The Lamb receives the rewards of His suffering.

Christian and Hopeful finally stand before the Gates of Heaven, and the Shining Men bid them to call. The saints that have gone before look over the battlements of heaven, but it is none other than the King who commands the Gate to be opened. The Pilgrims present their scrolls, and in words that are so simple yet so sublime, ‘Now I saw in my dream that these two men went in at the gate…’. It is beyond the imagination of mortals to convey the joy they felt, nor the sights they witnessed… nor the Majesty and Glory of the One who bids them enter.

These closing paragraphs are among the most celebrated of the Pilgrim’s Progress. Bunyan’s genius as a writer is often the focus (ironically). It is true that he paints a vivid picture with remarkably few words, and that what he chooses not to say is as powerful as what is written. But Bunyan would be seriously disappointed if his ‘less is more’ literary approach was what amazed us in these closing scenes.

Bunyan is determined to stay within Biblical parameters as he gives us this slightest glimpse into the wonders of the Celestial City, and of the Pilgrims as they are ‘transfigured’. Christian and Hopeful are equipped for the worship of heaven, and clothed in raiment fit to be there. The architecture and atmosphere of the City are hinted at, as is the powerful joy and worship within it. But after a breath-taking three short paragraphs, we are simply told, ‘And after that they shut the gates…’. But as the thunderous noise of the gates being shut echoes down the Hill, Bunyan gives voice to us all who have travelled with the pilgrims and watched them enter their rest: ‘I wished myself among them’.

Indeed.

But perhaps it is worth remembering that we have already been seen among them. In the Apocalypse of St. John (the Book of Revelation), John is granted a number of visions that lead up to the end of this age, and at the end of each sequence he is granted an insight into the worship of the Heavenly Courtroom. During one such glimpse, he sees ‘a great multitude that no-one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language standing before the throne and before the Lamb…’. later in the sequence he is asked who this great crowd are. John (wisely!) evades an answer, but it transpires this is the Church, redeemed out of this age, glorified, dressed to stand before the throne and captivated in worship by the God and the Lamb who sit on the throne before them. There is much tenderness in the picture of the Church, battered and beaten down by her Pilgrimage through the tribulation of this world being gently restored and refreshed in her worship.

But remember, this is the Church at the end of the age. The entirety of those who have confessed Christ as Saviour and Lord throughout the long centuries of history. The full roster of those who have walked the Narrow Path. The full register of Pilgrims.

including those from MIE…

I find this a breath-taking realisation. I have been seen in heaven.

And Jesus is not ashamed of me. We looked at this briefly in yesterday’s post, but it is worth returning to as we draw our series to a close. Heb.2:10-13 is an incredible passage in this regard, speaking as it does of Jesus’ bringing many sons and daughters to glory. It exalts the Person of Christ in His being holy, and the work of Christ in making us holy. It wonders at the union we have with Christ, our adoption as His brothers and sisters. And in the midst of it all is the extraordinary declaration: Jesus is not ashamed..! Not ashamed of what? He is not ashamed of us! He is not ashamed to call us His brothers and sisters. As we rejoice in Him in song, so He rejoices over us in song; as we delight in Him, so He delights in us (Zeph.3:17).

As I’ve read and pondered these closing scenes of Christian’s Pilgrimage, this is the amazing truth I’ve found myself coming back to again and again. Christ died to win for Himself a people. Or in the words of Paul, ‘Jesus Christ … gave Himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness, and to purify for Himself a people that His very own, eager to do what is good’ (Titus 2:13-14). In His glorious condescension and infinite compassion, that is and always has been His design. When Christ entered into eternal Covenant with His Father to redeem the Church through the Spirit, in His heart He longed for His Bride. In a single moment of colossal self-sacrifice, for which all of creation was called into being, He would revere His Father and redeem His people. The fullness of that compact between the persons of the Trinity is beyond human grasping, but this much we know: Whilst we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

And when we finally arrive at the Gate of the Celestial City, the Lamb that was slain from before the foundation of the world, will receive the reward of His suffering

Soli Deo Gloria.

There's no place like home...

Coming out of the River on the other side of death, they are greeted again by the Shining Ones, who escort them to the Gate, carrying these immortal Pilgrims up the Hill of the Lord (Ps.24). Bunyan does his best to catch us up into the sense of anticipation they feel as they approach the ramparts of heaven. It’s worth going back and reading this section again and again, as Bunyan piles up passage after passage, image after image (all of them drawn from Scripture) to awaken in us the joy of those who share the same hope! We would do well to meditate deeply on such passages with regularity. They will cause our spirit to soar, and to tremble.

