Works of John Bunyan – The Greatness of The Soul, And Unspeakableness of the Loss Thereof; The Persons Interested In The Intercession Of Christ 199.

 

Wherefore Christ, by such pleas as these for his people, doth yet further show the malice of Satan (for all this burning comes through him), yea, and by it he moved the heart of God to pity us and yet to be gentle, long-suffering, and merciful to us; for pity and compassion are the fruits of the yearning of God’s bowels towards us, while he considered us as infirm and weak, and subject to slips, stumbles, and falls because of weakness.

And that Christ our Advocate, by thus pleading, do turn things to our advantage, consider, (1.) That God is careful, that through our weakness, our spirits do not fail before him when he chides (Isa 57:16–18). (2.) “He stayed his rough wind in the day of the east wind,” and debates about the measure of affliction, when, for sin, we should be chastened, lest we should sink thereunder (Isa 27:7-9). (3.) He will not strictly mark what is done amiss, because if he should, we cannot stand (Psa 130:3). (4.) When he threatens to strike, his bowels are troubled, and his repentances are kindled together (Hosea 11:8, 9). (5.) He will spin out his patience to the utmost length because he knows we are such bunglers at doing (Jer 9:24). (6.) He will accept the will for the deed because he knows that sin will make our best performances imperfect (II Cor 8:12). (7.) He will count our little ones a very great deal, for he knows we are so unable to do anything at all (Job 1:21). (8.) He will excuse the souls of his people and lay the fault upon their flesh, which has the greatest affinity with Satan, if, through weakness and infirmity, we do not do as we should (Matt 26:41; Rom 7). Now, as I said, all these things happen unto us, both infirmities and pity, because, for that, we were once in the fire, and for that, the weakness of sin abides upon us to this day. But none of this favor could come to us, nor could we, by any means, cause that our infirmities should work for us thus advantageously; but that Christ our Advocate stands as our friend and pleads for us as he doth.

But again, before I pass this over, I will, for the clearing of this, present you with a few more considerations, which are of another rank-to-wit, that Christ our Advocate, as such, makes mention of our weaknesses so, against Satan and before his Father, as to turn all to our advantage.

(1.) We are therefore to be saved by grace; because of sin, we are disabled from keeping the law (Deut 9:5; Isa 64:6). (2.) We have given unto us the Spirit of grace to help because we can do nothing good without it (Eph 2:5; Rom 8:26). (3.) God has put Christ’s righteousness upon us to cover our nakedness with because we have none of our own to do it withal (Phil 3:7, 8; Eze 16:8). (4.) God allowed us to ride in the bosom of Christ to the grave and from there in the bosom of angels to heaven because our own legs are not able to carry us there (Isa 40:11, 46:4; Psa 48:14; Luke 16:22). (5.) God has made his Son our Head, our Priest, our Advocate, our Saviour, and our Captain, that we may be delivered from all the infirmities and all the fiends that attend us and that plot to do us hurt (Eph 1:22; Col 1:18; Heb 7:21). (6.) God has put the fallen angels into chains (II Peter 2:4; Rev 20:1, 2), that they might not follow us too fast, and has enlarged us (Psa 4:1), directed our feet in the way of his steps, that we may haste us to the strong tower and city of refuge for succor and safety, and given good angels a charge to look to us (Heb 1:14; Psa 34:7). (7.) God has promised that we, at our counting days, shall be spared, “as a man spared his own son that served him” (Mal 3:17).

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Works of John Bunyan – The Greatness of The Soul, And Unspeakableness of the Loss Thereof; The Persons Interested In The Intercession Of Christ 198.

