the superabounding riches of Divine grace. Satan putting pins into it,
may refer to those who profanely pervert the grace of God to evil, by
saying, “Let us do evil, that good may come. Whose damnation is just.”
These are the dogs who are without, but never were within the fold of
Christ. (Phil 3:2, Rev 22:15)-ED.
18 Dr. Watts beautifully illustrates this soul-supporting truth in his
hymn (116, verse 2):-“How can I sink with such a prop, As my eternal
God, Who bears the earth’s huge pillars up, And spreads the heavens
abroad?”-ED.
19 “The whole tale”; the whole number as reckoned and ascertained;
nothing being lost.-ED.
20 In the first edition of this treatise, this quotation is from Joshua
3:4, an error which has been continued through every edition to the
present one.-ED.
21 “A demur”; now called a demurrer, is when a defect or legal
difficulty is discovered, which must first be settled by the judge
before the action or proceedings can be carried on.-ED.
22 How consoling a reflection is this to the distressed soul, “Christ
never lost a cause.” “Him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast
out.” “They shall never perish; nor shall any pluck them out of my
hand” (John 10:28)-ED.
23 “Nonsuit”; the giving up a suit upon the discovery of some fatal
error or defect in the cause.-ED.
24 There is no night in heaven; it is one eternal day; no need of rest
or sleep. Christ ever liveth to make intercession for us.-ED.
25 The marginal readings which are found in our venerable version of
the Bible are very interesting, both to the unlearned and to the
scholar. They often throw a light upon the Scripture. For “and make him
honourable,” see Bishop Patrick and Dr. Gill’s annotations.-ED.
26 To draw back from, or in, our dependence upon Christ for salvation,
is a distinction which every despairing backslider should strive to
understand. The total abandonment of Christianity is perdition, while
he who is overcome of evil may yet repent to the salvation of the
soul.-ED.
27 “Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them
that fear him.” He punishes but to restore them in his own time to the
paths of peace.-ED.
28 How full of sweet consolation is this spiritual exposition of the
Levitical law. It was a type or shadow of good things which were to
come. Bunyan possessed a heavenly store of these apt illustrations.-ED.
29 “Branglings”; noisy quarrels or squabbles. “The payment of tithes is
subject to many brangles.”-Swift. It is now obsolete, and is
substituted by wranglings.-ED.
30 The poor backslider “is blind and cannot see afar off”; this does
not affect his title, but is fatal to any present prospect of the
enjoyment of his inheritance.-ED.
31 Every sin, however comparatively small, drives us to the mediation
of Christ, but it is under a sense of great sins that we feel how
precious he is as an Advocate.-ED.
32 What can we render to the Lord? is an inquiry perpetually fostered
by the pride that clings to every believer. The world, and all things
in it, are his already. We must, as poor trembling beggars, “take the
cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord,”-rely upon his
free gift of a full salvation. All must be done for us gratis, or we
must perish. Yes, proud sinner, you must sue as a pauper, or you can
never succeed.-ED.
33 In the form of a pauper, one who has nothing to pay with, but is
living upon alms.-ED.
34 This Greek word is only once translated “advocate” in the New
Testament; but it is used in the Gospel by John (14, 15, 16), and
translated Comforter, and applied to the Holy Spirit. Thus, the Holy
Ghost is to the Christian [the Greek word ] a monitor or comforter; and
our ascended Lord is [the Greek word ] the advocate before his Father’s
throne. Both are our counsel-the Spirit to guide, the Saviour to
defend, the saints.-ED.
35 The Bible is the only perspective glass by which we can know
futurity, and see things that, to carnal eyes, are invisible.-ED.
36 “Ingenuity”; ingenuousness, frankness, candour, generosity: now
obsolete in this sense.-ED.
37 “Rovers”; without any definite aim. “Nature shoots not at
rovers.”-Glanville.-ED
CHRIST A COMPLETE SAVIOUR:
OR,
THE INTERCESSION OF CHRIST, AND WHO ARE PRIVILEGED IN IT.
BY JOHN BUNYAN
Advertisement by the Editor.
