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

Tim 1:10); ‘that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil,’ and so deliver (Heb 2:14).

And again, ‘O death, I will be thy plagues! O grace, I will be thy destruction!’ (Hosea 13:14). And again, ‘that the body of sin might be destroyed’ (Rom 6:6); and I have the keys of hell and of death (Rev 1:18). Having thereby sufficiently declared that the power of it is destroyed as to Israel, who are the people concerned in this redemption.

2. They shall be overcome by his church through the power of his Spirit. Now, as was hinted before, the redemption is already obtained, and that completely, by the person of Christ for us (Heb 9:24), as it is written, ‘Having obtained eternal redemption for us’; yet these enemies, sin, death, the devil, hell, and the grave, are not so under the feet of his [saints] as he will put them, and as they shall be in conclusion under the feet of Christ (Heb 2:8,9). I say they are not; wherefore, as the text also concludeth, this redemption is with the Lord, and under our feet they shall be by the power of God towards us (2 Cor 13:4). And for this let Israel hope. The sum then is, God’s people have with the Lord redemption, and redemption in reversion; redemption, and redemption to come; all which is in the hand of the Lord for us, and of all we shall be possessed in his time. This is that called plenteous redemption. ‘For with him is plenteous redemption.’ A little therefore to touch upon the redemption that we have in reversion, or of the redemption yet to come.

(1.) There is yet much sin and many imperfections that cleave to our persons and to our performances, from which, though we be not yet in the most full sense delivered, yet this redemption is with our Lord, and we shall have it in his time; and in the meantime it is said, It shall not have dominion over us. ‘Sin shall not have dominion over you; for ye are not under the law, but under grace’

(Rom 6:14). We are, by what Christ has done, taken from under the law, the curse; and must, by what Christ will do, be delivered from the very being of sin. ‘He gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity’; that he might present us to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, but that we should be without blemish (Titus 2:13,14; Eph 5:25,27).

That we are already without the being of sin, none but fools and madmen will assert; and that we shall never be delivered from it, none but such men will affirm neither. It remains then, that there is a redemption for Israel in reversion, and that from the being of sin. And of this it is that the text also discourseth, and for which let the godly hope.

(2.) We are not yet quite free from Satan’s assaulting of us, though our Head by himself, and that for us, has got a complete conquest over him; but the time is coming, and himself knows that it is but a little while to it, in which he shall forever be bruised under our feet. Be wise unto that which is good, and simple concerning evil, and the God of peace shall bruise, tread down Satan under your feet shortly (Rom 16:20). Some may think that this text will have a fulfilling in the ruin and downfall of Antichrist; and so it may; but yet it will never be wholly fulfilled, as long as Satan shall have any thing to do with one of the children of God. There is therefore a redemption in reversion for the children of God from Satan, which they are to hope for, because this redemption is with the Lord their Head, and that to manage and bring about for them.

For he shall bruise him under their feet in his time.

(3.) There is yet belonging to the church of God a redemption from what remains of Antichrist, although as yet he is stronger than we, which I also call a redemption in reversion, for that it is yet to come, nor shall it be accomplished till the time appointed. In this redemption, not only saints, but truths will have a share; yea, and many also of the men that belong not to the kingdom of Christ and of God. This redemption God’s people are also to hope for, for it is with their Lord, and he has promised it to them, as the Scripture doth plentifully declare.

(4.) There is yet a redemption to come, which is called the redemption of our body (Rom 8:23). Of this redemption we have both the earnest and the seal, to wit, the Spirit of God (Eph 1:14, 4:30). And because the time to it is long, therefore we are to wait for it; and because it will be that upon which all our blessedness will be let out to us, and we also let in to it, therefore we should be comforted at all the signs of the near approach thereof; ‘then,’ saith Christ, ‘look up and lift up your heads’ (Luke 21:28). The bodies of saints are called the purchased possession; possession, because the whole of all that shall be saved shall be for a temple or house for God to dwell in, in the heavens. A purchased possession, because the body, as well as the soul, is bought with the price of blood (1 Cor 6:14-20). But what then doth he mean by the redemption of this purchased possession? I answer, he meaneth the raising it up from the dead; ‘I will ransom them from the power of the grave, I will redeem them from death’ (Hosea 13:14).

