind of people they are who come to God through Christ and then draw some inferences from this as well.

Works of John Bunyan: The Greatness of The Soul And Unspeakableness of the Loss Thereof; The Person Interested In The Intercession Of Christ, 211.

 

THIRD, The third particular is to show WHO ARE THE PERSONS INTERESTED IN THIS INTERCESSION OF CHRIST, and they are those that come to God by him. The words are very concise and distinctly laid down; they are they that come, that come to God, that come to God by him. ‘Wherefore he is able also to save them, to save to the uttermost them that come to God by him, seeing he ever lived to make intercession for them.’

Of coming to God by Christ.—A little, first, to comment upon the order of the words, ‘that come unto God by him.’

Some come unto God, but not ‘by him’; and these are not included in this text; they have not a share in this privilege. Thus the Jews came to God, the unbelieving Jews, ‘who had a zeal of God but not according to knowledge.’ (Rom 9:30–34, 10:1-4) These submitted not to Christ, the righteousness of God, but thought to come to him by works of their own, or at least, as it were, by them, and so come short of salvation by grace, for that reigns to salvation only in Christ. To these Christ’s person and undertaking were a stumbling stone, for at him they stumbled and split themselves to pieces, though they indeed were such as came to God for life.

As there are that come to God, but not by Christ, so there are that come to Christ, but not to God by him:11 of this sort are those who, hearing that Christ is Saviour, therefore come to him for pardon but cannot abide to come to God by him, for that he is holy, and so will snub their lusts and change their hearts and natures. Mind what I say. There are a great many who would be saved by Christ but would love not to be sanctified by God through him. These make a stop at Christ and will go no further. They might as well have pardon; they care not whether they ever go to heaven or not. Of this kind of coming to Christ, I think it is, of which he warns his disciples when he says, ‘In that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it to you.’ (John 16:23) As who should say, when you ask for anything, make not a stop at me, but come to my Father by me; for they that come to me and not to my Father, through me, will have nothing of what they come for. Righteousness shall be imputed to us ‘if we believe in him who raised up Jesus, our Lord, from the dead.’ (Rom 4:24,25) To come to Christ for a benefit, stop there, and not come to God by him, prevailed nothing. Here the mother of Zebedee’s children erred, and about this, it was that the Lord Jesus cautioned her. Lord, saith she, ‘Grant that these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand and the other on the left, in thy kingdom.’ But what is the answer to Christ? ‘To sit on my right hand and on my left is not mine to give, but for whom it is prepared of my Father.’ (Matt 20:21-23) As I should say, woman, I do nothing; my Father works with me. Go therefore to him by me, for I am the way to him; what thou canst obtain of him by me thou shalt have; that is to say, what of the things that pertain to eternal life, whether pardon or glory.

The Son indeed has the power to give pardon and glory, but he gives it not by himself but by and according to the will of his Father. (Matt 9:6, John 17:22) They, therefore, that come to him for an eternal good, and good not to the Father by him, come short thereof; I mean, now, pardon and glory. And hence, though it is said the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins—to wit, to show the certainty of his Godhead, and of the excellency of his mediation; yet forgiveness of sin is said to lie more particularly in the hand of the Father, and that God for Christ’s sake forgives us. (Eph 4:32)

The Father, as we see, will not forgive unless we come to him by the Son. Why, then, should we conceit that the Son will forgive these that come not to the Father by him?

So then, justifying righteousness is in the Son, and with him also is intercession; but forgiveness is with the Father; yea, the gift of the Holy Ghost, yea, and the power of imputing of the righteousness of Christ is yet in the hand of the Father. Hence Christ prays to the Father to forgive, prays to the Father to send the Spirit, and it is God that imputed righteousness to justification to us. (Luke 23:34, John 14:16, Rom 4:6) The Father, then, doth nothing but for the sake of and through the Son; the Son also doth nothing derogating from the glory of the Father. But it would be a derogation to the glory of the Father if the Son should grant to save them that come not to the Father by him; wherefore you that cry Christ, Christ, delighting yourselves in the thoughts of forgiveness, but care not to come by Christ to the Father for it, you are not at all concerned in this blessed text, for he only saves by his intercession them that come to God by him.

Three sorts of people may be said to come to Christ, but not to God by him.

1. They whose utmost design in coming is only that guilt and fear of damning may be removed from them. And there are three signs of such a one—(1.) He takes up in a belief of pardon, and so goes on in his course of carnality as he did before. (2.) He whose comfort in the belief of pardon stands alone, without other fruits of the Holy Ghost. (3.) He that, having been washed, can be content to tumble in the mire, as the sow again, or as the dog that did spur to lick up his vomit again.

2. They may be said to come to Christ, but not to God by him, who do pick and choose doctrines, itching only after that which sounds of grace, but secretly abhorring of that which pressed to moral goodness. These did never see God, what notions soever they may have of the Lord Jesus, and of forgiveness from him. (Matt 5:8)

3. They surely did never come to God by Christ, however, they may boast of the grace of Christ, that will from the freeness of gospel grace plead an indulgence for sin. [Manner of coming to God.]—And now to speak a few words of coming to God, or coming as the text intends. And in speaking to this, I must touch upon two things—1. Concerning God. 2. Concerning the frame of the heart of him that comes to him.

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