When we’re convicted of our sin, we may be tempted to despair or to try and lessen our sense of burden through good works. Today, Derek Thomas examines both of these dangers as they appear in John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress. Get Derek Thomas’ teaching series The Pilgrim’s Progress: A Guided Tour on DVD, plus lifetime digital access to the messages and study guide, for your donation of any amount: https://gift.renewingyourmind.org/3883/donate Register today with the discounted rate for Ligonier’s 2025 National Conference, I Will Build My Church: https://www.ligonier.org/2025 Meet Today’s Teacher: Derek Thomas is a Ligonier Ministries teaching fellow and Chancellor’s Professor of Systematic and Pastoral Theology at Reformed Theological Seminary. He is featured teacher for the Ligonier teaching series The Life of Peter and author of many books, including Heaven on Earth, Strength for the Weary, and Let Us Worship God. Meet the Host: Nathan W. Bingham is vice president of ministry engagement for Ligonier Ministries, executive producer and host of Renewing Your Mind, host of the Ask Ligonier podcast, and a graduate of Presbyterian Theological College in Melbourne, Australia. Nathan joined Ligonier in 2012 and lives in Central Florida with his wife and four children. Renewing Your Mind is a donor-supported outreach of Ligonier Ministries. Explore all of our podcasts: https://www.ligonier.org/podcasts
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Learn more, explore this year's speakers, and register by visiting Ligonier.org slash 2025. That's Ligonier.org slash 2025. Now on to today's episode. Before he wrote The Pilgrim's Progress, John Bunyan was embarking on his own journey.
He had pulled himself up by his bootstraps. He had tried to live an obedient life. And to the outward world, to the outward observance, he looked as if he was a new man. And indeed, so I was, though yet I knew not Christ, nor grace, nor faith, nor hope.
The Pilgrim's Progress is a classic. Even if you haven't read it, you're probably somewhat familiar with the story of Christian and his journey to the celestial city. But what you may not know is that many of the challenges Christian faces parallel Bunyan's journey through life, and perhaps your own. You're listening to Renewing Your Mind, and I'm your host, Nathan W. Bingham.
Today on Renewing Your Mind, Derek Thomas takes us behind the scenes of this literary masterpiece. Here's Dr. Thomas.
Well, welcome back to Lecture 2 on Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, and we're going to look at the events surrounding the Wicket Gate and how Christian gets through the Wicket Gate. We left him in Lecture 1 running towards a light. He couldn't see the Wicket Gate, and he's running with his fingers in his ears. He's running away from the city of destruction.
He's not listening to the pleas of his wife or his children, and he's saying, life, life, eternal life. Now he meets two friends. He hasn't got to the Wicked Gate yet, and he meets two friends. Actually, they're neighbors of his in the city of destruction, and they're called Pliable and Obstinate.
And the first thing that we see in this portion is Bunyan's attempt to portray worldly opposition to the gospel, that everyone who becomes a Christian will experience some kind of opposition, maybe from members of the family or maybe from friends at work and so on. Obstinate represents stubbornness and an immovable point of view. And pliable is the opposite.
He represents fickleness, a readiness to believe anything except this, of course. So let's eavesdrop the conversation just a little. This is obstinate. What are these things you seek since you leave all the world to find them? And Christian says, I seek an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away.
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