Christian and Hopeful are met by ‘a company of heaven’ who come out to meet them. They are welcomed with benediction and a trumpet voluntary that must have shaken the foundations of the City! The gladness and celebration of their arrival before the Gate of Heaven is one of the most touching and compelling scenes in the whole book. And it leads us into an aspect of Christian experience that we may not be overly familiar with. When you imagine your arrival at those ‘ancient doors’, what happens? Do you see yourself standing sheepishly outside, while some conference is held within, deciding whether you made the mark or not? Do you expect to be welcomed grudgingly, with an air of dissatisfaction and disappointment? Do you expect to skulk into heaven, let in by someone who really should know better?

All of which would betray a tragic lack of awareness of the completeness of Christ’s work for us as our Mediator and Great High Priest. He has provided everything that is needed for every aspect of our Pilgrimage, and has given all we need for a triumphal entry to glory. I wonder if we dare to believe that Heaven will be glad to see us? … that the doors will be flung wide and that our arrival will be celebrated and rejoiced in? …that there will be angels, and saints who have gone before, who have rejoiced to see Christ’s grace worked out in our lives, and who delight now to see that grace brought to fruition in even such as us? …that even now they wait with eager anticipation for our arrival?

Perhaps even yet, our focus is too much on our own performance rather than on Christ’s? We pilgrimage in Him. And our welcome at Heaven’s Gate is the welcome He Himself has received. We are adopted in Him, and the greeting we receive is that of children coming home to a loving Father, of a family that have missed us, but tracked our progress on the way home. Angels who have ministered, unheeded and neglected by us, will line the way delighting in our salvation, and in the power and wisdom of Him who had sent them to our aid.

In a deep sense of course, the celebration of our arrival is an act of worship. None of us on that day will seek to take the accolades to ourselves. This isn’t our great Oscars moment, where we take the award and thank everyone who helped make it possible. Never will we be so humbled as on that day, never so grateful, never so meek. As we step out of the River, we will (in ways we can barely imagine now) know how fully we have needed His compassion and mercy, how every step along the Path was enabled by His strength and goodness, how every battle won and trial overcome was by His power and might. We will know for the first time what it means for us to have trusted in the grace of Christ, . As we gaze fully on the glory of heaven, and begin to enjoy the communion of saints, witness the ranks of angelic beings who ceaselessly declare the glory of the God who sits on the throne, and of the Lamb, in that moment the single great and overwhelming desire of our heart will be to stand in that magnificent congregation and to add our redeemed voice with theirs as we sing:

Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and praise!

Rev.5:12

Questions to ponder:

Dare you believe this?

As you contemplate such a scene, how does it shape your engagement with the congregation of the saints in the much more mundane context of Ipswich?

Why not memorise Jude 24-25:

To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy — to the only God our Saviour be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.

(emphasis added)

A River runs through it

Of all the deaths I have been present at, one of the most troubling and yet most triumphant was of a godly woman, who had served much of her life as a missionary in Pakistan. As she lay dying, she felt so very keenly the assault of the evil one. Given her life, I had little reason to doubt what she testified to in her death. It was a time of spiritual struggle, prayer, worship, reading of Scripture and exhortation. At the end she died in peace, confident of Christ, and His work. Her passing was marked by a great victory of faith, in confidence that the Saviour she had given her life to preach was able to deliver her from death.

As they face the River that symbolises death, both Christian and Hopeful are ‘much stunned’. Both hesitate, and wonder if there might not be any other way to the City beyond? It turns out that there are at least two other ways: the path trodden only by Enoch and Elijah; and a ferry service, offered by one Vain-hope. There is a confidence that comes not from what we know, but from what we don’t. And there are those who enter death with a misplaced security, and who are too far in before they realise they should have, like the Pilgrim’s, been ‘much stunned’ at its prospect. Christians alone, well versed in Scripture, understand the reality of death. Whilst this tends to terror, they also know the reality of Christ’s victory over death in the resurrection. This tends to confidence in the face of terror.

But this cosmic tension in Christian experience is what accounts for the Shining Ones’ counsel: ‘You will find it deeper or shallower, as you believe in the King of the place’. As we enter death, which will dominate: the reality of death, or the reality of Christ’s victory over it? Hopeful, true to his name to the last, feels the River’s bed and cries out in triumph. Christian has greater conflict. All through his Pilgrimage, Christian has struggled with Pride. And even here, in the midst of death, his thoughts turn from Christ and centre on himself. He remembers his sins and ponders his failings, rather than remembering Christ, and pondering the deliverances Christ has wrought. His view of the city is cluttered with fell and evil spirits as he is tempted even yet to lose sight of the King. Old doubts resurface, new fears engulf him, and foes old and new stand in his way. He is not in anguish at losing the world, but at his lack of holiness and faith. Death is a another trial to Christian. One he will vanquish, but a trial nevertheless. The River is deep when our faith in the King of the place is shallow. And it is shallow where our faith runs deep.