However strange it may appear, it is a solemn fact, that the heart of
man, unless prepared by a sense of the exceeding sinfulness of sin,
rejects Christ as a complete Saviour. The pride of human nature will
not suffer it to fall, as helpless and utterly undone, into the arms of
Divine mercy. Man prefers a partial Saviour; one who had done so much,
that, with the sinner’s aid, the work might be completed. No such were
the opinions of John Bunyan; the furnace of sharp conviction had burnt
up this proud dross; he believed the testimony of Scripture, that from
the crown of the head to the soles of the feet all nature is corrupted;
so that out of the unsanctified heart of man proceed evil thoughts,
murders, and the sad catalogue of crimes which our Lord enumerates, and
which defile our best efforts after purity of heart and life. No sinner
will ever totally rely upon the Saviour until he is sensible of his own
perishing state; hanging by the brittle thread of life over the yawning
gulf of perdition; sinking in that sin which will swallow him up in
those awful torments which await the transgressor; feeling that sin has
fitted him as stubble for the fire; then it is that the cry proceeds
from his heart, Lord, save, I perish; and then, and not till then, are
we made willing to receive ‘Christ as a complete Saviour’ to the
uttermost, not of his ability, but of our necessity. This was the
subject of all Mr. Bunyan’s writings, and, doubtless, of all his
preaching. It was to direct sinners to the Lamb of God, who alone can
take away sin. This little treatise was one of those ten ‘excellent
manuscripts’ which, at Bunyan’s decease, were found prepared for the
press. It was first published in 1692, by his friends E. Chandler, J.
Wilson, and C. Doe.
It is limited to a subject which is too often lost sight of, because it
is within the veil—the intercession of Christ as the finishing work of
a sinner’s salvation. Many persons limit the ‘looking unto Jesus’ to
beholding him upon the cross, a common popish error; but this is not
enough; we must, in our minds, follow him to the unseen world, and thus
ascend to a risen Saviour, at the right hand of the Father, making
intercession for our daily sins. And he is our ONLY Intercessor, and it
is a rejection of him, for us to seek the aid of another. Who ever was
mad enough to ask Moses to intercede for him, and surely he is as able
as Mary or any other saint? To atone for sin calls for the amazing
price of the blood of Christ, who was ‘God manifest in the flesh.’ He
undertook the work by covenant; and all the ‘saved’ form part of his
mystical body; thus perfectly obeying the law in him. He poured out his
life to open a fountain for sin and uncleanness; and as they are liable
to pollution in their passage through the world, he only is able, and
he ever liveth, to make intercession for their transgressions. Thus he
becomes a complete Saviour, and will crown, with an eternal weight of
glory, all those that put their trust in him. Beautiful, and
soul-softening, and heart-warming thoughts abound in this little work,
which cannot fail to make a lasting impression upon the reader. Bunyan
disclaims ‘the beggarly art of complimenting’ in things of such
solemnity. He describes the heart as unweldable, a remarkable
expression, drawn from his father’s trade of a blacksmith; nothing but
grace can so heat it as to enable the hammer of conviction to weld it
to Christ; and when thus welded, it becomes one with him. There is hope
for a returning backslider in a complete Saviour; he combines the
evidence of two men, the coming and the returning sinner; he has been,
like Jonah, in the belly of hell; his sins, like talking devils, have
driven him back to the Saviour. Sin brings its own punishment, from
which we escape by keeping in the narrow path. Good works save us from
temporal miseries, which ever follow an indulgence in sin; but if we
fall, we have an Advocate and Intercessor to lift us up; still, if thou
lovest thy soul, slight not the knowledge of hell, for that, with the
law, are the spurs which Christ useth to prick souls forward to
himself. O gather up thy heels and mend thy pace, or those spurs will
be in thy sides. Take heed, O persecutor; like Saul, thou art exceeding
mad, and hell is thy bedlam. Take heed of a false faith; none is true
but that which is acquired by a kneeling, searching, seeking for truth
as for hid treasure. Death is God’s bailiff, he will seize thee without
warning; but with the saints, the grave’s mouth is the final parting
place between grace and sin. Forget not that a good improvement will
make your little grace to thrive. Reader, may Divine grace indelibly
fix these wholesome truths upon our minds.
GEORGE OFFOR.
CHRIST A COMPLETE SAVIOUR.
