John Bunyan’s Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners

What a marvelous work did I happen upon in picking up John Bunyan’s Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners. From the onset he describes his wretched soul, as we all as sinners have been. He tells of the dreams and warnings of the Lord which came while he was yet a child, which caused his heart to ponder such things of heaven and hell, though they soon faded as he continued in sin. He shares of finding a religious experience, which both intrigued him and shallowly gave him comfort, but in his sin was he yet still. We find that even through the rebuke of the lost to one another can change one in the flesh, yet their spirit may remain dead in trespasses and sin. Yet, through it all, the God of Heaven shares mercy and grace to a sinner who, blinded by the flesh and the devil, falls to the depth of believing there is no hope for them, for they are too much of a sinner to find forgiveness in Christ. Oh, how great a change may be shown by the religious and the hypocrite, yet merely skin deep, the heart and soul never truly knows of the conversion whereby we are sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise. Trusting not in Christ for forgiveness, though His very Words were nigh even upon his lips and fingertips, he did strive to obey the law to earn that which may only be given: salvation. Though asking God for forgiveness, it was misplaced by mere thoughts of the flesh saying ‘I can do better’ instead of putting faith in His Son’s sinless life and taking our place upon the cross. Praise be to God that dear John Bunyan indeed found salvation by grace through faith, by the mercy of God he found it, and so may every sinner that turns in faith, at the moving of the Holy Spirit, away from themselves and toward the sinless Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world.

I have just started this work, but would recommend this to any sinner desiring to know more about Christ, the new convert who has come to know Christ, and to the believer that he may remember the day they met Christ.