 

I will further suppose that which may be supposed and that which is suitable to our purpose. Suppose, therefore, that a Father has a child whom he loveth, but the child has not half that wit that some of the family had, and I am sure that we have less wit than angels; and suppose, also, that some bad-minded neighbor, by tampering with, tempting of, and by unwearied solicitations, should prevail with this child to steal something out of his father’s house or grounds, and give it unto him; and this he doth on purpose to set the Father against the child; and suppose, again, that it comes to the father’s knowledge that the child, through the allurements of such a one, has done so and so against his Father; will he, therefore, disinherit this child? Yea, suppose, again, that he who tempted this child to steal should be the first to accuse this child to its Father for so doing. Would the Father take notice of the accusation of such a one?-No, verily, we that are evil can do better than so; how then should we think that the God of heaven should do such a thing, since also we have a wise brother, and that will and can plead the very malice of our enemy that doth to us all these things against him for our advantage? I say this is the sum of this fifth plea of Christ, our Advocate, against Satan. O Satan, says he, thou art an enemy to my people; thou plead not out of love for righteousness, not to reform, but to destroy my beloved and my inheritance. The charge with which you charge my people is your own (Job 8:4-6). Not only as a matter of charge, but the things that you accuse them of are thine, thine in nature. Also, thou hast tempted, allured, flattered, and daily labored with them to do that for which now thou so willingly would have them destroyed. Yea, all this hast thou done of envy to my Father and to godliness; of hatred to me and my people; and that you might destroy others besides (I Chron 21:1). And now, what can this accuser say? Can he excuse himself? Can he contradict our Advocate? He cannot; he knows that he is a Satan, an enemy, and as an adversary has he sown his tares among the wheat, that it might be rooted up; but he shall not have his end; his malice has prevented him, and so has the care and grace of our Advocate. The tares, therefore, he shall have returned unto him again; but the wheat, for all this, shall be gathered into God’s barn (Matt 13:25–30).

Thus, therefore, our Advocate makes use, in his plea against Satan, of the rage and malice that are the occasion of the enemy’s charge, wherewith he accuses the children of God. Therefore, when you read these words, “O Satan,” say to yourself, thus Christ our Advocate accuses our adversary of malice and envy against God and goodness. At the same time, he accused us of the sins we commit, for which we are sorry, and Christ has paid a price of redemption: “And if any man sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” But,

6. Christ, when he pleads as an Advocate for his people, in the presence of God, against Satan, can plead those very weaknesses of his people, for which Satan would have them damned, for their relief and advantage. “Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?” This is part of the plea of our Advocate against Satan for his servant Joshua, when he said, “The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan” (Zech 3:2). Now, to be a brand plucked out of the fire is to be a saint, impaired, weakened, defiled, and made imperfect by sin; for so also the apostle means when he says, “And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh” (Jude 23). By fire, in both these places, we are to understand sin; for that it burns and consumes as fire (Rom 1:27). Therefore, a man is said to burn when his lusts are strong upon him and to burn in lusts for others when his wicked heart runs wickedly after them (I Cor 7:9).

Also, when Abraham said, “I am but dust and ashes” (Gen 18:27), he meant he was but what sin had left; yes, he had something of the smutch and besmearing of sin yet upon him. Wherefore it was a custom with Israel, in days of old, when they set days apart for confession of sin and humiliation for the same, to sprinkle themselves with or to wallow in dust and ashes, as a token that they did confess they were but what sin had left, and that they also were defiled, weakened, and polluted by it (Esth 4:1,3; Jer 6:26; Job 30:19, 42:6).

Works of John Bunyan – The Greatness of The Soul, And Unspeakableness of the Loss Thereof; The Persons Interested In The Intercession Of Christ 197.

 

5. As Christ, as Advocate, plead for us, against Satan, his Father’s interest in us, and his own, and plead also what right he has to dispose of the kingdom of heaven; so he pleaded against this enemy, that malice and enmity that is in him, and upon which chiefly his charge against us is grounded, to the confusion of his face. This is evident from the title that our Advocate bestows upon him, while he pleads for us against him: “The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan, O enemy,” saith he, for Satan is an enemy, and this name given him signifies so much. And lawyers, in their pleas, can make a great matter of such a circumstance as this, saying, My Lord, we can prove that what is now pleaded against the prisoner at the bar is of mere malice and hatred, that has also a long time lain burning and raging in his enemy’s breast against him. I say this will greatly weaken an enemy’s plea and accusation. But, says Jesus Christ, “Father, here is a plea brought in against my Joshua that clothes him with filthy garments, but it is brought in against him by an enemy, by an enemy in the superlative or highest degree. 

