Christian's Book and His Burden

When we meet Christian at the beginning of Pilgrim's Progress, there are two things in particular that characterise him. Bunyan says

I saw a man clothed with rags, standing in a certain place, with his face from his own house, a book in his hand, and a great burden upon his back (p11).

Let's just note these two details.

First, the BOOK. From the very outset, Christian's book has a profound effect on him: "as he read, he wept and trembled; and not being able longer to contain, he brake out with a lamentable cry, saying, What shall I do?' (p11). It is obvious that the book represents the Bible; but it is not the only representation of the Bible in Pilgrim's Progress. That is part of the nature of the allegory: that it builds up the composite picture. So the Bible is represented by a parchment roll, which Evangelist gave to Christian (p12), by the inscription over the wicket-gate, which said 'Knock, and it shall be opened unto you' (p26), by the key which opened the door in doubting castle, and by several other images.

Two important details are worth highlighting. First, there is the effect the book had on Christian. It was what awoke him to the urgency of his situation. His book informed him about his own situation and the situation of his city. He says to his family:

I, your dear friend, am in myself undone, by reason of a burden that lieth hard upon me; moreover, I am for certain informed that this our city will be burned with fire from heaven; in which fearful overthrow, both myself, with thee, my wife, and you, my sweet babes, shall miserably come to ruin, except (the which I see not) some way of escape can be found, whereby we may be delivered (p11).

Bunyan wants to show to us that the word of God is indeed living and powerful, piercing to the depths of a man's being, and discerning the thoughts of the heart. Christian had read the book, and was overwhelmed by the threat of judgement, exposed as he discovered himself to be to the holiness and majesty of God.

I want to make two points about this. First, it seems that the portrayal of Christian in these opening paragraphs corresponds very much to the way in which Bunyan himself came to a saving knowledge of Christ. For Bunyan, it was over a period of four years that he came to understand the Gospel, and when the Holy Spirit began working in his life, it was very much with the conviction of his own ruin and lostness.

I think we can expand on this by saying, secondly, that the Puritans generally understood this to be the experience of those in whose hearts God was at work. You know by now that my favourite Puritan is the eighteenth century pastor, Jonathan Edwards, who has a sermon on Hosea 5:15, "I will go and return to my place till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face; in their affliction they will seek me early", in which he summarises the doctrine of the verse as follows: "It is God's manner to make men sensible of their misery and unworthiness, before he appears in his mercy and love to them" (vol 2, p830). He goes on to say, "Joseph's revealing himself to his brethren is probably typical of Christ's revealing himself to the soul of a sinner, making known himself in his love, and in his near relation of a brother, and a redeemer of his soul. But before Joseph revealed himself to them, they were made to reflect upon themselves, and say, 'we are verily guilty'" (vol 2, p832).

The same doctrine can be illustrated from many of the Puritan theologies. Thomas Goodwin, in his treatise on the work of the Holy Ghost in our salvation, highlights the fact that John 16:6 ascribes this convicting work to the Holy Spirit, and says that such conviction is a vital element of conversion:

By this work of humiliation, the heart is for ever weaned from the comfort that is in sin, or in any creature, so as never to be quiet till it meets with God, the God of comforts. For if this apprehension, that sin is the greatest evil, season but a man's spirit once, it sours all pleasant things with him, they have lost their taste for ever; and nothing can be so good to him as sin is evil, but only God ... and then a man will take God and his favour for a comfort alone (Vol vi,382).

John Owen talks about the Holy Spirit preparing a soul for regeneration in two ways: illumination and conviction. Illumination includes the Holy Spirit making the Word of God clear to the mind, enabling the mind to agree to the truth, and enabling the mind to agree that this truth is the only way of righteousness. But more illumination is necessary:

The second thing that happens is that the Holy Spirit brings conviction of sin. This is also brought about by the preaching of the Word. The soul begins to feel a disturbing sense of its guilt as it is brought to face the righteous demands of God's law. It begins to feel a sense of sorrow or grief for the sins it has done. They are now past and can no longer be put right. This leads the soul to feel humbled for its sinfulness."

(John Owen, The Holy Spirit, abridged and made easy to read by R.J.K. Law, p53).

The Puritans were sensitive enough to realise that the degree of conviction of sin was very varied. Not everyone has the same level of conviction; but unless we have some sense of sin, there is something wrong. The Holy Spirit, working through the Word, convinces men of their sin and misery, and enlightens their minds in the knowledge of Christ.

