Packer Asks, "Have You Yourself, I Wonder, Read It Yet?"

J. I. Packer offers many of us a gentle rebuke:

For two centuries Pilgrim’s Progress was the best-read book, after the Bible, in all Christendom, but sadly it is not so today. 

When I ask my classes of young and youngish evangelicals, as I often do, who has read Pilgrim’s Progress, not a quarter of the hands go up. 

Yet our rapport with fantasy writing, plus our lack of grip on the searching, humbling, edifying truths about spiritual life that the Puritans understood so well, surely mean that the time is ripe for us to dust off Pilgrim’s Progress and start reading it again. 

Certainly, it would be great gain for modern Christians if Bunyan’s masterpiece came back into its own in our day. 

Have you yourself, I wonder, read it yet?

Personally, I like the updated version of Pilgrim's Progress from Crossway, edited by C.J. Lovik.

HT: JT

The Depths of Our Depravity

From a conversation between Christian and Hopeful in The Pilgrim's Progress (where Hopeful explains how he began to be convicted of his sin):

Hopeful: "I have committed enough sin in one of my most recent good duties to send me to Hell."

Good Thoughts in Relation to Ourselves

From a conversation between Christian and Ignorance in John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress:

"What do you think are good thoughts in relation to ourselves?" Ignorance inquired.

Christian answered, "Such as agree with the Word of God."

"What kind of thoughts about ourselves agree with the Word of God?" Ignorance asked further.

Christian explained, "We think rightly of ourselves when we pass the same judgment upon ourselves that the Word passes. To explain myself more fully, the Word of God says of persons in a natural condition, 'There is none righteous, there is none that doeth good.' It also says that 'every imagination of the heart of man is only evil, and that continually.' And again, 'The imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth.' Now then, when we think these thoughts of ourselves, our thoughts are good ones because they agree with the Word of God."

Ignorance insisted, "I will never believe that my heart is that bad."

"Therefore you have never had one good thought concerning yourself in your entire life," Christian exclaimed.

The Depths of Our Depravity

From a conversation between Christian and Hopeful in The Pilgrim's Progress (where Hopeful explains how he began to be convicted of his sin):

Hopeful: "I have committed enough sin in one of my most recent good duties to send me to Hell."

Bunyan's Picture of a True Gospel Pastor

From John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress (Christian has just arrived at the house of the Interpreter):

So [the Interpreter] commanded His servant to light the candle and then asked Christian to follow Him to a private room that, when the manservant opened the door, revealed a picture of a very grave person hanging on the wall. This is what the man in the picture looked like: he had eyes lifted up to Heaven, the best of books in his hand, the law of truth written upon his lips, the world behind his back. He stood as if pleading with men, and a crown of gold hung over his head.

Then said Christian, "What does this mean?"

"The man in this picture represents one of a thousand: he can conceive children, travail in birth with children, and nurse them himself when they are born. You see him with his eyes lifted up to Heaven, the best of books in his hand and the law of truth written on his lips. All this is to show you that his work is to know and unfold dark things to sinners. You see him pleading with men, the world cast behind him, and a crown hanging over his head to show you that by rejecting and despising the things of this present world for the love that he has for his Master's service, he is sure to have glory as his reward in the world to come. I have shown you this picture first because the man whom it represents is the only man authorized by the Lord of the place where you are going to be your guide in all the difficult places you will encounter on the way. So pay attention to what I have shown you, and keep this picture foremost in your mind, so that if you meet with someone who doesn't resemble this picture's likeness but who pretends to lead you in the right way, you will not follow him down to destruction."

Bunyan on Acts 2:38

Here is a wonderful example of why John Bunyan was such a powerful preacher (expounding Peter's call for repentance from Acts 2:38):

"Repent," says he, "and be baptized every one of you." I shut out not even one of you; for I am commanded by my Lord to deal with you, as it were, one by one, by the word of his salvation. But why speaks he so particularly? Oh! there were reasons for it. The people with whom the apostles were now to deal, as they were murderers of our Lord, and to be charged in general with his blood, so they had their various and particular acts of villainy in the guilt thereof now lying upon their consciences. And the guilt of these, their various and particular acts of wickedness, could not, perhaps, be reached to a removal thereof but by this particular application. Repent, every one of you; be baptized, every one of you, in his name, for the remission of sins, and you shall, every one of you, receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

Objector: But I was one of them that plotted to take away his life. May I be saved by him?

Peter: Every one of you.

Objector: But I was one of them that bare false witness against him. Is there grace for me?

Peter: For every one of you.

Objector: But I was one of them that cried out, "Crucify him, crucify him; and desired that Barabbas, the murderer, might live, rather than him. What will become of me, think you?

Peter: I am to preach repentance and remission of sins to every one of you.

Objector: But I was one of them that did spit in his face when he stood before his accusers. I also was one that mocked him, when in anguish he hung bleeding on the tree. Is there room for me?

Peter: For every one of you.

Objector: But I was one of them that, in his extremity, said, "Give him gall and vinegar to drink." Why may not I expect the same when anguish and guilt is upon me?

Peter: Repent of these your wickednessses, and here is remission of sins for every one of you.

Objector: But I railed on him, I reviled him, I hated him, I rejoiced to see him mocked at by others. Can there be hopes for me?

Peter: There is, for every one of you. Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

Oh! what a blessed "Every one of you" is here! How willing was Peter, and the Lord Jesus, by his ministry, to catch these murderers with the word of the gospel, that they might be made monuments of the grace of God! How unwilling, I say, was he, that any of these should escape the hand of mercy! Yea, what an amazing wonder is it to think that, above all the world, and above everybody in it, these should have the first offer of mercy!

--John Bunyan, The Jerusalem Sinner Saved (Puritan Paperbacks)