Chapter XIX An Account of the Life and Persecutions of John Bunyan This great Puritan was born the same year that the Pilgrim Fathers landed at Plymouth. His home was Elstow, near Bedford, in England. His father was a tinker and he was brought up to the same trade. He was a lively, likeable boy with a serious and almost morbid side to his nature. All during his young manhood he was repenting for the vices of his youth and yet he had never been either a drunkard or immoral. The particular acts that troubled his conscience were dancing, ringing the church bells, and playing cat. It was while playing the latter game one day that “a voice did suddenly dart from Heaven into my soul, which said, ‘Wilt thou leave thy sins and go to Heaven, or have thy sins and go to Hell?’ ” At about this time he overheard three or four poor women in Bedford talking, as they sat at the door in the sun. “Their talk was about the new birth, the work of God in the hearts. They were far above my reach.” In his youth he was a member of the parliamentary army for a year. The death of his comrade close beside him deepened his tendency to serious thoughts, and there were times when he seemed almost insane in his zeal and penitence. He was at one time quite assured that he had sinned the unpardonable sin against the Holy Ghost. While he was still a young man he married a good woman who bought him a library of pious books which he read with assiduity, thus confirming his earnestness and increasing his love of religious controversies. His conscience was still further awakened through the persecution of the religious body of Baptists to whom he had joined himself. Before he was thirty years old he had become a leading Baptist preacher. Then came his turn for persecution. He was arrested for preaching without license. “Before I went down to the justice, I begged of God that His will be done; for I was not without hopes that my imprisonment might be an awakening to the saints in the country. Only in that matter did I commit the thing to God. And verily at my return I did meet my God sweetly in the prison.” His hardships were genuine, on account of the wretched condition of the prisons of those days. To this confinement was added the personal grief of being parted from his young and second wife and four small children, and particularly, his little blind daughter. While he was in jail he was solaced by the two books which he had brought with him, the Bible and Foxe’s “Book of Martyrs.” Although he wrote some of his early books during this long imprisonment, it was not until his second and shorter one, three years after the first, that he composed his immortal “Pilgrim’s Progress,” which was published three years later. In an earlier tract he had thought briefly of the similarity between human life and a pilgrimage, and he now worked this theme out in fascinating detail, using the rural scenery of England for his background, the splendid city of London for his Vanity Fair, and the saints and villains of his own personal acquaintance for the finely drawn characters of his allegory. The “Pilgrim’s Progress” is truly the rehearsal of Bunyan’s own spiritual experiences. He himself had been the ‘man cloathed in Rags, with his Face from his own House, a Book in his hand, and a great Burden upon his Back.’ After he had realized that Christ was his Righteousness, and that this did not depend on “the good frame of his Heart”—or, as we should say, on his feelings—”now did the Chains fall off my legs indeed.” His had been Doubting Castle and Sloughs of Despond, with much of the Valley of Humiliation and the Shadow of Death. But, above all, it is a book of Victory. Once when he was leaving the doors of the courthouse where he himself had been defeated, he wrote: “As I was going forth of the doors, I had much ado to bear saying to them, that I carried the peace of God along with me.” In his vision was ever the Celestial City, with all its bells ringing. He had fought Apollyon constantly, and often wounded, shamed and fallen, yet in the end “more than conqueror through Him that loved us.” His book was at first received with much criticism from his Puritan friends, who saw in it only an addition to the worldly literature of his day, but there was not much then for Puritans to read, and it was not long before it was devoutly laid beside their Bibles and perused with gladness and with profit. It was perhaps two centuries later before literary critics began to realize that this story, so full of human reality and interest and so marvelously modeled upon the English of the King James translation of the Bible, is one of the glories of English literature. In his later years he wrote several other allegories, of which of one of them, “The Holy War,” it has been said that, “If the ‘Pilgrim’s Progress’ had never been written it would be regarded as the finest allegory in the language.” During the later years of his life, Bunyan remained in Bedford as a venerated local pastor and preacher. He was also a favorite speaker in the non-conformist pulpits of London. He became so national a leader and teacher that he was frequently called “Bishop Bunyan.” In his helpful and unselfish personal life he was apostolic. His last illness was due to exposure upon a journey in which he was endeavoring to reconcile a father with his son. His end came on the third of August, 1688. He was buried in Bunhill Fields, a church yard in London. There is no doubt but that the “Pilgrim’s Progress” has been more helpful than any other book but the Bible. It was timely, for they were still burning martyrs in Vanity Fair while he was writing. It is enduring, for while it tells little of living the Christian life in the family and community, it does interpret that life so far as it is an expression of the solitary soul, in homely language. Bunyan indeed “showed how to build a princely throne on humble truth.” He has been his own Greatheart, dauntless guide to pilgrims, to many. |