Hopeful has faith enough for both. His thoughts rest on the King, and his eye is on the Gate to the City. Death is nothing more than a necessity, a scorpion whose sting is drawn, a defeated foe, powerless to prevent his crossing. Bunyan stresses to the last the critical importance of fellowship. When our faith weakens we allow others to carry us. Or at least we should do! Sometimes we have no choice. As Christian struggles to keep his head above water… and barely manages even with Hopeful’s help! ‘Hopeful also would endeavour to comfort him, saying, Brother, I see the Gate and the men standing by to receive us’. Hopeful reminds Christian of the promises of Scripture, of the triumphs they have known along the way, the evidences of God’s having been with them. He is desperate to have Christian fix his eyes on Christ, who is both Pioneer and the Perfector of our faith, the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End of faith as of everything.

…and who now proves faithful to His Pilgrims. ‘Christian [after being absorbed in his thoughts for a time] brake out with a loud voice, O I see Him again! And He tells me ‘When you pass through the waters I will be with thee, and through the rivers, they shall not flow over thee’ (Is.43:2)’.

‘Then they both took courage, and the enemy was after that as still as stone, until they were gone over. Christian therefore presently found ground to stand upon, and so it followed that the rest of the River was but shallow. Thus they got over’.

Questions to ponder:

What Scriptures have you memorised that will give you hope and comfort when you step into the River? Who have you asked to be with you, to pray for you and to fellowship with you as you die?

When you are called to the bed side of a dying Christian, how do you plan to encourage them as they face the last great enemy of their Pilgrimage?

Approaching death...

‘Now I saw in my dream that by this time the Pilgrims were got over the Enchanted Ground, and entering into the country of Beulah…’

With these words, Bunyan signals that we are entering the last chapter of their Pilgrimage. Within sight of death, they are beyond the reach, and even the remembrance, of many of the trials and temptations they have endured. They are ‘on the borders of heaven’. The country is well-named. Taken from Isaiah 62:4-5, it speaks of the loving Lordship of Christ, and of His great rejoicing over His bride. It’s an amazing image, and one that we should probably think on more often: ‘as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you’. For the Pilgrims to know this must be so encouraging as they draw near to the end. Their death is precious in the eyes of the Lord (Ps.116:15).

Christian and Hopeful are by this stage seasoned believers whose mortal days are drawing to an end. They no longer care about this world, but are homesick for the world to come. Wearied of this life, their focus is turned exclusively to the City, of which ‘they have yet a more perfect view’. Their anticipation of being welcomed by the King overwhelms them, as their longing to be with Him blinds them to all else. This is a season of rest and refreshment, preparing them for the last great battle that lies ahead.

The company the Pilgrims enjoy in this land takes on the dimensions of heaven. No more are they troubled by Turn-backs, Ignorances, Atheists or By-ends, or any others of that ilk. Here their companions are Shining Ones who ‘commonly walk’ in Beulah. Bunyan anticipates that as the veil between this world and the next becomes thin, we encounter such ministering spirits who prepare us for our final passage through the Valley of the Shadow of Death.

And the Gardener who encourages them to eat and to be strengthened, to rest and be refreshed. What Bunyan intends to convey here is disputed. Some understand him to be teaching us that Christ Himself, the Gardener draws near the Pilgrims and ministers to the in some direct way (Gen.2:8-9; Dt.11:8-12). Others - and I would put myself among them - feel that like Watchful, and the Shepherds before him, the Gardener represents the pastoral ministry of the Church, caring for the aged in their midst. Christ ministers by His Spirit through the structures of the Church’s ministry. Teaching about our future hope, the joy we anticipate in seeing Christ, our expectation of our experience of righteousness in His presence, strengthening the soul through Communion, prayer and fellowship... All this and more refreshes the aged saints and prepares them for death.

They are joined by ‘two men in raiment that shone like gold; also their faces shone as the light’. These two in particular have been sent to escort the Pilgrims to the River. Walking by faith is giving way to walking by sight. The profound, hitherto unseen spiritual realities surrounding us are coming into focus. It’s not that such beings haven’t been with the Pilgrims before, but to this point, their support has gone unnoticed (Heb.1:14). But now, as the things of earth grow strangely dim, the things of heaven grow mysteriously brighter. Christian and Hopeful are increasingly impatient to cross the River. They have got to the point that many Christians get to in the autumn of life, where they simply want to be through death, and with Jesus. But in those very waters remain the last two difficulties they must face: the experience of dying, and the temptation to unbelief. All their trials to this point have been but preparation for this final battle with their last great enemy, death itself (I Cor.15:26).

