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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Works of John Bunyan: The Greatness of The Soul And Unspeakableness of the Loss Thereof; Why The Justified Need An Intercessor 210.

 

And he that is well acquainted with himself will do this readily; though light heads, and such as are not acquainted with the desperate evil that is in their natures, will sacrifice to their own net. But such will, so sacrifice for a while. Sir Death is coming, and he will put them into the view of what they see not now and will feed sweetly upon them because they did not trust the Lord. And therefore, ascribe thou the glory of preserving thy soul in the faith hitherto to that salvation which Christ Jesus, our Lord, obtained for you by his intercession.

7. Are those already justified by the blood of Christ, such as those who still need to be saved by his intercession? Then is this also to be inferred from hence, that saints should look to him for that saving that they shall yet need betwixt this and the day of their dissolution; yea, from henceforward, even to the day of judgment. I say they should still look to him for the remaining part of their salvation, or for that of their salvation which is yet behind; and let them look for it with confidence, for that it is in a faithful hand; and for thy encouragement to look and hope for the completion of thy salvation in glory, let me present thee with a few things—

(1.) The hardest or worst part of the work of thy Saviour is over; his bloody work, his bearing of thy sin and curse, his loss of the light of his Father’s face for a time; his dying upon the cursed tree, that was the worst, the sorest, the hardest, and most difficult part of the work of redemption; and yet this he did willingly, cheerfully, and without thy desires; yea, this he did, as considering those for whom he did it in a state of rebellion and enmity to him.

(2.) Consider, also, that he has made a beginning with thy soul to reconcile thee to God, and to that end has bestowed his justice upon thee, put his Spirit within thee, and began to make the unwieldable mountain and rock, thy heart, to turn towards him and desire after him; to believe in him and rejoice in him.

(3.) Consider, also, that some comfortable pledges of his love thou hast already received, namely, as to feel the sweetness of his love, as to see the light of his countenance, as to be made to know his power in the raising of thee when thou was down, and how he has made thee stand, while hell has been pushing at thee, utterly to overthrow thee.

(4.) Thou mayest consider, also, that what remains behind the work of thy salvation is in his hands, as it is the easiest part, so the most comfortable, and that part which will more immediately issue in his glory, and therefore he will mind it.

(5.) That which is behind is also safer in his hand than if it were in thine own; he is wise, he is powerful, he is faithful, and therefore will manage that part that is lacking to our salvation well until he has completed it. His love for thee has made him say that ‘he putteth no trust in thee’; he knows that he can himself bring thee to his kingdom most surely; and therefore he has not left that work to thee, no, not any part thereof. (Job 5:18, 15:15)

Live in hope, then, in a lively hope, that since Christ is risen from the dead, he lives to make intercession for thee, and that thou shalt reap the blessed benefit of this twofold salvation that is wrought, and that is working out for thee, by Jesus Christ our Lord. And thus have we been treated to the benefit of his intercession, in that he can save to the uttermost. And this leads me to the third particular.

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Works of John Bunyan: The Greatness of The Soul And Unspeakableness of the Loss Thereof; Why The Justified Need An Intercessor, 209.

 

5. Are those who are already justified by the blood of Christ yet, such as those who need to be saved by his intercession? Then, hence, I infer that Christ is not only the beginner but the completer of our salvation; or, as the Holy Ghost calls him, ‘the author and finisher of our faith,’ (Heb 12:2); or, as it calls him again, ‘the author of eternal salvation.’ (Heb 5:9) Of salvation throughout, from the beginning to the end, from first to last. His hands have laid the foundation of it in his own blood, and his hands shall finish it by his intercession. (Zech 4:9) As he has laid the beginning fast, so he shall bring forth the headstones with shoutings, and we shall cry. Grace, grace, at last, salvation only belongs to the Lord. (Zech 4:7, Psa 3:8, Isa 43:11)

Many there be that begin with grace, and end with works, and think THAT is the only way. Indeed works will save from temporal punishments, when their imperfections are purged from them by the intercession of Christ; but to be saved and brought to glory, to be carried through this dangerous world, from my first moving after Christ till I set my foot within the gates of paradise, this is the work of my Mediator, of my high priest and intercessor; it is he that fetches us again when we are run away; it is he that lifted us up when the devil and sin have thrown us down; it is he that quickened us when we grow cold; it is he that comforted us when we despair; it is he that obtains fresh pardon when we have contracted sin; and he that purges our consciences when they are loaden with guilt. (Eze 34:16, Psa 145:14)