One that hates goodness worse than he, and that loveth wickedness more than the man against whom at this time he has brought such a heinous charge.” Then, leaving with the Father the value of his blood for the accused, he turned him to the accuser and pleaded against him as an enemy: “O Satan, thou that accuses my spouse, my love, my members, art Satan, an enemy.” But it will be argued that the things charged are true. Grant it, yet what law takes notice of the plea of one who professedly acts as an enemy? because it is not done out of love for truth, justice, and righteousness, nor intended for the honor of the king, nor for the good of the prosecuted, but to gratify malice and rage, and merely to kill and destroy. There is, therefore, a great deal of force and strength in an Advocate’s pleading of such a circumstance against an accuser, especially when the crimes now charged are those and only those for which the law, in the due execution of it, has been satisfied before; therefore, a lawyer now has double and treble ground or matter to plead for his client against his enemy. And this advantage against him comes from Jesus Christ.

Besides, it is well known that Satan, as to us, is the original cause of those very crimes for which he accuses us at the bar of God’s tribunal. Not to say anything about how he comes to us, solicits us, tempts us, flatters us, and always, in a manner, lies at us to do those wicked things for which he so hotly pursues us to the bar of the judgment of God. For though it is not meet for us thus to plead—to wit, laying that fault upon Satan, but rather upon ourselves—yet our advocate will do it and make work of it before God. “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he might sift you as wheat; but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fails not” (Luke 22:31–32). He maketh here mention of Satan’s desires, by way of advantage against him, and, doubtless, so he did in his prayer with God for Peter’s preservation. And what he did here, while on earth, as a Saviour in general, that he doth now in heaven as a Priest and an Advocate in particular.

Works of John Bunyan – The Greatness of The Soul, And Unspeakableness of the Loss Thereof; The Persons Interested In The Intercession Of Christ 196

 

(b.) As they are called his spouse, so they are called his flesh and members of his body. Now, said Paul to the church, “Ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular” (I Cor 12:27; Eph 5:30). This relationship also makes a man plead hard. If a man were to plead for a limb or a member of his own, how would he plead? What arguments would he use? And what sympathy and feelings would his arguments flow from? I cannot lose a hand, I cannot lose a foot, I cannot lose a finger; why, saints are Christ’s members; his members are of himself. With what strength of argument would a man plead the necessaries of his members to him and the unnaturalness of his adversary in seeking the destruction of his members and the deformity of his body? Yea, a man would shuck and cringe and weep and entreat and make demurs, halts, and delays for a thousand years, if possible, before he would lose his members or any one of them.

But, I say, how would he plead and advocate it for his members if judge, law, reason, and equity were all on his side, and if, by the adversary, there could be nothing urged but that against which the Advocate had long before made provision for the effectual overthrow thereof? And all this is true as to the case that lies before us. Thus we see what strength there is in this second argument that our Advocate brings for us against the enemy. They are his flesh and bones, his members; he cannot spare them; he cannot spare this, nor that, nor any, because they are his members. As such, they are lovely to him; as such, they are useful to him; as such, they are an ornament to him; yea, though in themselves they are feeble and, through infirmity, weak, much disabled from doing as they should. Thus, “If any man sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” But,

4. As Christ, as Advocate, pleads for us against Satan, his Father’s interest in us and his own, so he pleaded against him that right and property that he hath in heaven, to give it to whom he will. He has a right to heaven as Priest and King; it is also his by inheritance; and since he will be so good a benefactor as to bestow this house on somebody, but not for their deserts, but not for their goodness, and since, again, he has to that end spilled his blood for, and taken a generation into covenant relation to him, that it might be bestowed on them; it shall be bestowed on them; and he will plead this if there be a need if his people sin, and if their accuser seeks, by their sin, their ruin and destruction: “Father,” saith he, “I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me” (John 17:24). Christ’s will is the will of heaven, the will of God. Shall not Christ, then, prevail?

