The Works of John Bunyan, vol 1 by John Bunyan (best book clubs txt) 📖

under heaven whereby we must be saved? I say again, why is it affirmed ‘without shedding of blood is no remission,’ if man’s good deeds can save him?

This doctrine, therefore, of the righteousness of Christ being rightly preached, and truly believed, arraigneth and condemneth man’s righteousness to hell; it casteth it out as Abraham cast out Ishmael. Blood, blood, the sound of blood, abaseth all the glory of it! When men have said all, and showed us what they can, they have no blood to present God’s justice with; yet it is blood that maketh an atonement for the soul, and nothing but blood can wash away from us our sins (Lev 17:11; Rev 1:5; Heb 9).

Justice calls for blood, sins call for blood, the righteous law calls for blood, yea, the devil himself must be overcome by blood.

Sinner, where is now thy righteousness? Bring it before a consuming fire, for our God is a consuming fire; bring it before the justice of the law; yea, try if aught but the blood of Christ can save thee from thy sins, and devils; try it, I say, by this doctrine; go not one step further before thou hast tried it.

Third. By this doctrine we are made to see the worth of souls. It cannot be but that the soul is of wonderful price, when the Son of God will not stick to spill his blood for it. O sinners, you that will venture your souls for a little pleasure, surely you know not the worth of your souls. Now, if you would know what your souls are worth, and the price which God sets them at, read that price by the blood of Christ. The blood of Christ was spilt to save souls.

‘For ye are bought with a price,’ and that price none other than the blood of Christ; ‘therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s (1 Cor 6:20). Sinners, you have souls, can you behold a crucified Christ, and not bleed, and not mourn, and not fall in love with him?

THE THIRD USE.

[THIRD.] By this doctrine sinners, as sinners, are encouraged to come to God for mercy, for the curse due to sin is taken out of the way. I speak now to sinners that are awake, and see themselves sinners.

There are two things in special when men begin to be awakened, that kill their thoughts of being saved. 1. A sense of sin. 2. The wages due thereto. These kill the heart; for who can bear up under the guilt of sin? ‘If our sins be upon us, and we pine away in them, how should we then live?’ (Eze 33:10). How indeed! it is impossible.

So neither can man grapple with the justice of God. ‘Can thine heart endure, or can thine hands be strong?’ They cannot (Eze 22:14).

‘A wounded spirit who can bear?’ (Prov 18:14). Men cannot, angels cannot. Wherefore, if now Christ be hid, and the blessing of faith in his blood denied, woe be to them; such go after Saul and Judas, one to the sword, and the other to the halter, and so miserably end their days; for come to God they dare not; the thoughts of that eternal Majesty strike them through.

But now, present such poor dejected sinners with a crucified Christ, and persuade them that the sins under which they shake and tremble were long ago laid upon the back of Christ, and the noise and sense and fear of damning begins to cease, depart, and fly away; dolors and terrors fade and vanish, and that soul conceiveth hopes of life; for thus the soul argueth, Is this indeed the truth of God, that Christ was made to be sin for me? was made the curse of God for me? Hath he indeed borne all my sins, and spilt his blood for my redemption! O Blessed tidings! O welcome grace! ‘Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name.’ Now is peace come; now the face of heaven is altered; ‘Behold, all things are become new.’ Now the sinner can abide God’s presence, yea, sees unutterable glory and beauty in him; for here he sees justice smite. While Jacob was afraid of Esau, how heavily did he drive even towards the promised land? but when killing thoughts were turned into kissing, and the fears of the sword’s point turned into brother embraces, what says he?—‘I have seen thy face as though it had been the face of God, and thou wast pleased with me’ (Gen 33:10).

So and far better is it with a poor distressed sinner at the revelation of the grace of God through Jesus Christ. ‘God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them.’ O what work will such a word make upon a wounded conscience, especially when the next words follow—‘For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him!’

Now, the soul sees qualifications able to set him quit in the sight of God; qualifications prepared already. Prepared, I say, already; and that by God through Christ; even such as can perfectly answer the law. What doth the law require? If obedience, here it is; if bloody sacrifice, here it is; if infinite righteousness, here it is! Now, then, the law condemns him that believes before God no more; for all its demands are answered, all its curses are swallowed up in the death and curse Christ underwent.

Object. But reason saith, since personal sin brought the death, surely personal obedience must bring us life and glory.

