This morning’s passage describes for us the life of a true Christian. As all the proverbs do, it gives us a snapshot of what it means to live by faith and be a true follower of Jesus Christ. These proverbs are so helpful in that regard. They give us a clear indication of those distinctive traits of a Christian and they separate out for us what really marks a true believer as opposed to an unbeliever or someone who merely professes the faith (but has no true inward faith).
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Proverbs 15:24
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If you have a different version than the one I am using you may have a slightly different translation. As you see here, the ESV uses the word prudent. The Hebrew word is Shakal. There are a number of words in the Bible for wisdom. This one has a special nuance. It has to do with a special process of thinking.
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The Greek translation gets at it good when it translates it by saying that the person who is on the path here is one who is “mentally put together.”
This is the description that is used to describe a Christian. He is one who is mentally put together. He is one who is using a special process of thinking. In other words, he is one who has been illumined by the Holy Spirit and has a distinct grasp of the issues at hand. He is one who is spiritually minded, and because of that he has a definite knowledge of the right direction to go in life. The Word of God has become for him a guide and has laid out for him his course of life.
This is important to understand here at the outset. Here is a guy who is not merely living by his whims and feelings. He is not a sheep who merely follows the crowd and goes in the direction everyone else is taking. He is one who has some real mental wherewithal and he has come to the conclusion that there is a path in life that is most optimal. He has determined to follow Christ and that has set him on a particular trajectory in life. He has set off down a certain path.
And I’d like to consider the Christian’s path this morning. If you have made that conscious decision to follow Christ and are journeying down this road, this passage is instructive. It gives us at least three specific lessons regarding your course in life. This morning I’d like us to consider the destination of the path, the direction of the path, and the difficulty of the path.
Let’s first talk about the path’s destination.
I. Its destination
If you are a Christian, where are your heading? This is the most important question you have to answer in life. And it is the most fundamental. When you are setting off, you need to know what will be your final destination.
Unfortunately, a lot of people in the world never take time to answer this question. They just are living as they please and they have not taken the time to think about where the road they are on is taking them. But that’s part of why the Christian here is described as prudent. He’s mentally put together because he’s determined where exactly he wants to go: and that is heaven.
The text says that the path leads upward, which is, of course, the direction of heaven. His coordinates are set for that country which is above. And it is called the “path of life.” That is to say, it is the path that leads to life. Heaven’s trail is the path that ends in never ending life.
And this path of life is, as we see here, leading away from Sheol. The higher you progress in this journey towards this heavenly realm, the more distance you get from Sheol, which is said to be beneath.
Sheol literally means the realm of the dead, or the grave. In many of the earlier scriptures its reference is to physical death and the tomb. So, in the book of Genesis Jacob says that he will go down to Sheol. But later Scriptures broaden the meaning so it comes to be synonymous with the wider curse of death. That is to say, it deals with the afterlife of the wicked, which is hell—that place of eternal death.
So we understand that there are two options: We are either headed to heaven or we are headed to hell. And that is important to understand because there are so many wacky views regarding the afterlife out there today.
For instance, statistics say that 25% of Christians in America believe in reincarnation. But this clearly shows that you are headed to a place, not a new form of existence. You will arrive at a destination, and you’re not going to continually transform into different modes (be it a cow, or bug, or flower).
And most people think they are going to heaven. Statistics are overwhelming on this. Everyone thinks they are going to heaven, but no one has gotten on the right path. The path that leads there is through Christ. He is the way, the truth, and the life. But they have not chosen to follow Christ and walk in the path that He has laid out.
But a passage like helps us to understand what heaven is going to be like. It gives us a glimpse, you might say, into the next world and into its blessedness.
The path is said to be “the path of life.” In other words, it leads to life. The one who has chosen to follow Christ is headed for a place of everlasting, unadulterated life. The wise man’s path is said to be a path of life. In other words, it is a path that leads to life. When this life ends ends the grand thing that heaven will grant is a fuller and greater expression of life.
The word that is used here has a range of meaning, showing something of the glory of the life that the saints in heaven enjoy. The word can mean “to prosper,” “to nourish,” or “to restore.” Those three things sum up the kind of life that one experiences in heaven. A prosperous life is one that is enriched with all the fullness of life and it is exemplified in the highest elations of joy and happiness.