I know also that rewards do wait for those in heaven who do believe in Christ and shall do well on earth, but this is not a reward of merit, but of grace. We are saved by Christ; brought to glory by Christ; and all our works are no otherwise made acceptable to God but by the person and personal excellencies and works of Christ; therefore, whatever the jewels are, and the bracelets, and the pearls, that thou shalt be adorned with as a reward of service done to God in the world, for them thou must thank Christ, and, before all, confess that he was the meritorious cause thereof. (1 Peter 2:5, Heb 13:15) He saves us and saves our services too. (Rev 5:9-14) They would be all cast back as dung in our faces, were they not rinsed and washed in the blood, were they not sweetened and perfumed in the incense, and conveyed to God himself through the white hand of Jesus Christ; for that is his golden-censer; from thence ascends the smoke that is in the nostrils of God of such a sweet savor. (Rev 77:12–14 8:3,4)

6. Are those already justified by the blood of Christ, such as those who still need to be saved by his intercession? Then hence I infer again, that we that have been saved hitherto, and preserved from the dangers that we have met with since our first conversion to this moment, should ascribe the glory to Jesus Christ, to God by Jesus Christ. ‘I have prayed that thy faith fail not: I pray that thou wouldest keep them from the evil,’ is the true cause of our standing, and of our continuing in the faith and holy profession of the gospel to this very day. Wherefore we must give the glory of all to God by Christ: ‘I will not trust in my bow,’ said David, ‘neither shall my sword save me. But thou hast saved us from our enemies and put them to shame that hated us. In God, we boast all day long and praise thy name forever. Selah’! ‘He always causeth us to triumph in Christ.’ ‘We rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.’ (Psa 44:6-8, 2 Cor 2:14, Phil 3:3) Thus you see that, both in the Old and New Testament, all the glory is given to the Lord, as well for preservation to heaven as for justification of life.

Works of John Bunyan: The Greatness of The Soul And Unspeakableness of the Loss Thereof; Why The Justified Need An Intercessor, 208.

 

3. Are those who are justified by the blood of Christ, such as those who, after that, need to be saved by Christ’s intercession? Then, hence, I infer that it is dangerous to go about anything in our own name and strength. If we would have help from the intercession of Christ, let us take care that we do what we do according to the word of Christ. Do what he bids us as well as we can, as he bids us, and then we need not doubt to have help and salvation in those duties by the intercession of Christ. ‘Do all,’ says the apostle, ‘in the name of the Lord Jesus.’ (Col 3:17) Oh, but then the devil and the world will be most of all offended! Well, well, but if you do nothing but as in his fear, by his Word, in his name, you may be sure of what help his intercession can afford you, and that can afford you much help, not only to begin but to go through with your work in some good measure, as you should; and by that also you shall be secured from those dangers, if not temptations to dangers, that those that go out about business in their own names and strength shall be sure to meet withal.

4. Are those that are justified by the blood of Christ such as, after that, need to be saved by Christ’s intercession? Then, hence I infer again, that God has a great dislike of the sins of his own people, and would fall upon them in judgment and anger much more severely than he doth, were it not for Christ’s intercession. The gospel is not, as some think, a loose and licentious doctrine, nor God’s discipline of his church a negligent and careless discipline; for, though those that believe already have also an intercessor, yet God, to show his detestation against sin, doth often make them feel to purpose the weight of his fingers. The sincere, that fain would walk oft with God, have felt what I say, and that to the breaking of their bones full oft. The loose ones, and those that God loves not, maybe utter strangers as to this; but those that are his own indeed do know it is otherwise.9

‘You only have I known’ above all others, says God, ‘therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.’ (Amos 3:2) God keeps a rigorous house among his children. David found it so, Haman found it so, Job found it so, and the church of God found it so; and I know not that his mind is ever the less against sin, notwithstanding we have an Intercessor. True, our Intercessor saves us from damning evils, from damning judgments; but he neither doth nor will secure us from temporal punishment, from spiritual punishment, unless we watch, deny ourselves, and walk in his fear. I would to God that those who are otherwise minded did but feel, for three or four months, something of what I have felt for several years together for base sinful thoughts! I wish it, I say, if it might be for their good, and for the better regulating of their understandings. But whether they obtain my wish or not, sure I am that God is no countenancer of sin; no, not in his own people; nay, he will bear it least of all in them. And as for others, however, he may for a while have patience towards them, if, perhaps, his goodness may lead them to repentance; yet the day is coming when he will pay the carnal and hypocrites’ home with devouring fire for their offenses.

