Today, we are reminded of how uncertain life is due to the hand of evil. We also celebrate heroism and remember those who risk their lives to save others, regardless of ethnicity, religious belief, or economic status. This beauty is what rises from the ashes. May the survivors feel an extra measure of God’s love and peace.
Question of the Week
It has been a while since I have read Pilgrim’s Progress, but I was wondering if you had a favorite part(s) or character(s), and what you thought of the book overall?
This summer, I read The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan for the first time. My pastor reads it every year, and this inspired my family to start a book club in order to read and discuss it together. We learned that Bunyan was a Puritan preacher who was jailed for twelve years because he refused to embrace Anglicanism and would not stop preaching the Gospel. During his time in jail, Bunyan wrote The Pilgrim’s Progress. It was published in 1676 and after the Bible, The Pilgrim’s Progress is the most widely published and distributed book. It has never been out of print.
Bunyan’s main character, Christian, has many different encounters on his pilgrimage to the Celestial City on the narrow road of Christianity. The story contains examples which make me aware of areas where I might be prone to wander, and alerts me to be watchful of the pitfalls in this world. Although we, like Christian, will fall into sin and are tempted to stray off the narrow road, I am grateful that salvation is secured and sealed by the Holy Spirit. A Christian who enters through the narrow gate cannot lose their salvation.
We love the pilgrim because he is like us. He wants to make it to the Celestial City, but, like us, he detours and sins. However, he repents and is forgiven, and God refines him throughout the journey in order to be a help to others along the way, just as we seek to evangelize or to encourage those around us. Christian usually travels on the narrow way, but he does experience hard episodes off the path when he takes shortcuts or veers away from God’s will. This is instructive for us. We persevere by loving God and by living in obedience to what He calls us to do in Scripture. I am grateful for the family of God, who bless and encourage faithfulness to God and His Word.
Over and over again, Christian shares his story with those he encounters on the road. We, too, are to share God’s Gospel and how it has changed us as we travel through life. This not only gives us the opportunity to proclaim what God has done in our life, but reminds us to be grateful to God for what He has done in our life. Christian never held back from sharing, and he was also humble to admit his shortcomings, admitting how he made wrong choices on his journey. Nevertheless, he was grateful God clothed Him in Christ’s righteousness. I am greatly blessed to be on the journey because God called me and convicted me of my sin and my need for Him.
The most horrific scene is of the man in the cage, where Bunyan explains that he put himself there by choosing the lusts of this world over pursuing the love of Christ. It is a hard thing to see someone so hard-hearted that they want to be an enemy of God and follow the way of Satan, the deceiver. He thought he was choosing freedom, but instead he was trapped serving sin and Satan. Bunyan reminds the reader that Satan is fighting to the end, and his arrows are against those pursuing God. Until our death, Satan attacks man. But thanks be to God, Christ crushed the head of the serpent by His death on the cross, just as He promised He would. It was finished on the cross. When Christ returns again, there will be final victory when Satan is cast into the lake of fire.
The Lord God said to the serpent,
“Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”
Genesis 3:14-15
Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.
Hebrews 2:14-15
[T]he devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
Revelation 20:10
The book is divided into two parts. Some people are not aware that the second part of the book includes the journey of Christian’s wife, Christiana, and their sons, even after they refused to join Christian initially. They were convicted of sin by the Holy Spirit and sought to join Christian in the Celestial City. I especially loved this part because Christian’s family members are eager pilgrims on the journey. As they travel and make connections on the way, Christian’s family learns of Christian’s good testimony and faithfulness. The family is also made aware of Christian’s shortcomings, yet he is praised for his perseverance to make it to the Celestial City. It is interesting that the hardships Christiana and her boys encounter do not seem as dangerous, due to the fact that they are in a group with Great-heart as their guide. Having a guide is their blessing, and they do not fight his counsel or leading, but trust and listen to him.
In response to this book, I thank God for giving me faith to follow Him before my disability could turn my trust in God into discouragement, keeping me away from God. We all have a different story of how God saved us, but we all share the same reason for being saved: the glory of God shown in salvation. May my time of trial on the narrow road cause me to love and appreciate God more fervently, cling to Him more dearly, and know Him more certainly. God alone can bring man through heaven’s gate, and He will never leave us alone or turn from us on the way.
I see myself now at the end of my Journey; my toilsome days are ended. I am going now to see that Head that was crowned with thorns, and that Face that was spit upon for me. I have formerly lived by hear-say and Faith; but now I go where I shall live by Sight, and shall be with him in whose company I delight myself.
The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan (p. 375)
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