In John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, there is a character that often comes to my mind as probably the most devastating character in the entire book. This character is so distressing that Christian (the pilgrim) is told to remember this person so that he would be a warning to him as he continues on his way to the Celestial City (heaven). The character in question is the man in an iron cage and Christian is taken to this man as he spends time in the house of the Interpreter.
Read the following selection from Pilgrim’s Progress as carefully and thoughtfully as you can:
So He took him by the hand again, and led him into a very dark room, where there sat a
man in an iron cage. Now the man, to look on, seemed very sad; he sat with his eyes looking down to the ground, his hands folded together, and he sighed as if he would break his heart. Then said Christian, What does this mean? At which the Interpreter told him to talk with the man. Then Said Christian to the man, What are you? The man answered, "I am what I was not once."
CHRISTIAN. What were you once?
MAN. The man said, I was once a fair and flourishing professor, both in my own eyes, and also in the eyes of others; I once was, as I thought, fair for the Celestial City, and had then even joy at the thoughts that I should get there.
CHRISTIAN. Well, but what are you now?
MAN. I am now a man of despair, and am shut up in it, as in this iron cage. I cannot get out. O now I cannot!
CHRISTIAN. But how did you come to be in this condition?
MAN. I left off to watch and be sober; I laid the reins upon the neck of my lusts; I sinned against the light of the Word, and the goodness of God; I have grieved the Spirit, and He is gone; I tempted the devil, and he is come to me; I have provoked God to anger, and He has left me; I have so hardened my heart, that I cannot repent.
Then said Christian to the Interpreter, But is there no hope for such a man as this?
Ask him, said the Interpreter.
No said Christian, Sir, please, you ask.
INTERPRETER. Is there no hope, but you must be kept in the iron cage of despair?
MAN. No, none at all.
INTERPRETER. Why, the Son of the Blessed is very pitiful.
MAN. I have crucifed Him to myself afresh; I have despised His person; I have despised His righteousness; I have “counted His blood an unholy thing”; I have “done despite to the Spirit of grace”. Therefore I have shut myself out of all the promises, and there now remains to me nothing but threatenings, dreadful threatenings, fearful threatenings of certain judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour me as an adversary.
INTERPRETER. For what did you bring yourself into this condition?
MAN. For the lusts, pleasures, and profts of this world; in the enjoyment of which I did then promise myself much delight; but now every one of those things also bite me, and gnaw me like a burning worm.
INTERPRETER. But can you not now repent and turn?
MAN. God has denied me repentance. His Word gives me no encouragement to believe; yea, Himself has shut me up in this iron cage; nor can all the men in the world let me out.
O eternity! eternity! how shall I grapple with the misery that I must meet with in eternity!
INTERPRETER. Then said the Interpreter to Christian, Let this man’s misery be remembered by you, and be an everlasting caution to you.
The man in the iron cage is under the darkness and delusion that there is no grace for him if he were to repent. What is it that this man cannot see? Why can't he see that Jesus stands waiting to forgive? Why can't he see that there is no sin so big that Jesus cannot cover? The only sin that awaits the certainty of hell is the sin of dying in unrepentance. Why can't this man simply repent?
The man is caught in the despair of his sin and the key to understanding this is to see that he is locked in a cage. He is unable to look beyond his own situation. He is so introspectively concerned about his own sin that he cannot see the wonder of Christ. He cannot see the glory of the cross. He cannot see the comprehensive nature of God's grace and power to save.
This Sunday is Easter. We celebrate the cross and particularly the victory of Jesus in his resurrection glory to give us new life. Please take this caution to Christian from the Interpreter and apply it for yourself this Easter. Let it be an everlasting caution also to you. Please know that your sin is not so big to render you hopeless while you still have breath. Sometimes the biggest problem with our sin is the lying despair that says that your sin is more powerful than your Savior. It simply is not. To believe so, is to live in a cage.
This Easter, look beyond yourself. Look to Christ.