Works of John Bunyan — Volume 02

by John Bunyan

2. That which you have asserted is: That the errand about which Christ came, was, as the effecting our deliverance out of that sinful state we had brought ourselves into, so to put us again in possession of that holiness which we had lost; for that, you say, is the business of your book (p. 12). Wherefore you should have told us in the head of this chapter, not so much that our Saviour designed the promoting of holiness in general by his life, but that the whole design of our Saviour's life and conversation, was to put us again into possession of that holiness which we had lost, into a possession of that natural, old covenant, figurative, ignorant holiness. But it seems you count that there is no other than that now lost, but never again to be obtained holiness, that was in Adam.

3. Farther, you also falter here, as to the stating of the proposition; for in the beginning of your book, you state it thus: That the enduing men with inward real righteousness, or true holiness, was the ultimate end of our Saviour's coming into the world, still meaning the holiness we lost in Adam. You should therefore in this place also, have minded your reader of this your proposition, and made it manifest if you could, 'that the ultimate end of our Saviour's whole life and conversation, was the enduing men with this Adamitish holiness.' But holiness, and that holiness, is alone with you; and to make it his end, and whole end; his business, and the whole business of his life; is but the same with you.

But you must know, that the whole life and conversation of our Saviour, was intended for another purpose, than to drive us back to, or to endue us with, such an holiness and righteousness as I have proved this to be.

You have therefore, in this your discourse, put an insufferable affront upon the Son of God, in making all his life and conversation to centre and terminate in the holiness we had lost: As if the Lord Jesus was sent down from heaven, and the word of God made flesh; that by a perfect life and conversation, he might shew us how holy Adam was before he fell; or what an holiness that our holiness was, which we had before we were converted.

Your discourse therefore, of the life and conversation of the Lord Jesus, is none other than heathenish: For you neither treat of the principle, his Godhead, by which he did his works; neither do you in the least, in one syllable, aver the first, the main and prime reason of this his conversation; only you treat of it so far, as a mean man might have considered it. And indeed it stood not with your design to treat aright with these things; for had you mentioned the first, though but once, your Babel had tumbled about your ears; for if in the holy Jesus did 'dwell the word,' one of the three in heaven; or if the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ was truly, essentially, and naturally God; then must the principle from whence his works did proceed, be better than the principle from whence proceeded the goodness in Adam; otherwise Adam must be God and man. Also you do, or may know that the self-same act may be done from several principles: and again, that it is the principle from whence the act is done, and not the bare doing of the act, that makes it better or worse accepted, in the eyes either of God or men.

Now then, to shew you the main, or chief design of the life and conversation of the Lord Jesus.

First, It was not to shew us what an excellent holiness we once had in Adam, but that thereby God, the Eternal Majesty, according to his promise, might be seen by, and dwell with, mortal men: For the Godhead being altogether in its own nature invisible, and yet desirous to be seen by, and dwell with the children of men; therefore was the Son, who is the self-same substance with the Father, closed with, or tabernacled in our flesh; that in that flesh, the nature and glory of the Godhead might be seen by, and dwell with us: 'The word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, [and we beheld his glory, (what glory? the glory,) as of the only begotten of the Father] full of grace and truth' (John 1:14). Again, 'The life [that is, the life of God, in the works and conversation of Christ] was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us' (1 John 1:2). And hence he is called the image of the invisible God (Col 1:15); or he by whom the invisible God is most perfectly presented to the sons of men. Did I say before, that the God of glory is desirous to be seen of us? Even so also, have the pure in heart, a desire that it should be so: 'Lord, say they, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us' (John 14:8). And therefore the promise is for their comfort, that 'they shall see God' (Matt 5:8). But how then must they see him? Why, in the person, and by the life and works of Jesus. When Philip, under a mistake, thought of seeing God some other way, than in and by this Lord Jesus Christ; What is the answer? 'Have I been so long time with you, [saith Christ] and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me, hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father, that dwelleth in me, he doth the works. Believe me, that I am in the Father, and the Father in me; or else believe me for the very works' sake' (John 14:9-11). See here, that both the words and works of the Lord Jesus, were not to shew you, and so to call you back to the holiness that we had lost, but to give us visions of the perfections that are in the Father. He hath given us 'the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ' (2 Cor 4:6). And hence it is, that the apostle, in that brief collection of the wonderful mystery of godliness, placeth this in the front thereof: 'God was manifest in the flesh' (1 Tim 3:16). Was manifest, viz. In and by the person of Christ, when in the flesh he lived among us; manifest, I say, for this, as one reason, that the pure in heart, who long after nothing more, might see him. 'I beseech thee,' said Moses, 'shew me thy glory.'[17] 'and will God indeed dwell with men on the earth?' saith Solomon.