“I will,” saith Christ; “I will,” saith Satan; but whose will shall stand? Christ in the text indeed speaks more like an arbitrator than an Advocate; more like a judge than one pleading at a bar. I will have it so; I judge that it ought to be and must be. But there is also something of plea in the words both before his Father and against our enemy, and therefore he speaks like one that can plead and determine also; yea, like one that has power so to do. But shall the will of heaven stoop to the will of hell? Or the will of Christ to the will of Satan? Or the will of righteousness to the will of sin? Shall Satan, who is God’s enemy, and whose charge wherewith he charged us for sin, and which is grounded, not upon love to righteousness, but upon malice against God’s designs of mercy, against the blood of Christ, and the salvation of his people-I say, shall this enemy and this charge prevail with God against the well-grounded plea of Christ, and against the salvation of God’s elect, and so keep us out of heaven? No, no; Christ will have it otherwise; he is the great donator, and his eye is good. True, Satan was turned out of heaven for that he sinned there, and we must be taken into heaven, though we have sinned here; this is the will of Christ, and, as Advocate, he pleads it against the face and accusation of our adversary. Thus, “If any man sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” But,

Works of John Bunyan – The Greatness of The Soul, And Unspeakableness of the Loss Thereof; The Persons Interested In The Intercession Of Christ 195

 

1. They are mine; therefore, in reason at my disposal, not at the disposal of an adversary; for while a thing can properly be called mine, no man has in addition to that to do but myself; nor doth a man nor Christ close his right to what he has by the weakness of that thing, which is his proper right. He, therefore, as an Advocate, pleaded interest, his own interest, in his people, and right must, with the Judge of all the earth, take place: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” (Gen 18:25).

2. They cost him dear, and that which is dearly bought is not easily parted with (I Cor. 6:20). They were bought with “his blood” (Eph 1:7; I Peter 1:18–19). They were given him for his blood and therefore are “dear children” (Eph 5:1), for they are his by the highest price, and at this price he, as Advocate, pleaded against the enemy of our salvation; yea, I will add, they are his because he gave his all for them (II Cor 8:9). When a man shall give his all for this or that, then that which he so hath purchased becomes his all. Now Christ has given his all for us; he made himself poor for us, wherefore we are become his all, his fullness; and so the church is called (Eph 1:23). Further, Christ likes well enough his purchase, though it has cost him his all. The lines,” says he, “are fallen to me in pleasant places; I have a goodly heritage” (Psa 16:6). Now, put all these things together, and there is a strong plea in them. Such an interest will not be easily parted with. But this is not all; for

3. As they cost him dear, he has made them near to himself by way of a relationship. Now that which did not only cost dear but that by way of relation is made so, that a man will plead heartily for. Said David to Abner, “Thou shalt not see my face, except thou first bring Michal, Saul’s daughter, when thou comes to see my face” (II Sam 3:13,14). Saul’s daughter cost me dear; I bought her with the jeopardy of my life. Saul’s daughter is near me; she is my beloved wife. He pleaded hard for her because she was dear and near him. Now, I say, the same is true in Christ; his people cost him dear, and he hath made them near unto him; therefore, to plead interest in them is to hold by a strong argument. (a.) They are his spouse, and he has made them so; they are his love, dove, and darling, and he accounts them so. Now, should a wretch attempt, in open court, to take a man’s wife away from him, how would this cause the man to plead? Yea, and what judge is just and knows that the man has this interest in the woman pleaded for, would yield to, or give a verdict for the wretch against the man whose wife the woman is? Thus Christ, in pleading interest—in pleading “You gave them to me”—pleads with a strong argument, an argument that the enemy cannot invalidate. True, were Christ to plead this before Saul (I Sam 25:44) or before Samson’s wife’s father, the Philistine (Judge 14:20), perhaps such treacherous judges would give it against all rights. But, I have told you, the court in which Christ pleads is the highest and the justest, and that from which there can be no appeal; therefore, Christ’s cause, and so the cause of the children of God, must be tried before their Father, from whose face, to be sure, just judgment shall proceed. But:

