His Wounded Heart Spoke Scripture

When we think of the most powerful lives ever lived for Christ, we often imagine public platforms, stunning sermons, and miraculous events. But sometimes, the most world-changing works of God begin in silence in prisons, in obscurity, and in suffering.

For John Bunyan, a humble tinker from Bedford, England, prison was not the end of ministry. It was its beginning. There, in the isolation of confinement, he discovered something that turned his wounds into worship: the Word of God was not chained.

From Rebellion to Reverence

Born in 1628, Bunyan wasn’t always the God-saturated man we remember. He once described himself as “the very ringleader” in sin cursing, swearing, and profaning the name of God. Yet in God’s providence, a poor young wife brought into their marriage two simple devotional books. It wasn’t love at first sight but it was the beginning of conviction.

Through agonizing years of spiritual struggle, Bunyan wrestled with doubt, fear, and a flood of blasphemous thoughts. His soul was not easily won. Yet in a moment of divine clarity, a simple truth broke through “Thy righteousness is in heaven.”

“I saw with the eyes of my soul Jesus Christ at God’s right hand… God could not say of me, ‘He lacks my righteousness,’ for it was before Him.”

(Grace Abounding, 90–91)

That realization didn’t just save Bunyan it set him ablaze. Soon, the once-vile tinker was preaching Christ to hundreds, drawing crowds of 1,200 even on weekday mornings.

Prison for a Clear Conscience

But faithfulness came at a cost.

In 1660, at the age of 32, Bunyan was imprisoned for preaching without state approval. His wife Elizabeth, newly pregnant, miscarried under the stress. He left behind four children, one of them blind. And he could have walked free at any time if he had only agreed to stop preaching. But Bunyan wouldn’t trade a clear conscience for a comfortable life.

“If nothing will do unless I make of my conscience a continual butchery and slaughtershop… I have determined yet to suffer… till the moss shall grow on mine eyebrows.”

(John Bunyan, 224)

For twelve years, Bunyan remained behind bars. And what came from that season would outlive him by centuries.

A Bible-Fed Soul

Bunyan had no library in prison only a Bible and a Concordance. But that was enough. He emerged not bitter, but burning with Scripture. He later wrote:

“I never had in all my life so great an inlet into the Word of God as now. Those scriptures that I saw nothing in before were made in this place and state to shine upon me. Jesus Christ also was never more real and apparent than now.”

(Grace Abounding, 121)

Prison, for Bunyan, became a sanctuary. A furnace that forged him into one of history’s most biblically-saturated writers. Charles Spurgeon would later say:

“Prick him anywhere, and you will find that his blood is Bibline, the very essence of the Bible flows from him.”

His suffering didn’t silence the Word it amplified it. It echoed through his most enduring work, The Pilgrim’s Progress, written during or shortly after his second imprisonment.

A Key in His Bosom

In The Pilgrim’s Progress, Bunyan gives us a glimpse of his prison-tested theology. Christian and Hopeful lie trapped in Doubting Castle, held by Giant Despair. Until, suddenly, Christian remembers:

“What a fool, quoth he, am I, thus to lie in a stinking dungeon, when I may as well walk at liberty! I have a key in my bosom, called Promise, that will… open any lock in Doubting Castle.”

The key wasn’t somewhere far off. It was in his bosom hidden in his heart. Bunyan knew what that meant: he had memorized the promises of God. When Scripture wasn’t available, he carried it in his soul. And that Word opened the dungeon of despair.

The Legacy of a Bleeding Bible

Bunyan’s life is not a call to seek suffering for suffering’s sake. But it is a holy invitation let suffering drive you into the Word. Let affliction carve out deeper roots of faith. Let every tear trace a trail back to the God who speaks through His promises.

His imprisonment bore fruit not only for him, but for millions after him. He would never know how far his words would go. But he knew they came from a place deeper than ink and paper. They were born in a furnace, fed by the Word, and sustained by Christ.

“God hath strewed all the way from the gate of hell, where thou wast, to the gate of heaven, whither thou art going, with flowers out of his own garden. Behold how the promises… lie round about thee!”

(Come and Welcome to Jesus Christ, 112)

John Bunyan bled Bible and because he did, he still speaks. His voice calls from a prison cell to the weary and the wondering, pointing again and again to the promises that open every dungeon.

If you’re there now trapped, waiting, doubting don’t despise your dungeon. Look for the key in your bosom. And walk free.

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