This, then, was the result of the reading of the book. Yet the effect was incomplete. When Pilgrim's Progress opens, Christian is aware of the need, but not as yet of the solution. For this, he must go to Evangelist, who points him to a gate and says to him to take heed to the inscription over it. Bunyan wants to teach us the importance of preaching which is coordinate with the reading of the Scriptures. This opens another interesting subject: the Puritan attitude to church life and worship. For the Puritans, the essence of worship was simplicity, because its goal was the honour of God through the communication of spiritual knowledge. "Our principal care and desire," they said, "is to administer ... the ordinances of Christ himself ... in their native purity and simplicy, without any dressing or painting of human inventions" (John Cotton, quoted in Leland Ryken Worldly Saints, p123). The Puritan emphasis on preaching is not in spite of but because of the strong emphasis on the Word as sufficient to give knowledge of God. The breaking down of the word and the preaching of the Gospel is what makes the appearance of Evangelist so important, as Christian is shown the direction in which he is to go for help.

There is, however, another point which Bunyan wants us to take on board. When Christian left the city of Destruction, there were two men who tried to persuade him to go back. They were Obstinate and Pliable (like many names in Pilgrim's Progress, their names represent feelings, emotions and patterns of behaviour found among men; thus Obstinate represents a stubborn and immoveable point of view. Pliable is the opposite -- he represents fickleness, a readiness to believe anything). Both stubbornness and fickleness can put a man off becoming a Christian. Listen, however, to this part of the conversation:

OBSTINATE. What are the things you seek, since you leave all the world to find them?

CHRISTIAN. I seek an inheritance, incorruptible, undefiled and that fadeth not away, and it is laid up in heaven, and safe there, to be bestowed, at the time appointed, on them that diligently seek it. Read it so, if you will, in my book.

OBSTINATE. Tush, said Obstinate, away with your book; will you go back with us, or no?

CHRISTIAN. No, not I, saith the other; because I have laid my hand to the plough (p14).

Obstinate, however, goes back, because he is unwilling to take up consideration of the book. Pliable goes on with Christian, and Christian tells him about the things in the book; the conversation ensues.

PLIABLE. The hearing of this is enough to ravish one's heart; but are these things to be enjoyed? How shall we get to be sharers thereof?

CHRISTIAN. The Lord, the governor of the country, hath recorded that in this book, the substance of which is, if we be truly willing to have it, he will bestow it upon us freely.

PLIABLE. Well, my good companion, glad I am to hear of these things; come on, let us mend our pace (p16).

Pliable was willing to go along with Christian for the benefits and blessings Christian describes, but at the first hurdle he had had enough, and went back. For all his enjoyment of the things Christian was describing, he never read the book for himself, never came under conviction, never realised his true condition. The portrayal of both Obstinate and Pliable is a warning and a call to us to make the word of God central to our Christian lives: the one refused to read and consider its contents, while the other skirted around its promises without paying attention to its warnings. We need the book, and we need to be men and women of the book.

Secondly, let's look at Christian's BURDEN. What does it represent? On first reading Pilgrim's Progress it might appear that his burden represents SIN. But there are two things that guard against that interpretation. First, everyone in the city of Destruction is a sinner: that is why the city is exposed to God's judgement. But only Christian has a burden. Second, although Christian loses his burden at the cross, he does not lose his sin there. Indeed, he has reason to bemoan his sin on several occasions after being to the cross, as Faithful and Hopeful do also. Bunyan's doctrine of sanctification is that sin is something we never lose until the end of the pilgrimage.

The burden must represent a conscious sense of personal sin and guilt before God. The book has demonstrated to Christian that the entire city is exposed to God's justly deserved anger. But it awakens for Christian the cry; 'What shall I do to be saved?' (cf. Acts 16:30). And in his dialogue with Evangelist, Christian's fear is that 'this burden that is upon my back will sink me lower than the grave' (p12). It is not enough to know that the world deserves God's wrath in a general sense. Not until we see ourselves as exposed to that same judgement can the Gospel come to have any impact upon us.

It is true that many are drawn into the kingdom by the love of Christ, and that the degree of the conviction of our sin will vary. But unless we have a sense of our need, why will we seek the remedy? We must be rid of our burden if we are to know the Gospel's liberty and God's peace in our souls.

ŠIain D. Campbell 2003