‘WHEREFORE HE IS ABLE ALSO TO SAVE THEM TO THE UTTERMOST THAT COME UNTO
GOD BY HIM, SEEING HE EVER LIVETH TO MAKE INTERCESSION FOR
THEM.’—HEBREWS 7:25.
The apostle, in this chapter, presenteth us with two things; that is,
with the greatness of the person and of the priesthood of our Lord
Jesus.
First, He presenteth us with the greatness of his person, in that he
preferreth him before Abraham, who is the father of us all; yea, in
that he preferreth him before Melchisedec, who was above Abraham, and
blessed him who had the promises.
Second, As to his priesthood, he showeth the greatness of that, in that
he was made a priest, not by the law of a carnal commandment, but by
the power of an endless life. Not without, but with an oath, by him
that said, ‘The Lord sware, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for
ever, after the order of Melchisedec’; wherefore, ‘this man, because he
continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood.’ Now my text is drawn
from this conclusion, namely, that Christ abideth a priest continually.
‘Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto
God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.’
In the words, I take notice of four things: FIRST, Of the intercession
of Christ—He maketh intercession. SECOND, Of the benefit of his
intercession—‘Wherefore he is able to save to the uttermost,’ &c.
THIRD, We have also here set before us the persons interested in this
intercession of Christ—And they are those ‘that come unto God by him.’
FOURTH, We have also here the certainty of their reaping this benefit
by him; to wit, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for
them—‘Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come
unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.’
1
[I. OF THE INTERCESSION OF CHRIST.]
FIRST, We will begin with HIS INTERCESSION, and will show you, First,
What that is; Second, For what he intercedes; and, Third, What is also
to be inferred from Christ’s making intercession for us.
First, I begin, then, with the first; that is, to show you what
intercession is. Intercession is prayer; but all prayer is not
intercession. Intercession, then, is that prayer that is made by a
third person about the concerns that are between two. And it may be
made either to set them at further difference, or to make them friends;
for intercession may be made against, as well as for, a person or
people. ‘Wot ye not what the Scripture saith of Elias? how he maketh
intercession to God against Israel.’ (Rom 11:2) But the intercession
that we are now to speak of is not an intercession of this kind, not an
intercession against, but an intercession for a people. ‘He ever liveth
to make intercession for them.’ The high priest is ordained for, but
not to be against the people. ‘Every high priest taken from among men
is ordained for men in things pertaining to God,’ to make
reconciliation for the sins of the people; or ‘that he may offer both
gifts and sacrifices for sins.’ (Heb 5:1) This, then, is intercession;
and the intercession of Christ is to be between two, between God and
man, for man’s good. And it extendeth itself unto these: 1. To pray
that the elect may be brought all home to him; that is, to God. 2. To
pray that their sins committed after conversion may be forgiven them.
3. To pray that their graces which they receive at conversion may be
maintained and supplied. 4. To pray that their persons may be preserved
unto his heavenly kingdom.
Second, This is the intercession of Christ, or that for which he doth
make intercession.
1. He prays for all the elect, that they may be brought home to God,
and so into the unity of the faith, &c. this is clear, for that he
saith, ‘Neither pray I for these alone’; that is, for those only that
are converted; ‘but for them also which shall believe on me through
their word’; for all them that shall, that are appointed to believe;
or, as you have it a little above, ‘for them which thou hast given me.’
(John 17:9,20, Isa 53:12) And the reason is, for that he hath paid a
ransom for them. Christ, therefore, when he maketh intercession for the
ungodly, and all the unconverted elect are such, doth but petitionarily
ask for his own, his purchased ones, those for whom he died before,
that they might be saved by his blood.
2. When any of them are brought home to God, he yet prays for them;
namely, that the sins which through infirmity they, after conversion,
may commit, may also be forgiven them.