Works of John Bunyan – The Greatness of The Soul, And Unspeakableness of the Loss Thereof; The Persons Interested In The Intercession Of Christ, 194

 

Third. As Christ, as Advocate, pleads against Satan the interest that his Father hath in his chosen, so also he pleads against him by no less authority—his own interest in them. “Holy Father,” said he, “keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me” (John 17:11). Keep them while in the world from the evil, the soul-damning evil of it. These words are directed to the Father, but they are leveled against the accusations of the enemy and were spoken here to show what Christ will do for himself, against our foe, when he is above. How I say, he will urge before his Father his own interest in us against Satan and against all his accusations when he brings them to the bar of God’s tribunal, with the design to work our utter ruin. And is there not a great deal in it? As if Christ should say, Father, my people have an adversary who will accuse them for their faults before thee; but I will be their Advocate, and as I have bought them of thee, I will plead my right against him (John 10:28). Our English proverb is, Interest will not lie; interest will make a man do that which otherwise he would not. How many thousands are there for whom Christ does not so much as once open his mouth but leaves them to the accusations of Satan and to Ahab’s judgment, or worse, because there is none to plead their cause? And why does he not concern himself with them? but because he is not interested in them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me, for they are thine; and all mine are thine, and I am glorified in them” (John 17:9, 10).

Suppose there are so many cattle in such a pound, and one goes by whose they are not; does he concern himself? No; he beholds them and goes his way. But suppose that at his return he should find his own cattle in that pound, would he now carry it toward them as he did unto the other? No, no; he has an interest here; they are his that are in the pound; now he is concerned, now he must know who put them there and for what cause too they are served as they are; and if he finds them rightfully there, he will fetch them by ransom; but if wrongfully, he will replevy them and stand a trial at law with him that has thus illegally pounded his cattle. And thus it is between Jesus Christ and his. He is interested in them; the cattle are his own, “his own sheep” (John 10:3,4), but pounded by some others, by the law, or by the devil. If pounded by the law, he delivered them by ransom; if pounded by the devil, he will replevy them, stand a trial at law for them, and will be, against their accuser, their Advocate himself. Nor can Satan withstand his plea, though he should against them join argument with the law; forasmuch, as has been proven before, he can and will, by what he has to produce and plead of his own, save him from all trespasses, charges, and accusations. Besides, all men know that a man’s proper goods are not therefore forfeited because he commits many and too great transgressions. And if any man sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” Now, the strength of this plea thus grounded upon Christ’s interest in his people is great, and had many weighty reasons on its side; such as:

Works of John Bunyan – The Greatness of The Soul, And Unspeakableness of the Loss Thereof; The Persons Interested In The Intercession Of Christ, 193.

 