Answ. True reason saith so, and so doth the law itself (Rom 10:5); but God, we know, is above them both, and he in the covenant of grace saith otherwise; to wit, that ‘if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved’ (Rom 10:9).

Let reason, then, hold its tongue, yea, let the law with all its wisdom subject itself to him that made it; let it look for sin where God hath laid it; let it approve the righteousness which God approveth; yea, though it be not that of the law, but that by faith of Jesus Christ.

God hath made him our righteousness, God hath made him our sin, God hath made him our curse, God hath made him our blessing; methinks this word, ‘God hath made it so,’ should silence all the world.

THE FOURTH USE.

[FOURTH.] By this doctrine, sufficiency of argument is ministered to the tempted to withstand hereby the assaults of the devil.

When souls begin to seek after the Lord Jesus, then Satan begins to afflict and distress, as the Canaanites did the Gibeonites, for making peace with Joshua (Josh 10:1,6).

There are three things that do usually afflict the soul that is earnestly looking after Jesus Christ. First. Dreadful accusations from Satan. Second. Grievous defiling and infectious thoughts.

Third. A strange readiness in our nature to fall in with both.

First. By the first of these, the heart is made continually to tremble. Hence his temptations are compared to the roaring of a lion, for as the lion by roaring killeth the heart of his prey, so doth Satan kill the spirit of these that hearken to him (1 Peter 5:8); for when he tempteth, especially by way of accusation, he doth to us as Rabshakeh did to the Jews; he speaks to us in our own language; he speaks our sin at every word, our guilty conscience knows it; he speaks our death at every word, our doubting conscience feels it.

Second. Besides this, there doth now arise, even in the heart, such defiling and foul infectious thoughts that putteth the tempted to their wits’ end; for now it seems to the soul that the very floodgates of the flesh are opened, and that to sin there is no stop at all; now the air seems to be covered with darkness, and the man is as if he was changed into the nature of a devil; now if ignorance and unbelief prevail, he concludeth that he is a reprobate, made to be taken and destroyed.

Third. Now also he feeleth in him a readiness to fall in with every temptation; a readiness, I say, continually present (Rom 7:21). This throws all down. Now despair begins to swallow him up; now he can neither pray, nor read, nor hear, nor meditate on God, but fire and smoke continually bursteth forth of the heart against him. Now sin and great confusion puts forth itself in all; yea, the more the sinner desireth to do a duty sincerely, the further off it always find itself; for by how much the soul struggleth under these distresses, by so much the more doth Satan put forth himself to resist, still infusing more poison, that if possible it might never struggle more, for strugglings are also as poison to Satan. The fly in the spider’s web is an emblem of the soul in such a condition—the fly is entangled in the web; at this the spider shows himself; if the fly stir again, down comes the spider to her, and claps a foot upon her; if yet the fly makes a noise, then with poisoned mouth the spider lays hold upon her; if the fly struggle still, then he poisons her more and more. What shall the fly do now? Why, she dies, if somebody does not quickly release her. This is the case of the tempted; they are entangled in the web, their feet and wings are entangled; now Satan shows himself; if the soul now struggleth, Satan laboureth to hold it down; if it now shall make a noise, then he bites with blasphemous mouth, more poisonous than the gall of a serpent; if it struggle again, then he poisoneth more and more, insomuch that it needs, at last, must die in the net, if the man, the lord Jesus, help not out.[6]

The afflicted conscience understands my words.

Further, though the fly in the web is altogether incapable of looking for relief, yet this awakened, tempted Christian is not.

What must he do therefore? How should he contain hopes of life? If he look to his heart, there is blasphemy; if he look to his duties, there is sin; if he strive to mourn and lament, perhaps he cannot; unbelief and hardness hinder. Shall this man lie down and despair?

No. Shall he trust to his duties? No. Shall he stay from Christ till his heart is better? No. What then? Let him NOW look to Jesus Christ crucified, then shall he see his sins answered for, then shall he see death a-dying, then shall he see guilt borne by another, and there shall he see the devil overcome. This sight destroys the power of the first temptation, purifies the heart, and inclines the mind to all good things.

And to encourage thee, tempted creature, to this most gospel duty, consider that when Jesus Christ read his commission upon the entering into his ministry, he proclaimed, ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord’ (Luke 4:18,19).

These things therefore should the tempted believe; but believing is now sweating work; for Satan will hold as long as possible, and only steadfast faith can make him fly. But O, the toil of a truly gracious heart in this combat! If faith be weak, he