His life is nourished in that he finds a never ending supply of vigor. Not that we will never sleep in heaven. I don’t mean that we’ll be energized for every hour of the day. Sleep is a gift from God and in heaven I’m sure we will enjoy the sweetest night’s rest ever possible. When we talk of nourishment of life we mean that it will be continually be supplied with all the necessities of life. In other words, we will enjoy the nourishing sweetness of God, who is Life itself.
The word life also means “to restore.” There’s a restoration that one experiences upon entrance into heaven. It is indicative of the higher level of life, a new threshold of physical and emotional vitality.
When you wake up in the morning after a good night’s sleep, you will usually feel refreshed and rejuvenated. Add in a cup of coffee, and you have a new perk that you didn’t have the night before.
This is what heaven offers to those who enter it. The things that hold this life in bondage are removed and the life you enjoy there far exceeds our current experience. Just think of it on the emotional level alone. In heaven there is emotional restoration. We are bogged down with sorrows and sadness. And this miserable state is our normal existence. That’s why Paul continually tells us “rejoice.” Imagine being fully restored, never to have sorrow or sadness ever again. Through every moment of every day there we enjoy a constant level of supreme gladness.
This past week we came across the shortest verse in the Bible during our family devotions. The passage that says, “Jesus wept.” It is found in John 11 in the midst of the story of the raising of Lazarus. And I have often laughed at the commentators on this verse because they all like to speculate as to what made the Son of God shed tears. Some say he was overwhelmed by the love that Mary and Martha had for the deceased. Some say that Jesus wept because of the reality of death. That death was such a grief to him that it made his eyes well up. There are all kinds of reasons that people list. And nobody knows the real reason. The text does not tell us exactly why. But the one that I’ve always found the most interesting is this: Jesus wept because he was going to raise Lazarus. And this theory says that Jesus shed tears because he knows that Lazarus was in heaven, and now the poor guy has to come back to this earth and to this existence.
Again, we don’t know if that is why Jesus wept, but if we think about what heaven is really like and the kind of LIFE that is enjoyed there—even if it is one that is without a body, then we might realize that Lazarus’ being pulled back into this world is a rather harsh reality. Because nothing can compare to the unspeakably glorious sensation one must experience in that world.
I wish I could spend more time developing this point. I don’t think we as Christians think about heaven as much as we should. It should occupy our minds quite a bit. Just as we contemplate our other destinations in life and think about where we are going. But its important that we move on and think about the direction of the path.
II. Its direction
The path of the Christian not only has a wondrous destination, but it has a specific direction. The path, you might say, is leading north, and not south. The second half of our text makes the point that this path that the Christian is on leads away from Sheol. It is a constant turning away from hell.
Now, what this is intimating is that the Christian’s life is one of constant sanctification. It is a life of repentance. Repentance means that you turn away from sin and turn towards God. And here it is depicted as a progress. You are becoming more and more holy. You are ever leaving the lifestyle of death and destruction. You are putting off sin and striving to live out new forms of obedience.
This is important to understand. The Christian life is not one that is stagnate. It is always moving forward. It is putting to death the misdeeds of the body, it is putting off the old man, it is constantly seeking to strive against the pull of sin.
Why is this important? It is because so many people today mistakenly think themselves to be Christians, but they are not. They are not because they are not making any headway in the right direction. Their lives are still lived in such a way as to reveal them to be headed in the opposite direction. They are on the road to hell, but they think that because of some card they signed or hand they raised they’ve been saved.
For instance, years ago I met a fellow who said that he was a Christian. As we talked he expressed that he had given his life to Jesus a year or two prior but he simply had not yet become serious about it. He said he got saved, but he really wasn’t quite ready to leave off his current lifestyle.
The question then becomes, from what were you saved? Jesus came to save us from our sins—not just to save us from the guilt and punishment of sin, but the totality of our sins. He came to save us from the presence and power of sin. If you have not been released from the dominion of sin, then you have not been rescued from its curse either.
The Christian experiences a definite break with sin. There is a turning away from it. There is movement in a new direction. The Christian says, “I no longer wish to follow the course of evil that has characterized my life. I do not want to head down the path that leads to damnation. As a matter of fact, I cannot go down this path. I am compelled to follow Jesus because he has altered my way of thinking.”
Here is one of the distinguishing marks of a Christian: He finds sin to be an odious thing. He longs to do the right thing. He yearns to please God and follow His law.