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Tuesday, August 15, 2023
Chapter XIX An Account of the Life and Persecutions of John Bunyan
49. Since or When Ye Believed? 50. The Spirit’s Ministry in Prayer 51. God’s Emancipation Proclamation
49. Since or When Ye Believed?
THE TRANSLATION in Acts 19:2, “Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed,” has been a basis for the unscriptural teaching to the effect that the Holy Spirit does not come to indwell the believer at the moment he believes, but that that believer must come to some certain degree of holiness in his life as a Christian before the Spirit is given. Greek authorities agree on the translation, “Did ye receive the Holy Spirit when ye believed?” Or it could be rendered, “Did ye receive the Holy Spirit, having believed?” The tense of the participle and verb point to a simultaneous act. That is, the reception of the Holy Spirit occurs at the same instant as V 17, p 97 the act of believing in the Lord Jesus as Saviour. This is what the Greek grammar here teaches.
Indeed, Paul’s words, “Unto what then were ye baptized?” indicate that the reception of the Spirit is connected with the act of believing, not with anything which might take place after that act. It developed that these individuals were disciples of John the Baptist, who announced a coming Messiah, rather than converts of Paul, who preached a crucified risen Saviour who sent the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.
Furthermore, when the converts of John extended their faith to take in a Saviour who had already died for them, they received the Holy Spirit. Therefore, the coming of the Spirit to indwell a believer is always in this age in response to that person’s faith in the Lord Jesus as Saviour. When Peter was preaching to the Gentiles in the house of Cornelius, the Spirit came upon the hearers while Peter was preaching. Paul says (Rom. 8:9), “If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.” That is, the person in whom the Spirit does not dwell, is not a Christian. Again, in I Corinthians 6:19, he says, “What? know ye not that your body is an inner sanctuary of the Holy Ghost who is in you?”
This teaching that the Holy Spirit does not indwell a believer until he comes to a certain state of holiness, is most harmful. It deprives that Christian of the help of the Holy Spirit in his life. It is a most ridiculous teaching, for how can a believer come to that state of holy living except through the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit? V 17, p 98
50. The Spirit’s Ministry in Prayer
THE INFIRMITIES in Romans 8:26–27 have to do with certain weaknesses in our prayer life. The Holy Spirit, Paul says, helps them. The Greek word translated “helpeth,” literally means “to lend a hand together with, and at the same time with one.” Martha used the same word when appealing to our Lord to bid Mary help her with the preparation of the meal (Luke 10:40). The Holy Spirit lends a hand together with us as we are praying. It is not that He helps us bear our weaknesses, but He helps our weaknesses.
The weaknesses spoken of here are two, what we should pray for, the matter of prayer, and how we should pray, the form and manner of our prayer. The word “what” has an article before it in the Greek. Literally, we do not know “the what” to pray for. That is, we do not know the particular definite thing to pray for. As to the general subjects for prayer, the salvation of the lost, the sanctification of the saints, our daily needs, these we know of. But to be specific in our praying involves a knowledge of God’s will in particular instances, and of that we are naturally ignorant. It is right here that the Spirit comes to our aid.
The word “pray” is from a Greek word made up of a word which means “to pray,” with a prefixed preposition which means literally “toward.” The composite word refers to prayer directed to God, a conscious definite commitment to Him of our needs, our desires, our petitions. The Holy Spirit thus energizes the saint along the line of V 17, p 99 prayer for particular things which are according to the will of God, prayer directed consciously to Him.