Questions to ponder:

What are you doing now to prepare spiritually for your death, and for the temptations you will face as you approach it?

For those closest to death, how much of Bunyan’s vision for the dying saint resonates with your own experience?

Catharsis or Salvation?

With only a couple of miles of Pilgrimage to go, Christian and Hopeful find themselves reminiscing on the journey, and those they have met on the way, including one Temporary. His is a sorry tale, but one that sounds all too familiar. He lived in a town called Graceless, next door to Turnback. It already doesn’t sound good.

He had sought out Christian and Hopeful for counsel after being troubled by sin, or more likely by the consequences of sin, which isn’t quite the same thing. When those consequences faded, so did his faith. He is an example of the seed that landed in the shallow soil and the rocky ground (Matt.13:20-21). For the short time he joined them on Pilgrimage he had been vociferous, full of good intentions, resolutions and promises. But ‘all of a sudden he grew acquainted with one Save-self, and then he became a stranger…’. I’ve known so many like this over the years, that I find this part of Pilgrim’s Progress quite poignant.

Christian and Hopeful’s conversation helps us to understand what is going on in such troubled souls. Their first insight is that they don’t allow their conviction of sin to lead them to Christ. They look to Him for catharsis, but not salvation. And so ‘when the power of guilt weareth away, that which provoked them to be religious ceaseth, wherefore they naturally turn to their own course again’. Being sorry for sin will not keep us from returning to it. Only Christ, and a love for Him will do that!

Secondly, he was too concerned about what other people thought. Temporary was never willing to pay the price of Pilgrimage; he wasn’t prepared to run ‘the hazard of losing all, or at least, of bringing themselves into unavoidable and unnecessary trouble, and so they fall in with the world again’. If friendship with God means enmity with the world (Jas.4:4), then Temporary chooses the world, even though it means enmity with God. In the final analysis he sees religion as a crutch for the weak. When he needs something to lean on, he’ll pick it up, but when he is feeling strong and self-sufficient he lays it down again. Pride and self-reliance prevent a genuine Pilgrimage. That was the third reason for Temporary’s relapse.

Finally - and most complex - is Temporary’s relationship with guilt. It was a sense of guilt that caused him to turn to Christ in the first place. The ‘Gospel’ he heard and responded to was incomplete, containing little of the cost of following Jesus, and much of the benefits. That too has a contemporary ring. Such irresponsible ‘evangelism’ might win quick converts, but it does not forge disciples, and as such, it stores up problems for Churches for years to come, filled as they are with people who think they are Christians. It stores up problems for the people who believe it too. Having come to Jesus to have his guilt taken way, Temporary was confused to find that his sense of guilt actually deepened! The more he tried to follow Christ, the more he stumbled and more intense his sense of failure and guilt. Because he knows nothing of genuine grace, and even less of the transforming power of the Spirit, Temporary is left with only despair and hopelessness. Slowly he begins to drift, quietly dropping his commitments. He becomes less vocal, less frequent at Church (for a while it seemed like he was at everything, and complaining that there wasn’t more!), less zealous.

Then in order to justify his decision to step away from Christ, he begins to marshal his excuses. He covers his own sense of hypocrisy by complaining about the hypocrisy of others. He begins picking holes in the discipleship of others, using their struggles and inconsistencies as a foil for his own. He complains that he no longer feels welcomed by the Church, although all the while it is Temporary who doesn’t welcome them. But the rhetoric allows him to feel comfortable finding friendship and companionship elsewhere.

The final nail in the proverbial coffin is Temporary’s attitude to sin. To begin with, he fought it - albeit in confusion and self-reliance. But now there is less pretence. He slowly reconciles himself to that which he had previously hated. He grows complacent and accepting, justifying his behaviour to himself, rather than seeking to be justified from it. Sin once again takes root, Temporary’s heart is hardened, but at least he feels he is being honest with himself. He accepts who he is, and takes renewed pride in it.

Unlike others who have fallen by the wayside, the Pilgrims entertain some hope. But it will take a ‘miracle of grace’.

Doesn’t it always?

Questions to ponder:

To what extent have you come to Christ for catharsis, rather than salvation, and the holiness to which it leads?

Can you think of any Temporary’s you have known over the years? Does this section of Pilgrim’s Progress help you to understand them any better? Does Bunyan’s analysis ring true?