Come and Welcome to Jesus Christ (John Bunyan) (#32)

Come and Welcome to Jesus Christ

“All that the Father giveth me shall come to Me; and him that cometh to Me, I will in no wise cast out.” — John 6:37

This work could be said to have given rise indirectly to the modern missionary movement, since it strongly influenced Andrew Fuller, the first secretary of the pioneering Baptist Missionary Society, and helped him to set his denomination free from the grip of hyper-Calvinism. It is a Christian classic that deserves a wide modern readership.

Of all John Bunyan’s writings, Come and Welcome to Jesus Christ most fully expresses his delight and joy in the free and gracious welcome given to sinners by Jesus Christ.

It is a thorough exposition of John 6:37: All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. Bunyan not only explains the meaning of the terms used in the text, but also labors to remove the doubts and difficulties of sinners and backsliders in their approach to Christ.

Table of Contents

1. The Context and the Text
2. The Gift and the Giver
3. Coming to Christ
4. Christ Receiving Sinners
5. Returning Sinners Will Not Be Cast Out
6. The Father Draws Us to Christ
7. A Welcome for Fearful Sinners
8. The Doctrine Applied

About John Bunyan

John Bunyan (1628-1688) was born at Elstow, England, about a mile from Bedford, and became one of the most influential authors of the seventeenth century. Few writers in history have left such a wealth of Christ-centered writings.

Bunyan’s moving conversion is recorded in his Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners. While walking the streets of Bedford, Bunyan heard “three or four poor women” sitting at a door, “talking about the new birth, the work of God in their hearts, and the way by which they were convinced of their miserable state by nature. They told how God had visited their souls with His love in Christ Jesus, and with what words and promises they had been refreshed, comforted, and supported against the temptations of the devil.”

From these godly women Bunyan learned to despise sin and to hunger for the Savior. Later, while passing into the fields, he recounts, “This sentence fell upon my soul, ‘Thy righteousness is in heaven’…for my righteousness was Jesus Christ Himself, the same yesterday, today, and forever.” Then “his chains fell off,” and he went home rejoicing.

Call to Preach

In 1655, Bunyan was called to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Bunyan was arrested November 12, 1660, for preaching without the approval of the Anglican Church. He was charged with “teaching men to worship God contrary to the law” and was in jail more than twelve years.

His most well-known work, The Pilgrim’s Progress, was written while in the Bedford jail. During Bunyan’s lifetime there were 100,000 copies circulated in the British isles, besides several editions in North America. It has been continuously in print since its first printing. Bunyan’s remarkable imagery was firmly rooted in the Reformation doctrines of man’s fallen nature, grace, imputation, justification, and the atonement–all of which Bunyan seems to have derived directly from Scripture.

Other writings of Bunyan found at Grace & Truth Books:

• The Jerusalem Sinner Saved
• Prayer
• The Holy War
• The Pilgrim’s Progress
• Light for Them That Sit in Darkness
• A Holy Life
• Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners
• Heart’s Ease in Heart Trouble
• The Complete Works of John Bunyan
• All Loves Excelling
• Oracion (Prayer, in Spanish)