Now to fulfil the desires of them that fear him, hath he shewed himself in flesh unto them; which discovery principally is made by the words and works of Christ. But,

Second, Christ by his words and works of righteousness, in the days of his flesh, neither shewed us which was, nor called us back to the possession of the holiness that we had lost; but did perfect, in, and by himself, the law for us, that we had broken. Man being involved in sin and misery, by reason of transgression committed against the law, or ministration of death, and being utterly unable to recover himself therefrom, the Son of God himself assumeth the flesh of man, and for sin condemned sin in that flesh. And that first, by walking, through the power of his eternal Spirit, in the highest perfection to every point of the whole law, in its most exact and full requirements; which was to be done, not only without commixing sin in his doing, but by one that was perfectly without the least being of it in his nature; yea, by one that now as God-Man, because it was God whose law was broken, and whose justice was offended: For, were it now possible to give a man possession of that holiness that he hath lost in Adam, that holiness could neither in the principle nor act deliver from the sin by him before committed. This is evident by many reasons: 1. Because it is not a righteousness able to answer the demands of the law for sin; that requiring not only a perfect abiding in the thing commanded, but a satisfaction by death, for the transgression committed against the law. 'The wages of sin is death' (Rom 6:23). Wherefore he that would undertake the salvation of the world, must be one who can do both these things; one that can perfectly do the demands of the law in thought, word, and deed, without the least commixture of the least sinful thought in the whole course of his life: He must be also able to give by death, even by the death that hath the curse of God in it, a complete satisfaction to the law for the breach thereof. Now this could none but Christ accomplish; none else having power to do it. 'I have power [said he] to lay down my life, and I have power to take it again: And this commandment have I received of my Father' (John 10:18). This work then must be done, not by another earthly Adam, but by the Lord from Heaven; by one that can abolish sin, destroy the devil, kill death, and rule as Lord in heaven and earth. Now the words and works of the Lord Jesus, declared him to be such an one. He was first without sin; then he did no sin; neither could either the devil, the whole world, or the law, find any deceit in his mouth: But by being under the law, and walking in the law, by that Spirit which was the Lord God of the law, he not only did always the things that pleased the Father, but by that means in man's flesh, he did perfectly accomplish and fulfil that law which all flesh stood condemned by. It is a foolish and an heathenish thing, nay worse, to think that the Son of God should only, or specially fulfil, or perfect the law, and the prophets, by giving more and higher instances of moral duties than were before expressly given (p. 17). This would have been but the lading of men with heavy burthens. But know then, whoever thou art that readest, that Christ's exposition of the law was more to shew thee the perfection of his own obedience, than to drive thee back to the holiness thou hadst lost; for God sent him to fulfil it, by doing it, and dying to the most sore sentence it could pronounce: not as he stood a single person, but common,[18] as Mediator between God and man; making up in himself the breach that was made by sin, betwixt God and the world. For,

Third, He was to die as a lamb, as a lamb without blemish, and without spot, according to the type; 'Your lamb shall be without blemish' (Exo 12:5). But because there was none such to be found BY and AMONG all the children of men; therefore God sent HIS from heaven. Hence John calls him the Lamb of God (John 1:29), and Peter him that was without spot, who washed us by his blood (1 Peter 1:19). Now wherein doth it appear that he was without spot and blemish, but as he walked in the law? These words therefore without spot are the sentence of the law, who searching him could find nothing in him why he should be slain, yet he died because there was sin: Sin! where? Not in him, but in his people; 'For the transgression of my people was he stricken' (Isa 53:8). He died then for our sins, and qualified himself so to do, by coming sinless into the world, and by going sinless through it; for had he not done both these, he must have died for himself. But being God, even in despite of all that stumble at him, he conquered death, the devil, sin, and the curse, by himself, and then sat down at the right hand of God.