John Bunyan’s second most famous book, after The Pilgrim’s Progress, is his autobiographical Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners. He received the inspiration for the title from verses 14-15.
- Grace makes us thankful.
- 1:12; see 1 Cor.7:25. Christ gave him wisdom, and enabled him (NIV has ‘given me strength’).
- Acts 9:15-16. No matter how floggings, stonings, shipwrecks, imprisonments, riots, and the like, he was grateful.
- Grace makes us realise our unworthiness.
- 1:13. ‘I know not why God’s wondrous grace/ To me He has made known,’ wrote D. W. Whittle in 1883. ‘Look at my background,’ says Paul:
- a blasphemer. See Acts 26:9-11.
- persecutor. He had Stephen stoned to death, and he breathed all sorts of threats against any Christians he could get a hold of.
- an insolent opponent. We get our word ‘hubris’ from this. The English is something like ‘proud outrager’.
- Acts 3:17; 1 Cor.2:8. Numbers 15 talks about ‘sinning with a high hand’. Paul, however, was ignorant.
- Thomas Goodwin tried to coin the word ‘bemercied’.
- Grace abounds in faith and love.
- 1:14. The ESV has ‘overflowed’, but the Greek prefix is ‘hyper’. The grace of the Lord is ‘hyperabundant’. Paul liked the word ‘hyper’ – read Rom.5:20; 8:37. Bunyan could have called his autobiography Grace Super-Abounding to the Chief of Sinners. Grace ‘overdoes’ – it does what we cannot; it reaches down to the lowest and makes us recognise our lack of worthiness; and it provides faith and love for the Christian life. See 1 Cor.15:10; Eph.3:8.