But if our holy God will not let us go altogether unpunished, though we have so able and blessed an Intercessor, that has always to present God with, on our behalf, so valuable a price of his own blood, now before the throne of grace, what should we have done if there had been no day’s-man, none to plead for us, or to make intercession on our behalf? Read that text, ‘For I am with thee, saith the Lord, to save thee; though I make a full end of all nations whither I have scattered thee, yet will I not make a full end of thee; but I will correct thee in measure, and will not leave thee altogether unpunished.’ (Jer 30:11) If it be so, I say, what had become of us, if we had had no Intercessor? And what will become of them concerning whom the Lord has said, ‘I will not take up their names into my lips’? (Psa 16:4) ‘I pray not for the world.’ (John 17:9)

Works of John Bunyan: The Greatness of The Soul And Unspeakableness of the Loss Thereof; Why The Justified Need An Intercessor, 207.

 

Imperfect in their Duties.—Further, as Christ Jesus, our Lord, doth save us, by his intercession, from that hurt that would unavoidably come upon us by these, so also, by that, we are saved from the evil that is at any time found in any or all our holy duties and performances that is our duty daily to be found in. That our duties are imperfect, follows upon what was discoursed before; for if our graces be imperfect, how can our duties but be so too?

(1.) Our prayers, how imperfect are they! With how much unbelief are they mixed! How apt is our tongue to run, in prayer, before our hearts! With how much earnestness do our lips move, while our hearts lie within as cold as a clod! Yea, and oftentimes, it is to be feared, we ask for that without mouth that we care not whether we have or not. Where is the man that pursues with all his might what but now he seemed to ask for with all his heart? Prayer has become a shell, a piece of formality, a very empty thing, as to the spirit and life of prayer on this day. I speak now of the prayers of the godly. I once met with a poor woman who, in the greatest of her distresses, told me she used to rise in the night, in cold weather, and pray to God, while she sweats with fears of the loss of her prayers and desires that her soul might be saved. I have heard of many who have played, but of few that have prayed, till they have sweat because they wrestle with God for mercy in that duty.

(2.) There is the duty of almsgiving, another gospel performance; but how poorly is it done in our days! We have so many foolish ways to lay out money, in toys and fools' baubles for our children, that we can spare none, or very little, for the relief of the poor. Also, do not many give that to their dogs, yea, let it lie in their houses until it stinks so vilely that neither dog nor cat will eat it; which, had it been bestowed well in time, might have been succor and nourishment to some poor member of Christ?

(3.) There is hearing of the Word; but, alas! the place of hearing is the place of sleeping with many a fine professor. I have often observed that those who keep shops can briskly attend to a two-penny customer; but when they come themselves to God's market, they spend their time too much in letting their thoughts wander from God's commandments, or in a nasty drowsy way. The heads, also, and hearts of most hearers are to the Word as the sieve is to water; they can hold no sermons, remember no texts, bring home no proofs, and produce none of the sermons to the edification and profit of others. And do not the best take up too much in hearing, and mind too little what, by the Word, God calls for at their hands, to perform it with a good conscience?

(4.) There is faithfulness in callings, faithfulness to brethren, faithfulness to the world, faithfulness to children, to servants, to all, according to our place and capacity. Oh! how little of it is there found in the mouths and lives, to speak nothing of the hearts, of professors.

I will proceed no further in this kind of repetition of things; only thus much give me leave to say over again, even many of the truly godly are very faulty here. But what would they do if there were not one always at the right hand of God, by intercession, taking away these kinds of iniquities?

2. Are those that are justified by the blood of Christ such, after that, as have need also of saving by Christ's intercession? From hence, then, we may infer, that as sin, so Satan will not give over from assaulting the best of the saints.

It is not justification that can secure us from being assaulted by Satan: 'Simon, Simon, Satan has desired to have you.' (Luke 22:31,32) Two things do encourage the devil to set upon the people of God:—

(1.) He knows not who are elect; for all that profess are not, and, therefore, he will make trial, if he can get them into his sieve, whether he can cause them to perish. And great success he hath had this way. Many a brave professor has he overcome; he has cast some of the stars from heaven to earth; he picked one out from among the apostles, and one, as it is thought, from among the seven deacons,8 and many from among Christ's disciples; but how many, think you, nowadays, doth he utterly destroy with his net?