by Thomas Sadler, oil on canvas, 1684

(1.) Election is eternal as God himself, and so without variableness or shadow of change, and hence it is called "an eternal purpose" and a "purpose of God" that must stand (Eph 3:11; Rom 9:11). (2.) Election is absolute, not conditional, and, therefore, cannot be overthrown by the sin of the man that is wrapped up therein. No works foreseen to be in us were the cause of God's choosing us; no sin in us shall frustrate or make the election void. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies" (Rom 8:33; 9:11). (3.) By the act of election the children are involved, wrapped up, and covered in Christ; he hath chosen us in him; not in ourselves, not in our virtues, no, not for or because of anything, but of his own will (Eph 1:4-11). (4.) Election included in it a permanent resolution of God to glorify his mercy on the vessels of mercy, thus foreordained unto glory (Rom 9:15,18,23). (5.) By electing love, it is concluded that all things shall work together for the good of them whose call to God is the fruit of this purpose, this eternal purpose of God (Rom 8:28-30). (6.) The eternal inheritance is by a covenant of free and unchangeable grace made over to those thus chosen; and to secure them from the fruits of sin, and from the malice of Satan, it is sealed by this our Advocate's blood, as he is Mediator of this covenant, who also is become surety to God for them; to wit, to see them forthcoming at the great day, and to set them then safe and sound before his Father's face after the judgment is over (Rom 9:23; Heb 7:22; 9:15,17-24; 13:20; John 10:28,29). (7.) By this choice, purpose, and decree, the elect, the concerned therein, have allotted them by God, and laid up for them, in Christ, the sufficiency of grace to bring them through all difficulties to glory; yea, and they, every one of them, after the first act of faith-the which also they shall certainly attain, because wrapped up in the promise for them-are to receive the earnest and first-fruits thereof into their souls (II Tim 1:9; Acts 14:22; Eph 1:4,5,13,14).

Now, put all these things together, and then feel if there be no weight in this plea of Christ against the devil. He pleads God's choice and interest in his saints against his interest that is secured by the wisdom of heaven, by the grace of heaven, by the power, will, and mercy of God, in Christ-an interest in which all the three Persons in the Godhead have engaged themselves, by mutual agreement and operation, to make good when Satan has done his all. I know some object against this doctrine as false; but such, perhaps, are ignorant of some things else. However, they object against the wisdom of God, whose truth it is, and against Christ our Advocate, whose argument, as he is such, it is; yea, they labor, what in them lieth, to wrest that weapon out of his hand, with which he so cudgeled the enemy when, as Advocate, he pleaded so effectually against him for the rescuing of us from the danger of judgment, saying, "The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan, even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem, rebuke thee."

Works of John Bunyan – The Greatness of The Soul, And Unspeakableness of the Loss Thereof; The Persons Interested In The Intercession Of Christ, 192.

 

2. God’s interest in these people, and pray that God will remember that: “The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan; the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem, rebuke thee.” True, the church, the saints, are despicable in the world; wherefore men do think to tread them down; the saints are, also, weak in grace, but have strong corruptions, and, therefore, Satan, the god of this world, doth think to tread them down; but the saints have a God, the living, the eternal God, and, therefore, they shall not be trodden down; yea, they “shall be held up, for God can make them stand” (Rom 14:4).

It was Haman’s mishap to be engaged against the queen and the kindred of the queen; it was that that made him he could not prosper; that brought him to contempt and the gallows. Had he sought to ruin other people, probably he might have brought his design to a desired conclusion, but his compassing the death of the queen spoiled all. Satan, also, when he fighteth against the church, must be sure to come to the worst, for God has a concern in that; therefore, it is said, “The gates of hell shall not prevail against it,” but this hindereth not, but that he is permitted to make almost what spoils his will of those that do not belong to God. Oh, how many doth he accuse, and soon get out from God, against them, a license to destroy them! as he served Ahab, and many more. But I say this is a great block in his way when he meddles with the children; God has an interest in them. Has God cast away his people? God forbid!” (Rom 11:1,2). The text intimates that they, for sin, had deserved it and that Satan would fain have had it been so, but God’s interest in them preserved them: God hath not cast away his people, which he foreknew.” Therefore, when Satan accuses them before God, Christ, as he pleaded for his own worth and merit, pleaded also against him for the interest that God has in them.

And though this, to some, may seem an indifferent plea, for what engagement lieth, may they say, upon God to be so much concerned with them, for they sin against him and often provoke him most bitterly? Besides, in their best state, they are altogether vanity and a very thing of naught: What is man (sorry, man), that thou art mindful of him,” or that thou shouldest be so?