This is what Jesus spoke of in the Sermon on the Mount. He talked about the blessed man who mourns over sin and hungers and thirsts for righteousness. Those words were choice: hunger and thirst. Jesus talked about a person who intensely craves what is lawful and what is just in God’s eyes. Someone who hungers and thirsts does not remain stagnate. He doesn’t sit around waiting for it or hoping it will one day come his way. He actively pursues it because he cannot live without it.
This is the attitude of a Christian. The Christian is one who is making headway down the road of life. He is ever turning away from Sheol and is making it his daily goal to lead a life of repentance.
Here are some marks of one who is headed in the right direction
We’ve talked about the destination of the path and the direction of the path, but there is one more thing to note about the path. And that is its difficulty.
III. Its difficulty
We would be remiss if we did not mention this and we would be guilty of giving a misrepresentation of what Christianity is really like. For the passage expressly says that the path of life leads upward.
Now, there is a sense in which this is indicating something of the optimism of the Christian life. The path leads upward. It is the high-way as opposed to the low-way. The Christian has a good outlook because he has good prospects. He is on his way to heaven, and life forevermore. He not only has hope of eternal life, but lives triumphantly due to those prospects.
But an upward path is not all roses. It is a path that is fraught with difficulty. When I was in Israel, I came to understand what an upward path was. Much of the territory to the south and west of Israel is flat. However, as you move towards Jerusalem and toward the eastern part of the territory it becomes quite mountainous. I remember our ride to Jerusalem. The bus seemed like it was going on an upward incline for the longest time. After we got done touring the city of Jerusalem, we met outside one of the gates to the old city. I remember feeling like if I lost my balance I would have a long way to tumble.
And keep in mind that in the time of Solomon the upward path wouldn’t be paved with a nice sheet of asphalt. It would be a rocky climb up an old beaten path at best. There would be plenty of chances to slip or twist your ankle.
So, as we think about the path, we have to remember that it is a difficult path. That’s the path of repentance. It is not an easy road. It is the road of self denial and sacrifice.
That’s why Jesus takes various opportunities to tell people that they need to count the cost of following him. He doesn’t want people to sign up for something for which they are not prepared. He tells them that foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no where to lay his head. In other words, are you able to give up this world’s comforts? Or do they mean too much to you?
He also says that the one who comes after him must deny himself and take up his cross. We often use the idea of cross bearing today as a metaphor for experiencing hardships. But to bear a cross meant that you were being executed. Jesus is saying that you need to deny your own life and be ready to be executed.
Let’s not quickly pass over the fact that the path to life is one that is a challenging road. It is demanding. Jesus said, “narrow is the gate and hard is the way that leads to life.”
The life of repentance is hard. It is not easy to deny yourself because you are seeking to go against every natural inclination you have. There are the...
We have just finished our class on John Bunyan’s famous work Pilgrim Progress at Genesis Christian. It was refreshing to re-read that book once again. That book is such a good work. It shows the pilgrim looking longingly towards his final destination. But it does not present us with a pie in the sky view of the Christian life. It presents us with the difficulties he experiences along the way. There is one point where the path he and his friend are walking becomes exceedingly difficult. The path is so rough that it hurts their feet. They ended up jumping off the path so that they could walk in a sweet and easy meadow. For a while it was all fine and good, but eventually they wandered from the path so far that they were caught by Giant Despair and they were thrown into Doubting Castle. There they experienced a great deal of sadness and gloom.
The point that Bunyan was trying to make was the one Jesus made: the narrow way (that is, the life of a Christian) is one that is hard. It is a road that is not easy to travel. Everything about it defies the gravitational pull of the flesh.
Nevertheless, it is movement in the right direction. It is upward. Every step may be grueling, but it is certainly worth it. For is the path of life.
Conclusion:
The last scene of the Pilgrim’s Progress is perhaps one of the best. Christian and his friend, Hopeful, have crossed over the Jordan River (which symbolizes death) and they come to the long awaited city. Bunyan’s description is radiant as he describes the excellency of the place. Crowds of angels and saints welcome them with jubilant songs. Trumpets are raised and belt out loud anthems of triumph and welcome. The two men fade into the brilliant city as the crowd envelops them and escorts them into their everlasting rest.
The reader is left to watch it all from what seems to be a distance. You had the pleasure of being right there at their sides all through the book’s journey, but there at the end you are left to look on longingly. The way he ends the book creates something of a craving, a deeper desire for the things to come.
As we are left to continue down the road, let us keep our eyes fixed upon that grand destination to which we go. Even though the way may be difficult, and we must do our best to make daily strides to depart from the path of sin and Sheol, we will one day enter our rest.
