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Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners: Or Brief Faithful Relation Exceeding Mercy God Christ his Poor Servant John (Penguin Classics)

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A lot of us are familiar with John Bunyan as the author of The Pilgrim's Progress, whose influence in Christendom is second to the Bible. Bunyan was a preacher, a prolific writer and a shining saint for God. However when we read this book we find out that he was an atheist and infidel in his youth, enjoying sin and rebellious towards God. Inwardly he suffered from tormented nightmares of demons and judgment, but outwardly he went on pretty much as any other sinner, taking delight in sin and being the ringleader of mischief. Several times he nearly lost his life, and even though there were several close calls, still he did not turn to God. After his marriage, he participated in religious activities, went through the motions of attending church and generally lived as he pleased, each time successfully shrugging off pangs of guilt. One day, after church, while playing a sport, a voice seemed to call out to him from heaven to his soul, which said, "Wilt thou leave thy sins and go to heaven, or have thy sins and go to hell?" Bunyan was convinced it was the Lord Jesus looking down on him in displeasure. What follows details his sinking into despair, his desparate attempts at working his way into God's good graces, and his struggles with temptation and doubt. In a strange sort of way, it is comforting to read about Bunyan's struggles and identify with them because you can see how he turned out so greatly used by God. He rationalized, made excuses and tried every way to justify himself. Bunyan did not try to gloss over his motivations but gave an honest account of his struggles from avowed sinner, to religious hypocrite before he was finally converted. He describes in great detail his doubts and despair, his yearning to be converted to Jesus Christ, and then being assured of his salvation by reading the Bible and praying. Reading this book will help you realize how God's grace can abound and save even the most wretched of sinners and gives us abounding hope.

John Bunyan's journey toward saving faith parallels my own more closely than any other fellow sinner's. When I first read his story, I grabbed a pen and filled the margins, and all the while my heart whispered, "Comrade!" At once, I was comforted by the realization that though Bunyan was long gone, there had been another human being who had known the same fearsome battles waged on our behalf by the God who never relinquishes what belongs to Him. Those years when I had felt strange and apart from other believers, suddenly became "safe" to recall. For anyone who is still holding on to the arrogant belief that a person chooses God, rather than the other way around, Bunyan's story is for you. It puts all arguments to rest, leaving only humility and worship in its wake.

The Bible says "work out your salvation with fear and trembling for it is God that works in you..." This book describes the fearsome existential battle fought within the heart of John Bunyan as he worked out what it meant to be converted to Christianity. This book is not for the fearful or those who think the cost of discipleship is easy belief.

The Pilgrim's Progress is the 2nd most famous book in the world. John Bunyan is a genious and the arguments in the book are very convincing and hard to deny. Anyone who believes in "free will" would be turned around if they read this book. It clearly explains that we do not choose God, He chooses us, or rather, he CHOSE us before the foundations of the world. Everything in his book is scriptual and I love it!

I've been looking forward to reading this book for years ever since I read Bunyan's classis Pilgrim's Progress, I've wanted to read Grace Abounding to learn more about his incredible man of faith. I also recently read The Hidden Smile of God by John Piper who introduces the reader to three incredible men of God including Bunyan. So actually reading the journey of Bunyan himself in his own words was thrilled...but difficult at the same time. Bunyan struggled greatly with the concept of grace; he wrestled with understanding how God's grace could be sufficient to save a sinner as great as he. Grace Abounding is a peering into the soul of Bunyan as he goes through this deep personal battle wanting to believe that God was able to cleanse him of all unrighteousness, but constantly confronted with the holiness of the divine.

Just over half way through the book, Bunyan surrenders to the will of God in his life. He finally and fully grasp that the grace of God was truly sufficient. Then his heart is set aflame to share this grace with others and he becomes one of the great preachers and writers of all time, even though he goes on to spend a dozen years confined to prison for preaching contrary to the teachings of the Catholic Church. Personally, it was interesting to see the cultural battle Bunyan faced at the time looking back from my vantage 500 years later to see that America is the beneficiary of his great struggles with the prevailing church of the day. As Bunyan sat in prison, he wrote about the great journey from a metal worker to a pastor of the gospel of Christ - in allegory form for the Pilgrim's Progress and in autobiographical form in Grace Abounding.

I can understand why many believe this book is a classic - the thoughts and insights that Bunyan has into the Word of God were profound and significant. It was amazing to read how Scripture flowed through his mind irrigating every thought so that his life bore much fruit. I wouldn't recommend the book to a younger reader, it is a difficult read, but well worth the effort.

If Bunyan were alive today and examined by a psychiatrist, they would say he was struggling with Obsessive Compulsive disorder. This book chronicles his wrestling with his own mind, his own fears, his own anxieties. This is not to say that his battle is not also spiritual, for indeed it is that.

