[T]hat a person so great, so high, so glorious, as this Jesus Christ was, should have love for us, that passes knowledge. It is common for equals to love, and for superiors to be beloved; but for the King of princes, for the Son of God, for Jesus Christ to love man thus: this is amazing, and that so much the more, for that man the object of this love, is so low, so mean, so vile, so undeserving, and so inconsiderable, as by the scriptures, everywhere he is described to be. —John Bunyan, The Saints Knowledge of Christ’s Love
Category: John Bunyan
The Pilgrim: Whose Arms Do You Faith?
Do not thou conclude, that because thou canst not reach God by thy short stump, therefore he cannot reach thee with his long arm. —John Bunyan, The Saints’ Knowledge of Christ’s Love
The Pilgrim: He Opened their Minds to Understand (Luke 24:45)
Now, after the feast was over, Emmanuel was for entertaining the town of Mansoul with some curious riddles of secrets drawn up by his Father’s secretary, by the skill and wisdom of Shaddai: the like to these there is not in any kingdom. These riddles were made upon the King Shaddai himself, and upon Emmanuel his Son, and upon his wars and doings with Mansoul.
Emmanuel also expounded unto them some of those riddles himself; but, oh! how they were lightened! They saw what they never saw; they could not have thought that such rarities could have been couched in so few and such ordinary words. I told you before whom these riddles did concern; and as they were opened, the people did evidently see it was so. Yea, they did gather that the things themselves were a kind of a portraiture, and that of Emmanuel himself; for when they read in the scheme where the riddles were writ, and looked in the face of the Prince, things looked so like the one to the other, that Mansoul could not forbear but say, ‘This is the lamb! this is the sacrifice! this is the rock! this is the red cow! this is the door! and this is the way!’ with a great many other things more. —John Bunyan, The Holy War
The Pilgrim: Beholding is Becoming
Now, the ancients and elders of the town of Mansoul thought that they never should have enough of the Prince Emmanuel; his person, his actions, his words and behaviour, were so pleasing, so taking, so desirable to them. Wherefore they prayed him, that though the castle of Mansoul was his place of residence (and they desired that he might dwell there for ever), yet that he would often visit the streets, houses, and people of Mansoul. For, said they, dread Sovereign, thy presence, thy looks, thy smiles, thy words, are the life, and strength, and sinews of the town of Mansoul.
Besides this, they craved that they might have, without difficulty or interruption, continual access unto him (so for that very purpose he commanded that the gates should stand open), that they might there see the manner of his doings, the fortifications of the place, and the royal mansion-house of the Prince. When he spake, they all stopped their mouths and gave audience; and when he walked, it was their delight to imitate him in his goings. —John Bunyan, The Holy War
The Pilgrim: Romans 14:23
By this, therefore, you see the miserable state of the people that have not faith ‘Whatever they do, they sin’; if they break the law, they sin; if they endeavour to keep it, they sin; they sin, I say, upon a double account, first, because they do it but imperfectly; and, secondly, because they yet stay upon that, resisting that which is perfect, even that which God hath appointed. It mattereth not, as to justification from the curse, therefore, men wanting faith, whether they be civil or profane, they are such as stand accursed of the law, because they have not believed, and because they have given the lie to the truth, and to the God of truth. Let all men, therefore, that would please God make conscience of believing; on pain, I say, of displeasing him; on pain of being with Cain rejected, and on pain of being damned in hell. ‘He that believeth not shall be damned,’ Mark 16:16. Faith is the very quintessence of all gospel obedience, it being that which must go before other duties, and that which also must accompany whatever I do in the worship of God, if it be accepted of him. —John Bunyan, Justification by an Imputed Righteousness
The Pilgrim: “Why Study Christ?” “Why Study Anything Else?”
What other matters? What matters besides, above, or beyond the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ, and of our acceptance with God through him? What spirit, or doctrine, or wisdom soever it be that centers not in, that cometh not from, and that terminates not within, the bounds of the gospel of Jesus Christ, is not worthy the study of the sons of God; neither is it food for the faith of Jesus Christ (John 6:51); for that is the flesh of Christ (and that is eternal life.) Whither will you go? Beware of the spirit of Antichrist; for ‘many false spirits are gone out into the world.’ I told you before, that the Spirit of God is ‘the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Christ,’ Ephes. 1:17; John 14:15; 16; and that without and besides the Lord Jesus it discovereth nothing; it is sent to testify of him; it is sent to bring his words to our remembrance; it is sent to ‘take of his things and shew them unto us.’ Wherefore, never call that the Spirit of Jesus which leads you away from the blood and righteousness of Christ; that is but the spirit of delusion and of the devil, whose teachings end in perdition and destruction. Tempt not Christ as they of old did. But how did they tempt him? Why, in loathing the manna, which was the type of his flesh and blood, which we are to eat of by believing. I say, tempt him not, lest you be destroyed by the serpents, by the gnawing guilt of sin; for, take away Christ, and sin remains, and there is no more sacrifice for sin: if so, thou wilt be destroyed by the destroyer, Num. 21:5-7; 1 Cor. 10:10. —John Bunyan, Justification by an Imputed Righteousness
The Pilgrim: When Spiritual Steel Strikes Carnal Flint
‘The law is spiritual, I am carnal;’ therefore every imposition is rejected and rebelled against. Strike steel against flint, and the fire flies about you; strike the law against a carnal heart, and sin appears, sin multiplies, sin rageth, sin is strengthened! —John Bunyan, Justification by an Imputed Righteousness
The Pilgrim: Unfettered Faith
Faith, then, as separate from Christ, doth nothing; nothing neither with God nor man; because it wants its relative object, but let it go to the Lord Jesus; let it behold him as dying, &c., and it fetches righteousness, and life, and peace out of the virtue of his blood, &c., Acts 10:29, 31, 33; or rather, sees it there as sufficient for me to stand just thereby in the sight of Eternal Justice: “For him hath God set forth to be a propitiation through faith (belief) in his blood, with intent to justify him that believeth in Jesus,” Rom. 3:25, 26. —John Bunyan, Justification by an Imputed Righteousness
The Pilgrim: A Big Difference
[T]here is a difference betwixt growing worse and worse, and thy seeing more clearly how bad thou art. —John Bunyan, Come and Welcome to Jesus
The Pilgrim: Let God Give Like God
Thus, I say, doth the greatness of the things desired, quite dash and overthrow the mind of the desirer. O, it is too big! it is too big! it is too great a mercy! But, coming sinner, let me reason with thee. Thou sayest, it is too big, too great. Well, will things that are less satisfy thy soul? Will a less thing than heaven, than glory and eternal life, answer thy desires? No, nothing less; and yet I fear they are too big, and too good for me, ever to obtain. Well, as big and as good as they are, God giveth them to such as thou; they are not too big for God to give; no, not too big to give freely. Be content; let God give like himself; he is that eternal God, and giveth like himself. When kings give, they do not use to give as poor men do. Hence it is said, that Nabal made a feast in his house like the feast of a king; and again, “All these things did Araunah, as a king, give unto David” (1 Sam 25:36; 2 Sam 24:23). Now, God is a great king, let him give like a king; nay, let him give like himself, and do thou receive like thyself. He hath all, and thou hast nothing. —John Bunyan, Come and Welcome to Jesus
No Other Boast 