Part 13: The Man in the Iron Cage
"Take
care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading
you to fall away from the living God."
Hebrews 3:12 (ESV)
Christian has now been through several
rooms in the Interpreter's House, and each lesson has revealed something that
he needs to understand before continuing his journey. The Interpreter has shown
him the faithful servant, the dusty room, Passion and Patience, the fire that
continued to burn and the palace guarded by armed men. Each lesson has revealed
something about the Christian life, yet Christian is still carrying the burden
that brought him out of the City of Destruction. The Interpreter is not finished
with him. He takes Christian into another room, and there he sees a man sitting
inside an iron cage.
The sight of this man immediately
troubles Christian. His eyes are looking towards the ground, his hands are
folded together and he is sighing as though his heart might break. Christian
asks who he is, and the man's answer is very revealing. He tells Christian that
he is what he was not once. Christian naturally wants to know what he was once,
and the man explains that he had been a fair and flourishing professor, both in
his own eyes and in the eyes of others. He had believed himself to be on the
way to the Celestial City and had even experienced joy when he thought about
arriving there. Yet now he describes himself as a man of despair, shut up in an
iron cage, and he sees no way of escape.
This is quite a change from the man he
says he once was.
Christian wants to know how he came
into such a condition, and the man's answer is sobering. He tells Christian
that he stopped watching and being sober. He gave himself over to his lusts. He
sinned against the light of the Word and the goodness of God. He says that he
grieved the Spirit, tempted the devil, provoked God to anger and hardened his
heart until he could no longer repent.
There is a progression here that is
difficult to ignore. The man did not describe himself as someone who had never
known anything about God. He had made a profession. He believed himself to be
on the way to the Celestial City. He had experienced joy concerning the things
of God. Yet he became careless, allowed his desires to take control and
continued in a direction that eventually brought him to a place of complete
despair.
Peter writes, "Be sober minded; be watchful. Your adversary the
devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour."
1 Peter 5:8 (ESV)
Peter's words immediately bring the
man's testimony to mind. He tells Christian that he stopped watching and being
sober, while Peter warns us to remain sober minded and watchful. Bunyan has
already shown us that the Christian pilgrimage is not a journey without danger.
Christian has encountered those who would turn him away from the narrow road,
and now he is being shown what can happen when a person becomes careless with
the things of God.
There is something else here that has
caused me to stop and think about Christian's journey. How is Christian able to
receive all these lessons in the Interpreter's House before he reaches the
Cross? Jesus tells Nicodemus, "Unless one
is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." John 3:3 (ESV):
Christian has not yet reached the Cross; his burden is still upon his back, yet
he is clearly being shown things that have spiritual meaning.
Perhaps we have been looking at this
the wrong way.
Christian does not appear to
understand everything that God is doing in his life. He knows that something is
wrong. He knows that he is in danger. He has opened the Book and discovered his
condition. He has listened to Evangelist, sought the Wicket Gate and entered
the Interpreter's House. Something has already happened to this man, even
though he has not yet reached the place where his burden will finally fall from
his back.
Sometimes a person can notice that
something is changing before they understand what is causing it. I can speak to
this from my own experience. I was very much about wine, women and song, yet
before I returned to South Africa, what had once been relatively easy to
achieve suddenly became strangely difficult. At the time, I could not
understand why. I simply noticed that something had changed. I certainly was
not thinking that God was dealing with me or preparing me for the Gospel. I
simply knew that something was different. Looking back now, I can see that He
was dealing with me long before I understood what He was doing.
I wonder how many of us could look
back and recognise something similar? Perhaps there were circumstances that
made no sense at the time, desires that began to lose their appeal, or things
that once satisfied us that suddenly seemed strangely empty. We may have put it
down to circumstances or simply to getting older, never considering that God
might be dealing with us before we had any understanding of it. I am not
suggesting that every change in our lives is God preparing us for salvation,
but having experienced it myself, I cannot help but look at Christianity
differently. He knows something is wrong; he knows he needs deliverance, but he
does not yet understand what God is doing. Could Bunyan be showing us a man
beginning to see his condition before he understands the hand that is leading
him towards the answer? Perhaps that is a question each of us should consider
when we look back over our own lives.
Jesus said, "No
one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him." John
6:44 (ESV). That is worth considering alongside the Christian's journey. He is
not finding his own way to God through human wisdom. He has been awakened to
his condition and is being directed towards the place where his burden will
finally be removed. He does not understand everything, but that should not
surprise us. We do not understand everything at the Cross either. The Cross is
where the burden is removed. It is not where our education suddenly ends.
Christian still has a long pilgrimage ahead of him
after he reaches the Cross. There will be temptation, suffering, false
teaching, spiritual conflict, and many more lessons before he reaches Celestial
City. The Parable of the Sower comes to mind here, because Jesus tells us that
some receive the Word with joy, yet when tribulation or persecution arises
because of the Word, they stumble. Hearing the Word is not the end of the
matter. What happens afterwards matters. Perhaps this is part of what Bunyan is
showing us by placing the Interpreter's House where he does. Christian is being
prepared for what lies ahead, and the Interpreter is helping him understand
things he could not yet grasp while he was still content to remain in the City
of Destruction.