The word translated “know,” is not the Greek word which means “knowledge gained by experience,” but “knowledge that is intuitive, natural to one’s being and constitution.” We do not have intuitive knowledge of the particular thing to pray for. The word “ought” is the same word used in John 3:7 in the word “must.” Literally it means, “it is necessary in the nature of the case.” The necessity in the nature of the case is found in the fact that God brings His plans to fruition through the prayers of the saints, and in order for us to pray according to the will of God, we must be so yielded to the control of the Spirit that He can bring into our prayer ministry, the things which God is planning to accomplish. It is clear, therefore, that in order to pray aright, we must be filled with the Spirit.
The Spirit Himself, not “itself,” should be the translation here. The word “spirit” in the Greek language is in the neuter gender, and consequently its pronoun is neuter. But the Holy Spirit is a Person, and should not be referred to as “it.” The translation should be according to sense here, not grammar.
He makes intercession. This word comes from a Greek word which is most picturesque. It is used of one who happens upon one who is in trouble and pleads in that one’s behalf. As Alford says, “The Holy Spirit of God dwelling in us, knowing our wants better than we, Himself pleads in our prayers, raising us to higher and holier desires than we can express in words, which can only find utterance in sighings and aspirations.” V 17, p 100
God the Father who searches the hearts of His saints for their prayers, uttered and unexpressed, interprets those inarticulate sighings of the Spirit in us by reason of the fact that the Spirit pleads for us and in us and through us according to the will of God.
The lesson for us here is that if we expect to have an intelligent, powerful, rich prayer life, we must live Spirit controlled lives.
51. God’s Emancipation Proclamation
A LITERAL translation of Romans 6:12–14 is as follows: “Therefore, stop letting sin rule constantly as king in your bodies which are subject to death, resulting in your habitual obedience to its cravings. Neither keep on habitually putting your members at the service of sin as weapons of unrighteousness. But put yourselves once for all at the service of God, as those who are living ones out from among the dead, and put your members once for all at the service of God as weapons of righteousness, for sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.”
The word studies are as follows: In verse twelve, the Greek construction in the exhortation forbids the continuance of a habit already going on. Those believers before salvation had been constantly allowing sin to reign over their bodies. The word “reign” is from a word which refers to a king reigning. The prepositional phrase V 17, p 101 could show either purpose or result. This preposition often means the latter, and we have so translated it. The word “lust” has changed its meaning since the Authorized Version was made. It refers today to an immoral desire. The Greek word refers simply to a desire, and has a preposition prefixed which intensifies the meaning, thus, a craving. The context rules as to whether it is an evil or a good desire.
In verse thirteen, the first exhortation is in the same construction as in verse twelve, forbidding the continuance of an action already going on. The word “yield” is from a word which means “to put at the service of,” as a volunteer placing himself at the service of this government or an individual at the service of a master. The word “instruments” is from a Greek word which means, “tools or instruments, a ship’s tackle, implements of war.” It is used in John 18:3 in the last sense. Our members, namely, our eyes, hands, feet, mind, are weapons which either Satan or God may use. This at once brings to mind the conception of two armies, Satan’s and God’s. When a saint puts his members at the service of Satan, he fights against God and His army, which is a serious thing. The second exhortation in verse thirteen is in a construction which exhorts to a once-for-all act. We are to put ourselves and our members at the service of God once for all. Having done that we must keep hands off. We are bought with a price, and we are not our own. We must daily, yes, hourly, count ourselves as having thus put ourselves into the hands of God for His service.
In verse fourteen we have the promise, that having done this, sin shall no longer have lordship over us. This V 17, p 102 is God’s emancipation proclamation. The definite article before the word “law,” does not appear in the Greek. The absence of the article gives the idea that Christians are not under the law as a method of divine dealing. That is, we are not unsaved persons upon whom the law makes demands that no unsaved person can ever meet, for the law commands to obedience but gives neither the desire nor the power to obey. But we are under grace as a method of divine dealing, for grace sweetly exhorts to a life of obedience and provides both the desire and the power to obey (Phil. 2:12–13).
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