This is showed us by the intercession of the high priest under the law,
that was to bear away the iniquities of the holy things of the children
of Israel; yea, and also by his atonement for them that sinned; for
that it saith, ‘And the priest shall make an atonement for him, for his
sin which he hath sinned, and it shall be forgiven him.’ (Lev 5:10)
This also is intimated even where our Lord doth make intercession,
saying, ‘I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world,
but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.’ (John 17:15) That
Christ prayed that the converted should be kept from all manner of
commission of sin, must not be supposed, for that is the way to make
his intercession, at least in some things, invalid, and to contradict
himself; for, saith he, ‘I know that thou hearest me always.’ (John
11:42) But the meaning is, I pray that thou wouldest keep them from
soul-damning delusions, such as are unavoidably such; also that thou
wouldest keep them from the soul-destroying evil of every sin, of every
temptation. Now this he doth by his prevailing and by his pardoning
grace.
3. In his intercession he prayeth also that those graces which we
receive at conversion may be maintained and supplied. This is clear
where he saith, ‘Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you,
that he may sift you as wheat; but I have prayed for thee, that thy
faith fail not.’ (Luke 22:31,32) Ay, may some say, he is said to pray
here for the support and supply of faith, but doth it therefore follow
that he prayed for the maintaining and supply of all our graces? Yes,
in that he prayed for the preservation of our faith, he prayed for the
preservation of all our graces; for faith is the mother grace, the root
grace, the grace that hath all others in the bowels of it, and that
from the which all others flow; yea, it is that which gives being to
all our other graces, and that by which all the rest do live. Let,
then, faith be preserved, and all graces continue and live—that is,
according to the present state, health, and degree of faith. So, then,
Christ prayed for the preservation of every grace when he prayed for
the preservation of faith. That text also is of the same tendency where
he saith, ‘Keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given men.’
(John 17:11) Keep them in thy fear, in the faith, in the true religion,
in the way of life by thy grace, by thy power, by thy wisdom, &c. This
must be much of the meaning of this place, and he that excludes this
sense will make but poor work of another exposition.
4. He also in his intercession prayeth that our persons be preserved,
and brought safe unto his heavenly kingdom. And this he doth, (1.) By
pleading interest in them. (2.) By pleading that he had given, by
promise, glory to them. (3.) By pleading his own resolution to have it
so. (4.) By pleading the reason why it must be so.
(1.) He prays that their persons may come to glory, for that they are
his, and that by the best of titles: ‘Thine they were, and thou gavest
them me.’ (John 17:6) Father, I will have them; Father, I will have
them, for they are mine: ‘Thine they were, and thou gavest them me.’
What is mine, my wife, or my child, or my jewel, or my joy, sure I may
have it with me. Thus, therefore, he pleads or cries in his
intercession, that our persons might be preserved to glory: They are
mine, ‘and thou gavest them me.’2
(2.) He also pleads that he had given—given already, that is, in the
promise—glory to them, and therefore they must not go without it. ‘And
the glory which thou gavest me I have given them.’ (John 17:22)
Righteous men, when they give a good thing by promise, they design the
performance of that promise; nay, they more than design it, they
purpose, they determine it. As the mad prophet also saith of God, in
another case, ‘Hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken,
and shall he not make it good?’ (Num 23:19) Hath Christ given us glory,
and shall we not have it? Yea, hath the truth itself bestowed it upon
us, and shall those to whom it is given, even given by Scripture of
truth, be yet deprived thereof?
(3.) He pleads in his interceding that they might have glory; his own
resolution to have it so. ‘Father, I will that they also, whom thou
hast given me, be with me where I am.’ (John 17:24) Behold ye here, he
is resolved to have it so. It must be so. It shall be so. I will have
it so. We read of Adonijah, that his father never denied him in
anything. He never said to him, ‘Why hast thou done so?’ (1 Kings 1:6)
Indeed, he denied him the kingdom; for his brother was heir of that
from the Lord. How much more will our Father let our Lord Jesus have
his mind and will in this, since he also is as willing to have it so as
is the Son himself. ‘Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s
good pleasure to give you the kingdom.’ (Luke 12:32) Resolution will
drive things far, especially resolution to do that which none but they
that cannot hinder shall oppose. Why this is the case, the resolution
of our Intercessor is, that we be preserved to glory; yea, and this
resolution he pleads in his intercession: ‘Father, I will that they
also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am,’ &c. (John 17:24)
Must it not, therefore, now be so?
