“Thy righteousness is in heaven.”

I was recently skimming through my copy of an allegory by John Bunyan – The Holy War. It has many great pictures of the life of the believer and also the final return and rescue of the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

My copy of this book has an biographical sketch of John Bunyan. For a portion of his life he was tormented and tempted by the enemy. It was very overwhelming for him. It was in the midst of one of these attacks, when he seemed hopelessly lost, that the following quote from this sketch reads,

This experience was about the last of his misery. A voice seemed to say to him, quoting from the First Epistle of John, “This sin is not unto death.” This brought comfort to him, and then came the words, “I have loved thee with an everlasting love.” When renewed doubts came to assail him as to whether the blood of Christ was adequate for saving his wicked soul, suddenly the words sounded in his heart, “He is able.” “Methought this word “able” was spoke aloud unto me – it showed a great word – it seemed to be writ in great letters.” One day as he was passing into a field suddenly this sentence came powerfully into his soul, “Thy righteousness is in heaven.”

“Now did my chains fall off my legs indeed; I was loosened from my afflictions and irons; my temptations also fled away. . . ‘Twas glorious to me to see His exaltation, and the worth and prevalency of all His benefits; and that because now I could look from myself to Him, and would reckon that all those graces that now were green on me were yet like those cracked groats and fourpence-half-pennies that rich men carry in their purses, when their gold is in their trunks at home! In Christ my Lord and Saviour. Now Christ was all; all my righteousness, all my sanctification and all my redemption. Now could I see myself in heaven and earth at once. In heaven by my Christ, by my Head, by my righteousness and life, though on earth by body or person. Now I saw Christ Jesus was looked upon of God; and should also be looked upon as that common or public Person in whom all the whole body of His elect are always to be considered and reckoned; that we fulfilled the law by Him, died by Him, rose from the dead by Him, got the victory over sin, death, the devil, and hell by Him.” Bunyan’s times of torment were over. His soul entered upon a peace which was hardly ever afterwards to be disturbed. He had suffered great torments of mind and soul; now with the peace of God flooding his heart he was soon to experience physical suffering in a serious illness, and shortly after this a long, hard, heartbreaking imprisonment which, however, did never rob him of peace and joy in the gospel.