This is the description that is used to describe a Christian. He is one who is mentally put together. He is one who is using a special process of thinking. In other words, he is one who has been illumined by the Holy Spirit and has a distinct grasp of the issues at hand. He is one who is spiritually minded, and because of that he has a definite knowledge of the right direction to go in life. The Word of God has become for him a guide and has laid out for him his course of life.
This is important to understand here at the outset. Here is a guy who is not merely living by his whims and feelings. He is not a sheep who merely follows the crowd and goes in the direction everyone else is taking. He is one who has some real mental wherewithal and he has come to the conclusion that there is a path in life that is most optimal. He has determined to follow Christ and that has set him on a particular trajectory in life. He has set off down a certain path.
And I’d like to consider the Christian’s path this morning. If you have made that conscious decision to follow Christ and are journeying down this road, this passage is instructive. It gives us at least three specific lessons regarding your course in life. This morning I’d like us to consider the destination of the path, the direction of the path, and the difficulty of the path.
Let’s first talk about the path’s destination.
I. Its destination
If you are a Christian, where are your heading? This is the most important question you have to answer in life. And it is the most fundamental. When you are setting off, you need to know what will be your final destination.
Unfortunately, a lot of people in the world never take time to answer this question. They just are living as they please and they have not taken the time to think about where the road they are on is taking them. But that’s part of why the Christian here is described as prudent. He’s mentally put together because he’s determined where exactly he wants to go: and that is heaven.
The text says that the path leads upward, which is, of course, the direction of heaven. His coordinates are set for that country which is above. And it is called the “path of life.” That is to say, it is the path that leads to life. Heaven’s trail is the path that ends in never ending life.
And this path of life is, as we see here, leading away from Sheol. The higher you progress in this journey towards this heavenly realm, the more distance you get from Sheol, which is said to be beneath.
Sheol literally means the realm of the dead, or the grave. In many of the earlier scriptures its reference is to physical death and the tomb. So, in the book of Genesis Jacob says that he will go down to Sheol. But later Scriptures broaden the meaning so it comes to be synonymous with the wider curse of death. That is to say, it deals with the afterlife of the wicked, which is hell—that place of eternal death.
So we understand that there are two options: We are either headed to heaven or we are headed to hell. And that is important to understand because there are so many wacky views regarding the afterlife out there today.
For instance, statistics say that 25% of Christians in America believe in reincarnation. But this clearly shows that you are headed to a place, not a new form of existence. You will arrive at a destination, and you’re not going to continually transform into different modes (be it a cow, or bug, or flower).
And most people think they are going to heaven. Statistics are overwhelming on this. Everyone thinks they are going to heaven, but no one has gotten on the right path. The path that leads there is through Christ. He is the way, the truth, and the life. But they have not chosen to follow Christ and walk in the path that He has laid out.
But a passage like helps us to understand what heaven is going to be like. It gives us a glimpse, you might say, into the next world and into its blessedness.
The path is said to be “the path of life.” In other words, it leads to life. The one who has chosen to follow Christ is headed for a place of everlasting, unadulterated life. The wise man’s path is said to be a path of life. In other words, it is a path that leads to life. When this life ends ends the grand thing that heaven will grant is a fuller and greater expression of life.
The word that is used here has a range of meaning, showing something of the glory of the life that the saints in heaven enjoy. The word can mean “to prosper,” “to nourish,” or “to restore.” Those three things sum up the kind of life that one experiences in heaven. A prosperous life is one that is enriched with all the fullness of life and it is exemplified in the highest elations of joy and happiness.
His life is nourished in that he finds a never ending supply of vigor. Not that we will never sleep in heaven. I don’t mean that we’ll be energized for every hour of the day. Sleep is a gift from God and in heaven I’m sure we will enjoy the sweetest night’s rest ever possible. When we talk of nourishment of life we mean that it will be continually be supplied with all the necessities of life. In other words, we will enjoy the nourishing sweetness of God, who is Life itself.
The word life also means “to restore.” There’s a restoration that one experiences upon entrance into heaven. It is indicative of the higher level of life, a new threshold of physical and emotional vitality.
When you wake up in the morning after a good night’s sleep, you will usually feel refreshed and rejuvenated. Add in a cup of coffee, and you have a new perk that you didn’t have the night before.
