Roger Duke
2 hours ago2 min read
Roger Duke
1 day ago2 min read
Roger Duke
2 days ago2 min read
February 16 - I Believe God Awakes the Dead
Roger Duke
“So, the captain came and said to him [Jonah], ‘What do you mean, you sleeper?’”
Jonah 1: 6
This entry is taken from Daily Readings - John Bunyan a 366 day devotional edited by (and posted with permission from) Roger D. Duke, Scholar-in-Residence at Stage & Story, and published by Christian Heritage Press.
Each month focuses on a different book or writing by Bunyan. For February: My Confession of Faith (or A Confession of My Faith and a Reason of My Practice, or, With Who, and Who Not, I can Hold Church-fellowship, or the Communion of Saints)
[I believe] . . . men by nature, are not only dead in sins, but enemies in their minds by reason of wicked works: The call then is this: Awake you who sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ will give thee light. (Ephesians 5.14). Understand; therefore, that effectual calling is like that word of Christ that raised Lazarus from the dead. A word attended with an arm that was omnipotent. Lazarus come forth! With a word to the dead; but not only so. It was a word for the dead. A word that raised him from the dead. A word that outwent all opposition and that brought him forth out of the grave though bound hand and foot therein (John 11: 43; Ephesians 2: 1-2: Hebrews 10: 32; Galatians 1: 15; Acts 9).
And hence it is that calling; it is sometimes expressed by quickening, awakening, illuminating, or bringing them forth of darkness to light that amazed and astonished those who witnessed it. For it is a strange thing for a man that lay long dead, or never saw the light with his eyes to be raised out of the grave; Or for him to be made to see that which he could not so much as once think of before—so it is with effectual calling (1 Peter 2: 9). Hence . . . Peter said, he hath called us out of darkness into his marvelous light (Ephesians 4: 21: Acts 7: 2). In effectual calling the voice of God is heard, and the gates of heaven are opened—when God called Abraham, he appeared to him in glory.
John Bunyan was a preacher, theologian and author, whose best-known work, The Pilgrim's Progress, has challenged and influenced readers for almost 350 years.
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