I answer, Though there lieth no engagement upon God for any worthiness in man, yet there lieth a great deal upon God for the worthiness in himself. God has engaged himself with his having chosen them to be a people to himself, and by this means they are so secured from all that all can do against them that the apostle is bold, upon this very account, to challenge all despite doing its worst against them, saying, “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect?” (Rom 8:33). Who? saith Satan; why, that will I. Ay, saith he, but who can do it and prevail? “It is God that justifies; who is he that condemns?” (ver. 34). In these words, the apostle clearly declares that charges against the elect, though they may be brought against them, must prove ineffectual as to their condemnation because their Lord God still will justify it, for that Christ has died for them. Besides, a little to enlarge, the elect are bound to God by a sevenfold cord, and a threefold one is not quickly broken.

Works of John Bunyan – The Greatness of The Soul, And Unspeakableness of the Loss Thereof; The Persons Interested In The Intercession Of Christ 191

 

by Thomas Sadler, oil on canvas, 1684

1. He pleads against him the well-pleasedness that his Father has in his merits, saying, This shall please the Lord, or this doth or will please the Lord, better than anything that can be propounded (Psa 69:31). Now that this plea is true, as it is established upon the liking of God Almighty, whatever Satan can say to obtain our everlasting destruction is without ground and so unreasonable. "I am well pleased," saith God (Matt 3:17), and again, "The Lord is well pleased for his (Christ's) righteousness' sake" (Isa 42:21). All those who take actions against others pretend that wrong is done, either against themselves or against the king. Now Satan will never enter an action against us in the court above, for that wrong by us has been done to himself; he must pretend, then, that he sues us, for that wrong has, by us, been done to our king. But, behold, "We have an Advocate with the Father," and he has made compensation for our offenses. He gave himself for our offenses. But still, Satan maintains his suit, and our God, saith Christ, is well pleased with us for this compensation's sake, yet he will not leave off his clamor. Come, then, says the Lord Jesus, the contention is not now against my people but against myself and about the sufficiency of the amends that I have made for the transgressions of my people; but he is near that justifies me, that approves and accepts of my doings; therefore, shall I not be confounded? Who is my adversary?

 Let him come near me! Behold, "the Lord God will help me" (Isa 50:7-9). Who is he who condemns me? Lo, they all shall, were there ten thousand times as many more of them, wax old as a garment; the moth shall eat them up. Wherefore, if the Father saith Amen to all this, as I have shown already that he hath and doth, the which also further appeareth, because the Lord God has called him the Saviour, the Deliverer, and the Amen; what follows, but that a rebuke should proceed from the throne against him? And this, indeed, our Advocate calls for from the hand of his Father, saying, O enemy, "the Lord rebuke thee"; yea, he doubles this request to the judge, to intimate his earnestness for such a conclusion, or to show that the enemy shall surely have it, both from our Advocate and from him before whom Satan has so grievously accused us (Zech 3).

For what can be expected to follow from such an issue in law as this is, but sound and severe snibs from the judge upon him that hath thus troubled his neighbor, and that hath, in the face of the country, cast contempt upon the highest act of mercy, justice, and righteousness, that ever the heavens beheld? And all this is true regarding the case in hand, wherefore, "The Lord rebuke thee," is that which, in conclusion, Satan must have for the reward of his works of malice against the children and for his contemplation of the works of the Son of God. Now, our Advocate having thus established, by the law of heaven, his plea with God for us against our accuser, there is a way made for him to proceed upon a foundation that cannot be shaken; therefore, he proceeded in his plea and further urges against this accuser of the brethren.

Works of John Bunyan – The Greatness of The Soul, And Unspeakableness of the Loss Thereof; The Persons Interested In The Intercession Of Christ 190.

 

by Thomas Sadler, oil on canvas, 1684

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? 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 there are many there who cannot abide in 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 were lawful thus to speak, I would 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 lies in 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. Now, then, I advise thee that hast a mind to come to God by Christ that thou seek the knowledge of God—' If thou seekest wisdom as silver, and searchest 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 you yet further, he is so desirous of communion with men that he pardons sins for that. Hence, he is called not only loving but also loving. '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. Therefore, let the glory, love, bliss, and eternal happiness in God allure you 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)