A great way to start the new year is to remember where we came from and where we are going so that we keep our eyes fixed on Jesus the author and perfector of our faith." John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress does exactly that, so I have found it to be a yearly tradition to read his allegory and discover the gospel afresh. By doing so the trials and temptations of life fall in the backdrop of the glorious message of God's forgiveness of sinners in Christ every year. And with many new sorrows and joys coming to me and to you every new year, this may be a helpful excerpt:
"Here then is a righteousness that Christ, as God, as man, as God-man, has no need of, with reference to himself, and therefore he can spare it; a justifying righteousness that he for himself wanteth not, and therefore he giveth it away, hence 'tis called the 'gift of righteousness.' This righteousness, since Christ Jesus the Lord has made himself under the Law, must be given away; for the Law doth not only bind him that its under it to do justly, but to use charity...And thus, Christiana, and Mercy, and the rest of you that are here, doth your pardon come by deed, or by the work of another man. Your Lord Christ is he that has worked, and has given away what he wrought for to the next poor beggar he meets.
But again, in order to pardon by deed, there must something be paid to God as a price, as well as something prepared to cover us withal. Sin has delivered us up to the just curse of a righteous law; now from this curse we must be justified by way of redemption, a price being paid for the harms we have done, and this is by the blood of your Lord, who came and stood in your place and stead, and died your death for your transgressions. Thus has he ransomed you from your transgressions by blood, and covered your polluted and deformed souls with righteousness. For the sake of which, God passeth by you, and will not hurt you when he comes to judge the world."
(John Bunyan in Pilgrims Progress, page 184, 185)