This is what heaven offers to those who enter it. The things that hold this life in bondage are removed and the life you enjoy there far exceeds our current experience. Just think of it on the emotional level alone. In heaven there is emotional restoration. We are bogged down with sorrows and sadness. And this miserable state is our normal existence. That’s why Paul continually tells us “rejoice.” Imagine being fully restored, never to have sorrow or sadness ever again. Through every moment of every day there we enjoy a constant level of supreme gladness.
This past week we came across the shortest verse in the Bible during our family devotions. The passage that says, “Jesus wept.” It is found in John 11 in the midst of the story of the raising of Lazarus. And I have often laughed at the commentators on this verse because they all like to speculate as to what made the Son of God shed tears. Some say he was overwhelmed by the love that Mary and Martha had for the deceased. Some say that Jesus wept because of the reality of death. That death was such a grief to him that it made his eyes well up. There are all kinds of reasons that people list. And nobody knows the real reason. The text does not tell us exactly why. But the one that I’ve always found the most interesting is this: Jesus wept because he was going to raise Lazarus. And this theory says that Jesus shed tears because he knows that Lazarus was in heaven, and now the poor guy has to come back to this earth and to this existence.
Again, we don’t know if that is why Jesus wept, but if we think about what heaven is really like and the kind of LIFE that is enjoyed there—even if it is one that is without a body, then we might realize that Lazarus’ being pulled back into this world is a rather harsh reality. Because nothing can compare to the unspeakably glorious sensation one must experience in that world.
I wish I could spend more time developing this point. I don’t think we as Christians think about heaven as much as we should. It should occupy our minds quite a bit. Just as we contemplate our other destinations in life and think about where we are going. But its important that we move on and think about the direction of the path.
II. Its direction
The path of the Christian not only has a wondrous destination, but it has a specific direction. The path, you might say, is leading north, and not south. The second half of our text makes the point that this path that the Christian is on leads away from Sheol. It is a constant turning away from hell.
Now, what this is intimating is that the Christian’s life is one of constant sanctification. It is a life of repentance. Repentance means that you turn away from sin and turn towards God. And here it is depicted as a progress. You are becoming more and more holy. You are ever leaving the lifestyle of death and destruction. You are putting off sin and striving to live out new forms of obedience.
This is important to understand. The Christian life is not one that is stagnate. It is always moving forward. It is putting to death the misdeeds of the body, it is putting off the old man, it is constantly seeking to strive against the pull of sin.
Why is this important? It is because so many people today mistakenly think themselves to be Christians, but they are not. They are not because they are not making any headway in the right direction. Their lives are still lived in such a way as to reveal them to be headed in the opposite direction. They are on the road to hell, but they think that because of some card they signed or hand they raised they’ve been saved.
For instance, years ago I met a fellow who said that he was a Christian. As we talked he expressed that he had given his life to Jesus a year or two prior but he simply had not yet become serious about it. He said he got saved, but he really wasn’t quite ready to leave off his current lifestyle.
The question then becomes, from what were you saved? Jesus came to save us from our sins—not just to save us from the guilt and punishment of sin, but the totality of our sins. He came to save us from the presence and power of sin. If you have not been released from the dominion of sin, then you have not been rescued from its curse either.
The Christian experiences a definite break with sin. There is a turning away from it. There is movement in a new direction. The Christian says, “I no longer wish to follow the course of evil that has characterized my life. I do not want to head down the path that leads to damnation. As a matter of fact, I cannot go down this path. I am compelled to follow Jesus because he has altered my way of thinking.”
Here is one of the distinguishing marks of a Christian: He finds sin to be an odious thing. He longs to do the right thing. He yearns to please God and follow His law.
This is what Jesus spoke of in the Sermon on the Mount. He talked about the blessed man who mourns over sin and hungers and thirsts for righteousness. Those words were choice: hunger and thirst. Jesus talked about a person who intensely craves what is lawful and what is just in God’s eyes. Someone who hungers and thirsts does not remain stagnate. He doesn’t sit around waiting for it or hoping it will one day come his way. He actively pursues it because he cannot live without it.
This is the attitude of a Christian. The Christian is one who is making headway down the road of life. He is ever turning away from Sheol and is making it his daily goal to lead a life of repentance.
Here are some marks of one who is headed in the right direction
- He has an interest in deep interest in learning the law of God and meditates on how he might apply them.
- He feels a deep conviction when confronted with the truth of God’s law.
- He finds himself lamenting his failures and shortcomings and desires to see them corrected.