(4.) He also, in the last place, in this his intercession, urges a
reason why he will have it so, namely, ‘That they may behold my glory,
which thou hast given me; for thou lovedst me before the foundation of
the world.’ (verse 24) And this is a reason to the purpose; it is as if
he had said, Father, these have continued with me in my temptations;
these have seen me under all my disadvantages; these have seen me in my
poor, low, contemptible condition; these have seen what scorn,
reproach, slanders, and disgrace I have borne for thy sake in the
world; and now I will have them also be where they shall see me in my
glory. I have told them that I am thy Son, and they have believed that;
I have told them that thou lovest me, and they have believed that; I
have also told them that thou wouldest take me again to glory, and they
have believed that; but they have not seen my glory, nor can they but
be like the Queen of Sheba, they will but believe by the halves unless
their own eyes do behold it. Besides, Father, these are they that love
me, and it will be an increase of their joy if they may but see me in
glory; it will be as a heaven to their hearts to see their Saviour in
glory. I will, therefore, that those which ‘thou hast given me be with
me where I am, that they may behold my glory.’ This, therefore, is a
reason why Christ Jesus our Lord intercedes to have his people with him
in glory.
Third, I come now to the third thing, namely, to show you what is to be
inferred from Christ’s making intercession for us.
1. This is to be inferred from hence, that saints—for I will here say
nothing of those of the elect uncalled—do ofttimes give occasion of
offence to God, even they that have received grace; for intercession is
made to continue one in the favour of another, and to make up those
breaches that, at any time, shall happen to be made by one to the
alienating of the affections of the other. And thus he makes
reconciliation for iniquity; for reconciliation may be made for
iniquity two ways: first, by paying of a price; secondly, by insisting
upon the price paid for the offender by way of intercession. Therefore
you read that as the goat was to be killed, so his blood was, by the
priest, to be brought within the veil, and, in a way of intercession,
to be sprinkled before and upon the mercy-seat: ‘Then shall he kill the
goat of the sin-offering, that is, for the people, and bring his blood
within the veil, and do with that blood as he did with the blood of the
bullock, and sprinkle it upon the mercy-seat, and before the
mercy-seat; and he shall make an atonement for the holy place, because
of the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and because of their
transgressions in all their sins: and so shall he do for the tabernacle
of the congregation that remaineth among them, in the midst of their
uncleanness.’ (Lev 16:15,16) This was to be done, as you see, that the
tabernacle, which was the place of God’s presence and graces, might yet
remain among the children of Israel, notwithstanding their
uncleannesses and transgressions. This, also, is the effect of Christ’s
intercession; it is that the signs of God’s presence and his grace
might remain among his people, notwithstanding they have, by their
transgressions, so often provoked God to depart from them.
2. By Christ’s intercession I gather, that awakened men and women, such
as the godly are, dare not, after offence given, come in their own
names to make unto God an application for mercy. God, in himself, is a
consuming fire, and sin has made the best of us as stubble is to fire;
wherefore, they may not, they cannot, they dare not approach God’s
presence for help but by and through a mediator and intercessor. When
Israel saw the fire, the blackness and darkness, and heard the thunder,
and lightning, and the terrible sound of the trumpet, ‘they said unto
Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with
us, lest we die.’ (Exo 20:19, Deut 18:16) Guilt, and sense of the
disparity that is betwixt God and us, will make us look out for a man
that may lay his hand upon us both, and that may set us right in the
eyes of our Father again. This, I say, I infer from the intercession of
Christ; for, if there had been a possibility of our ability to have
approached God with advantage without, what need had there been of the
intercession of Christ?
Absalom durst not approach—no, not the presence of his father—by
himself, without a mediator and intercessor; wherefore, he sends to
Joab to go to the king and make intercession for him. (2 Sam 13,
14:32,33) Also, Joab durst not go upon that errand himself, but by the
mediation of another. Sin is a fearful thing, it will quash and quail
the courage of a man, and make him afraid to approach the presence of
him whom he has offended, though the offended is but a man. How much
more, then, shall it discourage a man, when once loaden with guilt and
shame, from attempting to approach the presence of a holy and a
sin-avenging God, unless he can come to him through, and in the name
of, an intercessor? But here now is the help and comfort of the people
of God—there is to help them under all their infirmities an intercessor
prepared, and at work. ‘He ever liveth to make intercession.’