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John Bunyan
John Bunyan (1628–1688). Born in November 1628 in Elstow, Bedfordshire, England, to a tinker’s family, John Bunyan became a Puritan preacher and author, best known for The Pilgrim’s Progress. Largely self-educated, he learned to read and write at a village school but worked as a tinker like his father. After a tumultuous youth, he served in the Parliamentary army during the English Civil War (1644–1646) and married in 1649, adopting his wife’s Puritan faith, which deepened after reading her books, The Plain Man’s Pathway to Heaven and The Practice of Piety. Converted in the 1650s through Baptist preaching, he joined a nonconformist church in Bedford and began preaching in 1656, known for passionate, accessible sermons. Imprisoned for 12 years (1660–1672) under the Restoration for unlicensed preaching, he wrote Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners (1666). Released, he pastored the Bedford church and wrote The Pilgrim’s Progress (1678), a global Christian classic, followed by The Life and Death of Mr. Badman (1680) and The Holy War (1682). Married twice—first to an unnamed wife (died 1656), then to Elizabeth (1659)—he had six children. Bunyan died on August 31, 1688, in London from a fever, saying, “Weep not for me, but for yourselves; I go to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
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John Bunyan preaches about the concept of unconditional pardon from God, illustrating it through the story of a man who received a royal pardon despite his treason. He emphasizes that just as the man should honor his king by believing in the pardon, believers should trust in God's mercy and the sacrifice of Christ, rather than being troubled by their past sins. Bunyan reassures that despite the accusations from the devil, the law, and one's own conscience, the promise of eternal life through Jesus remains steadfast. He encourages the congregation to embrace this divine pardon and not be swayed by reminders of their former lives.
Scriptures
Unconditional Pardon
There was a certain man that had committed treason against his king; but for as much as the king had compassion on him, he sent him, by the hand of a faithful messenger, a pardon under his own hand and seal. But in the country where this poor man dwelt there were also many that sought to trouble him, by often putting him in mind of his treason, and the law that was to be executed on the offender. Now, how should this man honour his king? Surely, by believing the king's handwriting, which was his pardon! Certainly he would honour him more by so doing, than to have regard to all the clamours of his enemies continually against him. "Just so it is here. Thou having committed treason against the King of heaven, he, through compassion for Christ's sake, hath sent thee a pardon. But the devil, the law, and thy conscience, do continually seek to disturb thee, by bringing thy sin afresh into thy remembrance. But now, wouldst thou honour thy King? Why then, He that believeth the record that God hath given of his Son, hath set to his seal that God is true. "And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son" (1 John 5: 11, 12). And therefore, my brethren, seeing God our Father hath sent to us, damnable traitors, a pardon from heaven, (even all the promises of the gospel) and also hath sealed the certainty of it with the heart-blood of his dear Son, let us not be daunted, though our enemies with terrible voices do bring our former life never so often into our remembrance."
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John Bunyan (1628–1688). Born in November 1628 in Elstow, Bedfordshire, England, to a tinker’s family, John Bunyan became a Puritan preacher and author, best known for The Pilgrim’s Progress. Largely self-educated, he learned to read and write at a village school but worked as a tinker like his father. After a tumultuous youth, he served in the Parliamentary army during the English Civil War (1644–1646) and married in 1649, adopting his wife’s Puritan faith, which deepened after reading her books, The Plain Man’s Pathway to Heaven and The Practice of Piety. Converted in the 1650s through Baptist preaching, he joined a nonconformist church in Bedford and began preaching in 1656, known for passionate, accessible sermons. Imprisoned for 12 years (1660–1672) under the Restoration for unlicensed preaching, he wrote Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners (1666). Released, he pastored the Bedford church and wrote The Pilgrim’s Progress (1678), a global Christian classic, followed by The Life and Death of Mr. Badman (1680) and The Holy War (1682). Married twice—first to an unnamed wife (died 1656), then to Elizabeth (1659)—he had six children. Bunyan died on August 31, 1688, in London from a fever, saying, “Weep not for me, but for yourselves; I go to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”