Derek Thomas

Now, ours is an age that doesn't think about death the way the 17th century thought about death.

The 17th century was surrounded by death.

Children, for example, the death of children in the 17th century.

The majority of children died in childbirth.

John Owen, for example, had 11 children.

Ten of them died in infancy.

And the one that survived died in her mid-20s or so.

So Pilgrim's Progress is a tract to help Christians understand the reality of death and to be able to face it with assurance, with expectation, with hope, with confidence.

That although we may fear the process of dying, we have no need to be afraid of death itself because Christ has conquered death by His resurrection from the dead.

We are in union with one who is alive.

We are in union with the resurrected Christ.

So in one sense, we have died in Christ and we are alive in Christ already.

So the whole point of Pilgrim's Progress and much of the literature of the 17th century, the sermons of Puritans like John Bunyan, was designed to bring confidence and assurance for those who believe and trust in the gospel, for those who trust in Christ alone for salvation, that death holds no fear.

Christ has conquered the grave and death and hell and Satan himself.

But.

There is a struggle in death, and it's fascinating here that Christian experienced the process of death in the allegory of crossing the river.

He experienced it with a far greater sense of struggle than hopeful did.

The question that was asked, is the river as deep in every place?

And the answer was no.

And actually, the river was as deep as was your faith.