A Way to Heaven, Even from the Gates of Hell

The ending of John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress is striking, especially for the warning it gives to those who slack off in the Christian journey.

Ignorance — a character whose motto might as well have been, “easy does it” — refused to walk in the way that leads to life, in the manner prescribed by the Lord who paved the Way for all faithful pilgrims.

Instead, he prioritized convenience at every turn. No doubt, if we could have asked him, he would see every opportunity for ease over effort as a gift from God. And yet, as the book shows, even though he walks a path that leads to heaven’s gate, his manner of traveling does not gain him entry.

Now, while I was gazing upon all these things I turned my head to look back and saw Ignorance come up to the riverbank. He soon crossed over, and without half the difficulty with which Christian and Hopeful had met. For it happened that in that place there was one Vain-Hope, a ferryman, who with his boat helped him over. So I watched as he ascended the hill to come up to the gate. Only he came alone, for not a single man came out to meet him with the least encouragement. When he came up to the gate, he looked up to the writing inscribed above the gate and began to knock, supposing that he should quickly be permitted entrance. But the men who peered over the top of the gate asked, “Where did you come from? And what is your desire?”

He answered, “I have eaten and drank in the presence of the King, and he has taught in our streets.”

Then they asked him for his certificate so that they might go in and show it to the King. But Ignorance fumbled in his breast pocket for it but found none. The men tending the gate said, “Don’t you have one?” Ignorance had no answer, not even a word.

So the men of the gate told the King, but he would not come down to see him. Instead he commanded the two Shining Ones, who had conducted Christian and Hopeful to the city, to go out and take Ignorance and to bind him hand and foot and have him taken away.

At that, the two Shining Ones took him up and carried him through the air to the door that I saw in the side of the hill and put him in there. I realized that there was a way to hell, even from the gate of heaven, as well as from the City of Destruction. So I awoke, and behold it was a dream.

Ignorance is a cautionary tale of what nominal Christianity guarantees a person. His spiritual cousin is the man in Jesus’ parable who accepted the king’s invitation to the wedding feast but didn’t care to get dressed for the occasion. Like Ignorance, his end was sure:

“Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’” — Matthew 22:13

And yet there is hope. With God, there is always hope.

If, as Bunyan saw in his dream, there’s a way to hell even from the gate of heaven, then it stands to reason there’s a way to heaven, even from the gates of hell.

Zechariah 3 suggests as much. In that little-known prophetic vision, we find someone standing before the Lord in filthy garments, clearly unfit. But instead of being thrown out, he is clothed:

Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. The Lord said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, Satan! Indeed, the Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?” Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments and standing before the angel. He spoke and said to those who were standing before him, saying, “Remove the filthy garments from him.” Again he said to him, “See, I have taken your iniquity away from you and will clothe you with festal robes.” Then I said, “Let them put a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments, while the angel of the Lord was standing by. And the angel of the Lord admonished Joshua, saying, “Thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘If you will walk in My ways and if you will perform My service, then you will also govern My house and also have charge of My courts, and I will grant you free access among these who are standing here. — Zechariah 3:1-7

Notice: he was clothed first, then commissioned.

The way to heaven from the gate of hell doesn’t begin with moral resolve or white-knuckled effort. It begins with surrender, with letting God do for you what you cannot do for yourself. Only then — once clothed with grace, indwelt by the Spirit, empowered from above — can you begin to walk in the way that leads to life.

Clothed first, then commissioned.

“Grace is not opposed to effort,” Dallas Willard was prone to say, “it is opposed to earning. Earning is an attitude. Effort is an action.” The distinction matters.

So if you find yourself near the gate — worn out, uncertain, or drifting like Ignorance, coasting on old assumptions, presuming upon grace, or despairing of your condition — ask the Lord to clothe you afresh. Ask him for the robe only he can provide.

That’s the real difference between Ignorance and the true pilgrim: not just the path they walked, but who they trusted. One depended on ease, comforting himself with the knowledge that he is in the right way; the other depended on mercy, relying upon the king to grant him entry. One came in his own name; the other came in Christ’s.

And that makes all the difference — at the beginning, in the middle, and when you knock at the gate.