His fear is that he has lost his chance at salvation by cursing Jesus, somehow committing an unpardonable sin. No matter how many times he comforts himself with the truth, it seems to be pulled away from him by other fears.

Ultimately he determines that even if he is thrown into hell, he will still honor Jesus. Eventually, he is freed from this mental torment after a couple of years.

I was helped greatly by this book when in a period of intense anxiety in my own life. It was a great help to know that someone else went through similar things. I have also recommended this book to many who are currently struggling with anxiety.

It is said that before using a man greatly, God breaks him. Bunyan's dark night of the soul is here recorded. God would bring him to great weakness and then later use him greatly. This book is worth your money and time.

One side note: the book is written in a style of English that is dated. You can still follow it, but it takes a little work.

Finally! I found it! A copy of Bunyan's autobiography Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners. OK, I've been able to get it for years, but never for this cheap. $3.50 at a used bookstore in Royal Oak, MI. There it was, just sitting quietly on the shelf. So innocent, so unassuming. Lime green cover fading from either over use or neglect. I picked up the 10 books on top of it and pulled it out carefully. A modern English version too?! Score!

So far it's both what I expected and filled with surprises. Because I love Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress I've heard a lot of folks make mention of his autobiography and highly recommend it. They were right. It is good. It's an amazing chronicle of Bunyan's struggle and vacillation between trusting God's promises and believing Satan's accusations. It sheds some great light on his upbringing and life before being drawn to Christ. It speaks about his marriage, his exposure to other Christians and his favorite hobbies as a young man. What I did not expect to read was how long his struggle to believe and be assured he was in Christ actually drug on. He went back and forth between great hope and utter despair for almost 87 pages (in my copy). He reflects on this struggle and is encouraged by how the Lord used it to teach him great things that would stay with him the rest of his journey toward the heavenly city. I am also pleasantly surprised to find out how much of his personal experience was drawn upon to write the worlds most famous allegory, Pilgrim's Progress.

The book was great, I finished it a few days ago. Much of what Bunyan describes herein could've been written by me from my own conversion experience.
I highly recommend this.

Grace Abounding....is an excellent autobiography of John Bunyan and his spiritual struggle to obtain assurance of his salvation in light if his belief that he had committed the unpardonable sin. Recommended to anyone who may be facing the same struggle with this question. Each paragraph of the text is numbered and, thus, it is easy to put the book down at any point and pick it back up later without losing train of thought. Since the book was written over 300 years ago, it is interesting to have insight into the thoughts of a Christian who lived during that time and to compare with current Christian thinking.

John Bunyan's "Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners," is a priceless literary classic that communicates the author's anguish over his sin, the confession thereof, and the life-changing impact of God's saving grace. This masterwork was written while Bunyan (1628-1688) was imprisoned for holding unlicensed church services and was published in 1666.

Bunyan's eyes were opened to the wonder God's grace and Christ's imputed righteousness when he mused: "But one day, as I was passing in the field, and that too with some dashes on my conscience, fearing lest yet all was not right, suddenly this sentence fell upon my soul, Thy righteousness is in heaven; and methought withal, I saw, with the eyes of my soul, Jesus Christ at God's right hand; there, I say, as my righteousness; .. I also saw, moreover, that it was not my good frame of heart that made my righteousness better, nor yet my bad frame that made my righteousness worse; for my righteousness was
Jesus Christ himself, the same yesterday, and today, and for ever."


This treatise is a confessional account of John Bunyan's religious flight from unbelief and sacrilege to a lover of Jesus Christ.

He agonizingly records how the law revealed his sinfulness and his need of a Savior: "In my preaching of the Word, I took special notice of this one thing, namely that the Lord did lead me to begin where his Word begins with sinners; that is, to condemn all flesh, and to open and allege that the curse of God, by the law, doth belong to, and lay hold on all men as they come into the world, because of sin."

Bunyan is mostly known for his enormous bestselling classic "Pilgrim's Progress." This is a wonderful addition and makes for a stirring and edifying devotional.
One Way to God: Christian Philosophy and Presuppositional Apologetics Examine World Religions

This is a book for any Christian struggling with sin, which ought to be all of them. Bunyan believes, early in the book, that he has lost his salvation and is surely doomed. Which one of us has not questioned this at one time or another? I have found his experiances, in more than one case, exactly mirror my own. Its encouraging to hear that a Christian of his calibre is struggling with the same things I am. Its been easy for me to think about the apostles and other Christian giants of the past, C.S. Lewis, John Bunyan, etc, to have realized the truth early and just cruised through life due to thier incredible morale courage. The truth is they struggled just as hard as we have and had to rely on God just as much as we do. This book demonstrates that fact well, at the same time giving encouragement to those of us who are struggling with the battle for our souls. This book is fairly dificult to read due to it s 17th century script, but taken slowly makes perfect sense. Bunyans' other books are worth looking into as well.