(2.) If it so happened that he cannot destroy, because Christ, by his intercession, prevailed, yet will he set upon the church to defile and afflict it. For (a), If he can but get us to fall, with Peter, then he has obtained that dishonor be brought to God, the weak to be stumbled, the world offended, and the gospel vilified and reproached. Or (b), If he cannot throw up our heels, yet, by buffeting us, he can grieve us, afflict us, put us to pain, fright us, drive us to many doubts, and make our life very uncomfortable unto us, and make us go groaning to our Father's house. But blessed be God for his Christ, and for that 'he ever lived to make intercession for us.'

Works of John Bunyan: The Greatness of The Soul And Unspeakableness of the Loss Thereof; Why The Justified Need An Intercessor, 206.

 

And this is the reason, or one reason, why those that are justified need an intercessor—to wit, to save us from the evil of the sin that remains in our flesh after we are justified by grace through Christ and set free from the law as to condemnation. Therefore, as it is said, we are saved; so it is said, ‘He is able also to save them to the uttermost that comes unto God by him, seeing he ever lived intercession for them.’ The godly, for now, we will call them the godly, though there is yet abundance of sin in them. They feel in themselves many things even after justification by which they are convinced they are still attended with personal, sinful imperfections.

Imperfect in their feelings and inclinations.—(1.) They feel unbelief, fear, mistrust, doubting, desponding, murmurings, blasphemies, pride, lightness, foolishness, avarice, fleshly lusts, heartlessness to good, wicked desires, low thoughts of Christ, too good thoughts of sin, and, at times, too great an itching after the worst of immoralities.

(2.) They feel in themselves an aptness to incline to errors, as to lean to the works of the law for justification; to question the truth of the resurrection and judgment to come; to dissemble and play the hypocrite in the profession, and in performance of duties; to do religious duties rather to please man than God, who tries the heart.

(3.) They feel an inclination in them, in times of trial, to faint under the cross, to seek too much to save themselves, to dissemble the known truth for the obtaining a little favor with men, and to speak things that they ought not, that they may sleep in a whole skin.

(4.) They feel wearisomeness in religious duties, but a natural propensity to things of the flesh. They feel the desire to go beyond bounds both at board, and bed, and bodily exercise and in all lawful recreation.

(5.) They feel in themselves an aptness to take advantage of using lawful things, such as food, raiment, sleep, talk, estates, relations, beauty, wit, parts, and graces, to unlawful ends. These things, with many more of the like kind, the justified man finds and feels in himself, to his humbling and often cast down; and to save him from the destroying evil of these, Christ ever lived to make intercession for him.

[Imperfect in their graces.]—Again; the justified man is imperfect in his graces, and therefore needed to be saved by the intercession of Christ from the bad fruit that that imperfection yields.

Justifying righteousness is accompanied by graces—the graces of the Spirit. Though these graces are not that matter by and through which we are justified, nor any part thereof, that being only the obedience of Christ imputed to us of mere pleasure and goodwill; but, I say, they come when justification comes. (Rom 9) And though they are not so easily discerned at the first, they show forth themselves afterward. But I say, how many soever they are, and how fast soever they grow, their utmost agreement here is but a state short of perfection. None of the graces of God’s Spirit in our hearts can do their work in us without shortness, and that is because of their own imperfections, and also because of the oppositions that they meet with from our flesh.

(1.) Faith, which is the root grace, the grand grace, its shortness is sufficiently manifest by its shortness of apprehension of things about the person, offices, relations, and works of Christ, now in the heavenly place for us. It is also very defective in its fetching of comfort from the Word to us, and in continuing of it with us, when at any time we attain unto it; in its receiving of strength to subdue sin, and in its purifying of the heart, though indeed it doth what it doth in reality, yet how short is it of doing of it thoroughly? Oftentimes, were it not for supplies by the intercession of Christ, faith would fail to perform its office in any measure. (Luke 22:31,32)

(2.) There is hope, another grace of the Spirit bestowed upon us; and how often is that also, as to the excellency of working, made to flag? ‘I shall perish,’ saith David; ‘I am cut off from before thine eyes,’ said he. (Psa 31:22) And now where was his hope, in the right gospel discovery of it? Also, all our fears of men, fears of death, and fears of judgment arise from the imperfections of hope. But from all those faults Christ saves us by his intercessions.

(3.) There is love, that should be in us as hot as fire. It is compared to fire, to fire of the hottest sort; yea, it is said to be hotter than the coals of juniper. (Cant 8:6,7) But who finds this heat in love so much as for one poor quarter of an hour together? Some little flashes, perhaps, some at some times may feel, but where is that constant burning of affection that the Word, the love of God, and the love of Christ call for? yea, and that the necessities of the poor and afflicted members of Christ call for also. Ah! love is cold in these frozen days, and short when it is at the highest.