And then shall be brought to pass that saying that is written, ‘Death is swallowed up in victory’; that saying, that is this, and that in Isaiah, for they speak both the selfsame thing (1 Cor 15; Isa 25:8).

And this was signified by Moses, where he speaks of the year of jubilee, and of the redemption of the house that was sold in Israel, how of that year it should return to the owner (Lev 25). Our bodies of right are God’s, but sin still dwells in them; we have also sold and forfeited them to death and the grave, and so they will abide; but at the judgment day, that blessed jubilee, God will take our body, which originally is his, and will deliver it from the bondage of corruption, unto which, by our souls, through sin, it has been subjected; he will take it, I say, because it is his, both by creation and redemption, and will bring it to that perfect freedom that is only to be found in immortality and eternal life. And for this should Israel hope! From what hath been said to this first thing, it appears that the mercy that is with God for his people, as it is in general what has been described before, so it is redeeming mercy, or mercy that has with it the virtue of redemption; of the advantageousness of this mercy, we will further discourse by and by, but now we will look into the second thing, that from this amplification of the reason was propounded to be spoken to, to wit, [SECOND. The sufficiency of this redemption.]

An account of the sufficiency of this redemption. ‘Let Israel hope in the Lord; for with the Lord there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption.’ The sufficiency or plenteousness of it may be spoken to, as it respecteth the many difficulties and dangers that by sin we have brought ourselves into; or as it respecteth the superabundant worth that is found therein, let the dangers attending us be what they will, though we should not be acquainted with the half or the hundredth part thereof.

To speak to it as it respecteth those particular difficulties and dangers that by sin we have brought ourselves unto; and that, First. By showing the suitableness of it. Second. By showing the sufficiency of the suitableness thereof.

First. The suitableness of it lieth in the fit application thereof to all the parts of thraldom and bondage. Have we sinned? Christ had our sins laid upon his back; yea, of God was made, that is, reputed, sin for us (Isa 53; 2 Cor 5:21). Were we under the curse of the law by reason of sin? Christ was made under the law, and bare the curse thereof to redeem (Gal 4:4, 3:13; Rom 3:24). Had sin set us at an indefinite distance from God? Christ has become, by the price of his redeeming blood, a reconciler of man to God again (Col 1:20). Were we by sin subject to death? Christ died the death to set us free therefrom (Rom 6:23). Had our sins betrayed us into and under Satan’s slavery? Christ has spoiled and destroyed this work, and made us free citizens of heaven (Acts 26:18; 2 Tim 2:26; Heb 2:14; Eph 2:19). Thus was our Redeemer made, as to those things, a suitable recoverer, taking all and missing nothing that stood in the way of our happiness; according to that a little below the text, ‘And he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities,’

that is, from them, together with their evil fruits.

Second. Now as to the sufficiency that was in this suitableness, that is declared by his resurrection, by his ascension, by his exaltation to the right hand of God; that is also declared by God’s putting all things under his feet, and by giving of him to be head over all things for his redeemed’s sake. It is also further declared in that God now threateneth none but those that refuse to take Jesus for their Saviour, and for that he is resolved to make his foes his footstool. What are more natural consequences flowing from anything, than that by these things is the sufficiency of the suitableness of redemption by Christ proved? For all these things followed Christ, for, or because he humbled himself to the death of the cross, that he might become a Redeemer; therefore God raised him up, took him to his throne, and gave him glory, that your faith and hope might be in God by him (Phil 2).

But alas! what need we stand to prove the sun is light, the fire hot, the water wet? What was done by him was done by God, for he was true God; and what comparison can there be betwixt God and the creature, betwixt the worth of God’s acts, and the merit of the sin of poor man! And can death, or sin, or the grave hold us, when God saith, ‘Give up?’ Yea, where is that, or he, that shall call into question the superabounding sufficiency that is in the merit of Christ, when God continueth to discharge, day by day, yea, hourly, and every moment, sinners from their sin, and death, and hell, for the sake of the redemption that is obtained for us by Christ?

God be thanked here is plenty; but no want of anything! Enough and to spare! It will be with the merit of Christ, even at the end of the world, as it was with the five loaves and two fishes, after the five thousand men, besides women and children, had sufficiently eaten thereof. There was, to the view of all at last, more than showed itself at fist. At first there was but five loaves and two fishes, which a lad carried. At last there were twelve baskets full, the weight of which, I