Enduring the Christian Journey: Lessons from Bunyan

"THOMAS: Well, welcome back to lecture three in our study together of Bunyan’s Pilgrim's Progress. We’re at a very, very interesting stage in Pilgrim's Progress. Christian has just made it through the Wicket Gate. He’s been pulled through by a man by the name of ‘Goodwill.’ And you might – had you not known the story – you might have expected at this point for the burden to roll away, and from this point onwards there would be few or little by way of difficulty, but actually that's not the case." [00:00:08]

"And what happens now is alarming, for some it is distressing, for others it is confusing, because Mr. Goodwill tells him now to go to the house of Mr. Interpreter. And here in this house he will see many things. One of which will be deeply, deeply disturbing. Alexander Whyte says in his commentary on Pilgrim's Progress and on the characters of Pilgrim's Progress; He says, “Every minister of the Gospel is an interpreter and every evangelical church is an interpreter’s house.” So bear that in mind as commentators try to understand what Bunyan is actually doing at this point." [00:00:46]

"He’s saying that the church has a responsibility to teach those who are recently converted, those who have been brought in through the Wicket Gate; they’ve got a responsibility to teach them certain things about the way of salvation, about what the Christian life actually looks like. And I suppose Pilgrim's Progress is at the opposite end of the spectrum from views of Christianity that might suggest – “Come to Jesus and all your troubles will disappear.”" [00:01:35]

"Now, I was told something of that kind when I became a Christian and actually what I discovered was that I came to Jesus, and I discovered problems I didn't have before. And I think that Bunyan is wanting to prepare Christians and his readers for the difficulty of the Christian life. That the Christian life is going to be a battle from beginning right up to the point of entry to the Celestial City." [00:02:14]

"Then, secondly, he sees a man sweeping a room, and all he’s achieving is producing a lot of dust, until a girl brings water and sprinkles the room, and then the dust gathers and can be swept away properly. What is this picture about? And it's about the ‘law,’ Bunyan reflects on Romans 7:9, “when the commandment came, sin revived and I died.” Of course, Bunyan is understanding that section of Romans 7 as biographical of the Apostle Paul's own experience of salvation, and that when the law came, it stirred up things like dust in the air, but actually didn't bring assurance of salvation." [00:05:00]

"Only the water of the Gospel could bring assurance of salvation. And again it's a way of depicting pictorially the fact that the law has this character, this function of raising within us an even greater awareness of our sinfulness, that the law convicts, that the law brings further evidence of our transgressions." [00:05:52]

"Then fourthly, he's taken to a fireplace. And the fire is burning and it’s burning higher and hotter despite the fact that somebody is throwing water on this fire. Until he's taken around to the other side of the fire behind the wall, and on the other side someone is throwing oil on the fire and causing it to blaze. What is Bunyan trying to say? He's saying, “This is what a young Christian needs to understand, that there's going to be opposition. There’s going to be water thrown on your zeal.”" [00:07:00]

"You come to Jesus, you come to the Gospel, you come to salvation and you have this enthusiasm, you have this zeal. But the world will always be trying to put out this zeal, but the Holy Spirit will be pouring His oil of grace upon that heart and causing that flame to burn for the Lord and for the Gospel." [00:07:36]

"Then fifthly, he sees a castle, and there’s a scene of a man and he's dressed in armor, and he comes out and he’s got a sword, and he's engaging in battle against his opponents. And he slays all of his opponents and he’s victorious. But it's a picture of battle and it's one of these, it's a typical seventeenth century understanding of what the Christian life looks like. That the Christian life from beginning to end is one of battle, is one of warfare." [00:08:08]

"One thinks of a very famous, often-cited remark of John Geree, in 1646 just prior to Bunyan’s own conversion, he’s describing the character of an old English Puritan – His whole life is accounted a warfare, wherein Christ was his captain, his arms, prayers and tears. The Cross his banner and his word. His motto, ‘Vincit qui patitur’ which means “he who suffers – conquers.” Vincit qui patitur – he who suffers conquers." [00:09:01]

"The seventh – I’ll come back to the sixth because I want to dwell on it. But the seventh thing that he sees is a man rising out of bed, shaking and trembling because he's had this dream of the Day of Judgment and he was left behind. Now, this isn't anything to do with left behind as we think of it in our own time as an interpretation of a kind of secret rapture; that isn’t what Bunyan is talking about. But he is talking about two very important things here. One is the Day of Judgment, that there is a Day of Reckoning." [00:10:39]

"And the fact that in this picture this dream that that this man has had, that in this judgment he was left behind, he wasn't vindicated, he wasn’t exonerated, he was brought into the everlasting kingdom into the city of God. And Bunyan is saying, I think that evangelism means being brought to that point where you realize that there two roads here. There is a road that leads to the eternal city, but there's also another road – a very fearful road, a road that can only lead to doom and destruction, to the judgment and the eternal judgment of God." [00:11:55]