(4.) The grace of humility, when is it? who has a thimbleful thereof? Where is he that is ‘clothed with humility,’ and that does what he is commanded ‘with all humility of mind’? (1 Peter 5:5, Acts 20:19)

(5.) For zeal, where is that also? Zeal for God against sin, profaneness, superstition, and idolatry. I speak now to the godly, who have this zeal in the root and habit; but oh, how little of it puts forth itself into actions in such a day as this is!

(6.) There is reverence, fear, and standing in awe of God’s Word and judgments, where are the excellent workings thereof to be found? And where it is most, how far short of perfect acts is it?

(7.) Simplicity and godly sincerity also, with how much dirt is it mixed in the best; especially among those of the rich saints, who have got the poor and beggarly art of complimenting? The more compliments, the less sincerity. Many words will not fill a bushel. But ‘in the multitude of words, there wanted not sin.’ (Prov 10:19) Plain men are thin come up in this day; to find a mouth without fraud and deceit now is a rare thing. Thus might one count up all the graces of the Spirit, and show wherein every one of them is scanty and wanting of perfection. Now look, what they want of perfection is supplied with sin and vanity; for there is a fullness of sin and flesh at hand to make up all the vacant places in our souls. There is no place in the souls of the godly but it is filled up with darkness when the light is wanting, and with sin so far forth as grace is wanting. Satan, also, diligently waited to come in at the door, if Careless had left it a little achare. But, oh! the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who ever lived to make intercession for us, and that, by so doing, saves us from all the imperfect acts and workings of our graces, and from all the advantages that flesh, and sin, and Satan gutted upon us thereby.

Works of John Bunyan: The Greatness of The Soul And Unspeakableness of the Loss Thereof; Who Has Christ as An Advocate? 205.

 

(2.) Wouldst thou know whether Jesus Christ is your advocate? Then I ask again, Hast thou revealed thy cause unto him?-I say, Hast thou revealed thy cause unto him? For he that goes to law for his right must not only go to a lawyer and say, Sir, I am in trouble and am to have a trial at law with my enemy, pray to undertake my cause; but he must also reveal to his lawyer his cause. He must go to him and tell him what matters, how things stand, where the shoe pinches, and so on. Thus did the church of old, and thus doth every true Christian now; for though nothing can be hidden from him, yet he will have things out of thine own mouth; he will have thee to reveal thy matters unto him (Matt 20:32). “O Lord of hosts,” said Jeremiah, “that judges righteously, that tries the reins and the heart, let me see thy vengeance on them; for unto thee have I revealed my cause” (Jer 11:20). And again, “But, O Lord of hosts, that tries the righteous and sees the reins and the heart, let me see thy vengeance on them; for unto thee have I opened my cause” (Jer 20:12). Seest thou here, how saints of old were wont to do? How did they not only generally entreat Christ to plead their cause but, in a particular way, go to him and reveal or open their cause to him?

O! It is excellent to behold how some sinners will do this when they get Christ and themselves in a closet alone, when they, upon their bare knees, are pouring out of their souls before him, or, like the woman in the gospel, telling him all the truth (Mark 5). O! saith the soul, Lord, I have come to thee upon an earnest business; I am arrested by Satan; the bailiff was my own conscience, and I am like to be accused before the judgment seat of God. My salvation lies at stake; I am questioned for my interest in heaven; I am afraid of the judge; my heart condemns me (I John 3:20). My enemy is subtle and wanted not malice to prosecute me to death and then to hell. Also, Lord, I am sensible that the law is against me, for indeed I have horribly sinned, and thus and thus have I done. Here I lie open to law, and there I lie open to law; here I have given the adversary advantage, and there he will surely have a hand against me. Lord, I am distressed; undertake for me! And there are some things that you must be acquainted with about the Advocate before you venture to go thus far with him. (a.) Thou must know him to be a friend, and not an enemy, unto whom thou opens thy heart; and until thou comes to know that Christ is a friend to thee, or to souls in thy condition, thou wilt never reveal thy cause unto him, not thy whole cause unto him. And it is from this that so many that have soul causes hourly depending before the throne of God, and that are in danger every day of eternal damnation, forbear to entertain Jesus Christ for their Advocate, and so wickedly conceal their matters from him; but “he that hides his sins shall not prosper” (Prov 28:13)