One of the commitments I made to myself this year was to read one Puritan book a month.  Just finished May’s book this morning - John Bunyan’s classic “Come and Welcome to Jesus Christ.”  The title doesn’t sound that exciting but man what a punch this book packs.

This book is an exposition (explanation) of one verse - John 6:37: “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.”  In this book he deals with major problems people have with Christianity - issues like how do you deal with freewill and election, eternal security and assurance of salvation, backsliding, doubt, and fear of our ability to really have faith. 

Bunyan’s story is amazing and worth taking the time to learn from because of where he came from, what he suffered for his beliefs, and what God accomplished through his life.  Bunyan is a guy whose writing is simple, straightforward, and honest.  He address the hard questions head on and in a way that you can get your mind around.  What stands out about his answer to hard questions is that he always drives back to scripture and uses the bible to build not just a simple case against a difficult issue but to paint a picture of the God of the Bible that is so big that He is the answer to the question itself.  This is a book that demands that we deal with the greatness of God on His own terms or reject Him on our terms.  Bunyan reveals that rejection is really just faith in our own wisdom and compared to the revealed will of God, we are silly to take that bet.

Here is an example: “Life must be by Jesus Christ, in order that God might be adored and magnified, for finding out this way.  This is the Lord’s doing, so that in all things he might be glorified through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

The last 3 chapters are spent building case after case on top of itself, like the building of the Empire State Building, of the fullness of Christ (grace, truth, wisdom, Spirit, gifts of the Spirit, compassion, power against sin and evil, and acceptance of us), our freedom in Christ (salvation, daily mercy, gifts without rejection, fights for us when we can’t fight for ourselves, His rejoicing over us when we turn to Him), Christ’s preparation for us (taking our wrath and extending us mercy, receiving our prayers, leads us to heaven/glory/the Father, writes our names in the Lamb’s Book of Life), and calls/draws us to Himself (His power not ours, illuminates our minds/heart to see Him, inclines our hearts to His ways, empowers us to desire His ways, gives us a glimpse of Himself through His word).  Great read if you find yourself struggling with these issues and don’t want to read a soft modern book that tries to give you the warm fuzzies but instead want to have someone open up the scriptures in a grand and powerful fashion.

The last image that I want to leave today is the picture of us standing before God in judgment.  All of heaven and earth will be present.  Just picture it - we will stand before the judgment seat with grand creatures of heaven, angels that are countless, the saints throughout history, all humanity, but most importantly God before us.  From our left will come someone who carries a scroll that has listed every sin we have ever committed (I’m talking every big and small wrong - nothing could be more demoralizing or embarrassing).  They will start reading off every count against us and the verdict comes in every time - GUILTY.  After all the counts against us have been read, Christ will rise from the right hand of the throne, from where He has sat through this whole event, silent, and will pick up the scroll and look at us.  In His right hand will be another book - The Lamb’s Book of Life.  This book contains the names of men and women who don’t deserve to be in the same room with murderers much less the Lord of hosts.  Yet the thing that makes them stand out is the man who currently stands in front of them.  At that time Christ will say, “(Fill in your name) is mine.  My Father gave them to me before the beginning of time.  By no act or right of their own, I chose to pay for the guilty verdict they received today I know stamp this scroll with the legal standing of not-guilty by the ink of my own blood.  They did nothing except realize the depths of their guilt as I revealed to them my mercy and they chose to accept my pardon.  There is nothing in heaven or earth that can take them away from me because they are mine.

What a glorious day . . .