This makes the image of the man in the iron cage
even more sobering, as Christian is shown what can happen when a man receives
light and then grows careless with it. We must not soften that warning, but
neither should we forget the abundance of God's grace. I can say that from
experience because when I look back at the man I was, I know that God has shown
me a patience I did not deserve, and I continue to experience that patience
today. Samson gives us another
remarkable example. His choices brought terrible consequences, including
blindness, captivity and humiliation, yet when he cried out to God, the Lord
heard him and restored his strength. His story does not make his sin
acceptable, but it does show us something of God's mercy. "and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with
the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus."
1 Timothy 1:14 (ESV)
Christian is deeply affected by what
he has heard and asks whether there is any hope for such a man. The Interpreter
tells him to ask the man himself, but Christian asks the Interpreter to do it.
The man's answer is filled with despair. He believes there is no hope for him.
Christian reminds him that the Son of the Blessed is very pitiful, yet the man
believes that he has gone beyond the reach of mercy. He speaks of despising
Christ, His righteousness and His blood, and of doing despite to the Spirit of
grace.
The language Bunyan uses here takes us
directly into the warnings of Hebrews.
"How
much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has
trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant,
and has outraged the Spirit of grace?" Hebrews 10:29 (ESV)
These are difficult words, and Bunyan
does not make them any easier. The man believes that he has deliberately turned
away from the truth he once professed, and now he sees nothing before him
except judgment. He believes that he has hardened his heart to such an extent
that repentance is no longer possible.
This is where we need to be careful
about what Bunyan is actually showing us. It would be very easy to decide
exactly who this man represents theologically. Was he truly converted and then
lost his salvation? Or was he someone who had made a profession but had never
possessed saving faith? Bunyan does not stop here to settle that question for
us. He allows the man to tell Christian what has happened to him, and then the
Interpreter tells Christian to remember what he has seen as an everlasting
caution.
We do not need to force an answer
where Bunyan has not provided one. We can heed the warning and allow the
Scriptures to speak alongside it.
The man also says that he has grieved
the Spirit and that the Spirit is gone. Those words take us back to what we
have already considered in the Interpreter's House. The Holy Spirit has been
brought before us as the Spirit of truth, the One who teaches and guides God's
people. Paul tells the believers at Ephesus, "And
do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of
redemption." Ephesians 4:30 (ESV)
The man then tells Christian what brought him to
this condition. It was the lusts, pleasures and profits of this world. These
were the things he had promised himself he would delight in, yet they have now
become a source of misery. What he once believed would satisfy him has turned
against him, and he describes them as biting and gnawing him like a burning
worm. Judas Iscariot is a sobering example of this very thing. He was entrusted
with the money bag, yet his love of money eventually led him to betray his
Master. When the consequences finally became clear, the thirty pieces of silver
that had once seemed worth the price of his betrayal offered him no comfort. He
returned the money, confessed, "I have sinned
by betraying innocent blood," and then went away and took his own
life. Matthew 27:3 to 5. What had appeared to be worth having became a terrible
burden once the reality of what he had done caught up with him. Sin has a way
of hiding the price until after the purchase has been made.
Is that not so often the way sin
works? We see what it promises before we see what it costs. The pleasure comes
first, and the consequences often arrive later. We tell ourselves that we are
in control, yet the very thing we have chosen can eventually become the thing
that controls us. The man in the iron cage now sees the consequences of choices
that once appeared to offer him pleasure.
The Interpreter tells Christian to
remember the man's misery as an everlasting caution. Christian's response is
revealing. He asks God to help him watch and be sober, and to pray that he
might shun the cause of this man's misery. Bunyan then has Christian ask
whether it is time to continue on his way, but the Interpreter tells him to
stay because there is one more thing he wants to show him. I think this is
worth considering, because Christian believes he is ready to continue, yet the
Interpreter knows there is still something Christian needs to see before he
leaves the house.
Christian has entered by the right
way, but he still needs to be taught. He has seen things, but he does not yet
understand everything. He is moving towards the Cross, but there are still
lessons that must be learned before he leaves.
That is important because the
Christian pilgrimage does not begin with complete understanding, nor does it
suddenly produce complete understanding at the Cross. God deals with us,
teaches us and reveals things to us as we walk. Sometimes we only recognise
afterwards what He was doing before we had the understanding to recognise it.
Bunyan's Christian is being prepared
for something he does not yet fully understand. He is carrying a burden that he
cannot remove himself, and he is being brought towards the place where he will
finally discover what Christ has accomplished for him. The Interpreter has
shown him many things, and the man in the iron cage has given him another
warning to carry with him.
The burden is still upon his back; the
Cross is still ahead of him, and there is still one more lesson waiting before
he leaves the Interpreter's House.
Signing off
Tyrone
Scripture
References:
John 3:3; John 6:44; Matthew 13:20 to 21; Matthew 27:3 to 5; Judges 16:28 to
30; Luke 8:13; Hebrews 3:12; Hebrews 6:4 to 6; Hebrews 10:26 to 29; 1 Peter
5:8; Ephesians 4:30; 1 Timothy 1:14; 1 Thessalonians 5:6.
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