- He prays that God might pardon his misdeeds and grant him the power to live in the newness of life
- He earnestly seeks to apply the principles he has learned
We’ve talked about the destination of the path and the direction of the path, but there is one more thing to note about the path. And that is its difficulty.
III. Its difficulty
We would be remiss if we did not mention this and we would be guilty of giving a misrepresentation of what Christianity is really like. For the passage expressly says that the path of life leads upward.
Now, there is a sense in which this is indicating something of the optimism of the Christian life. The path leads upward. It is the high-way as opposed to the low-way. The Christian has a good outlook because he has good prospects. He is on his way to heaven, and life forevermore. He not only has hope of eternal life, but lives triumphantly due to those prospects.
But an upward path is not all roses. It is a path that is fraught with difficulty. When I was in Israel, I came to understand what an upward path was. Much of the territory to the south and west of Israel is flat. However, as you move towards Jerusalem and toward the eastern part of the territory it becomes quite mountainous. I remember our ride to Jerusalem. The bus seemed like it was going on an upward incline for the longest time. After we got done touring the city of Jerusalem, we met outside one of the gates to the old city. I remember feeling like if I lost my balance I would have a long way to tumble.
And keep in mind that in the time of Solomon the upward path wouldn’t be paved with a nice sheet of asphalt. It would be a rocky climb up an old beaten path at best. There would be plenty of chances to slip or twist your ankle.
So, as we think about the path, we have to remember that it is a difficult path. That’s the path of repentance. It is not an easy road. It is the road of self denial and sacrifice.
That’s why Jesus takes various opportunities to tell people that they need to count the cost of following him. He doesn’t want people to sign up for something for which they are not prepared. He tells them that foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no where to lay his head. In other words, are you able to give up this world’s comforts? Or do they mean too much to you?
He also says that the one who comes after him must deny himself and take up his cross. We often use the idea of cross bearing today as a metaphor for experiencing hardships. But to bear a cross meant that you were being executed. Jesus is saying that you need to deny your own life and be ready to be executed.
Let’s not quickly pass over the fact that the path to life is one that is a challenging road. It is demanding. Jesus said, “narrow is the gate and hard is the way that leads to life.”
The life of repentance is hard. It is not easy to deny yourself because you are seeking to go against every natural inclination you have. There are the...
- Temptations you must fight
- Inclinations you must suppress
- Thoughts you must battle
- Luxuries you must renounce
- Entertainments you must forgo
- Sacrifices you must make
- Practices you must adopt
- Rights you must lay aside
- Truths you must confess
- Stances you must make
- Friends you'll lose
- Suffering you'll undergo
- Persecutions you'll face
We have just finished our class on John Bunyan’s famous work Pilgrim Progress at Genesis Christian. It was refreshing to re-read that book once again. That book is such a good work. It shows the pilgrim looking longingly towards his final destination. But it does not present us with a pie in the sky view of the Christian life. It presents us with the difficulties he experiences along the way. There is one point where the path he and his friend are walking becomes exceedingly difficult. The path is so rough that it hurts their feet. They ended up jumping off the path so that they could walk in a sweet and easy meadow. For a while it was all fine and good, but eventually they wandered from the path so far that they were caught by Giant Despair and they were thrown into Doubting Castle. There they experienced a great deal of sadness and gloom.
The point that Bunyan was trying to make was the one Jesus made: the narrow way (that is, the life of a Christian) is one that is hard. It is a road that is not easy to travel. Everything about it defies the gravitational pull of the flesh.
Nevertheless, it is movement in the right direction. It is upward. Every step may be grueling, but it is certainly worth it. For is the path of life.
Conclusion:
The last scene of the Pilgrim’s Progress is perhaps one of the best. Christian and his friend, Hopeful, have crossed over the Jordan River (which symbolizes death) and they come to the long awaited city. Bunyan’s description is radiant as he describes the excellency of the place. Crowds of angels and saints welcome them with jubilant songs. Trumpets are raised and belt out loud anthems of triumph and welcome. The two men fade into the brilliant city as the crowd envelops them and escorts them into their everlasting rest.
The reader is left to watch it all from what seems to be a distance. You had the pleasure of being right there at their sides all through the book’s journey, but there at the end you are left to look on longingly. The way he ends the book creates something of a craving, a deeper desire for the things to come.
As we are left to continue down the road, let us keep our eyes fixed upon that grand destination to which we go. Even though the way may be difficult, and we must do our best to make daily strides to depart from the path of sin and Sheol, we will one day enter our rest.