In his Bunyan Characters, Alexander Whyte sets out to show why Bunyan would have found Luther's commentary on Galatians such a fit book. This he does by simply relating some passages from Luther, on some subjects that would have taken hold on Bunyan's heart and mind, such as SIN, LAW, CHRIST AND GRACE. We have no doubt that Luther's comments are as fit as ever for our souls.

SIN - SIN IN HOLY SCRIPTURE signifies far less the outward act, than the sinful spirit that lives and works deep down in the bottom of the sinner's heart. According to the universal teaching of holy Scripture, the sinful heart is the true seat, and the real source, of all evil. And, then, more than that, Holy Scripture looks on our UNBELIEF as being the real spring of all our evil - both inward and outward. "The Holy Ghost shall convince the world, of sin," says our Lord, "because they believe not on me." According to holy Scripture, faith alone justifies and unbelief alone condemns. Our unbelief and our sin are so deeply rooted in our depraved hearts that they are never wholly eradicated in this life. Even the best saints are continually falling into sin through unbelief and an evil ear. Abraham fell, Isaac fell, Jacob fell. And so on, all down the Holy Scriptures. And all these sins of God's saints are recorded in the holy Scriptures in order that we might take comfort and not despair. If Jacob, and Aaron, and David, and Peter fell, and rose again, so may we rise again like them. They rose again by repentance, and by faith, and by prayer; and so may we.

LAW - UNDERSTAND THAT MOSES IS NOT INTENDED TO BE YOUR SAVIOUR! You will never save yourself by the deeds of the law. The law is intended to have the very opposite result. For the divine intention of the law is, to begin with, to show us ourselves. Its first function is to reveal to us our hopeless sinfulness, and it mightily deepens and darkens our despair. Let every well taught Christian dispute with the law, and say to it:- O thou so severe and inflexible law! Thou wouldst fain set up thy seat of judgment in my guilty conscience! Thou wouldst fain summon up all thy witnesses against me! Thou wouldst fain sentence me as I deserve! But keep thee to thy proper office. Lay all thy terrors upon my sinful heart, and upon my evil life. But come not near my tender conscience, for thou must know that Christ, thy Master and mine, has Himself died for me. He has himself settled all accounts for me. And in Him I have, and am rightly entitled to have, peace of conscience and a quiet mind. He has led me wholly out of thy jurisdiction, and he has placed me down in an estate of salvation, in which estate there is no condemnation. Tell the law that if it has anything in any way to say to thee now, it must say it all through Jesus Christ. Say to it that thou art now stone dead to every one and to everything but Christ.

CHRIST - CHRIST, THEN, IS NO MOSES. Christ does not speak from Sinai. No weapons in His hands are seen, nor voice of terror heard. Christ is not a hard master who will compel the uttermost farthing. Christ comes to all sinners full of grace and mercy: both able and willing to save. Christ is nothing but infinite grace and goodness. Be sure that you always paint Christ to yourself in His true and correct colours. It is the very top and complete crown of Christian truth to be able to define and describe Christ aright - and that especially in the season of sin and guilt and condemnation. Hold fast at all times by Paul's description and definition of Christ. Now, Paul's true description and definition is this: He loved me, and gave himself for me. For myself, I have much difficulty in always holding this divine definition of Christ which Paul gives to all believers. When I was a young man, I was so drowned in unscriptural and anti-evangelical error that my heart trembled at the very name of Christ, for I was taught to think of Him as an angry judge; whereas He is our Redeemer and our Saviour. Christ is joy and sweetness to every trembling and broken heart. Christ is the true and faithful lover of all those who are in trouble and anguish because of sin. He is the merciful High Priest of all miserable and fearful sinners. Let us learn to practice this distinction; for where Christ is rightly understood and held by, there must needs be joy of heart and peace of conscience. And that because He is our reconciliation, and our righteousness, and our peace, and our life, and our whole and complete salvation. IN BRIEF, whatsoever the afflicted conscience desires that it finds in Christ abundantly and continually.

GRACE - GRACE HAS THIS DISTINCTION, THAT IT SIGNIFIES THE FAVOUR AND THE AFFECTION OF GOD, THROUGH WHICH HE POURS CHRIST AND HIS SPIRIT INTO OUR HEARTS. And though our sinful nature remains in us more or less all our life on earth, nevertheless, grace does so much for us that we are regarded as fully and entirely justified before God. For His grace does not divide itself and parcel itself out, but it receives us at once and wholly into the divine favour for the sake of Christ. You can understand, therefore, the seventh chapter of the Romans, where Paul so reproaches himself as a sinner, and yet in the eighth chapter goes on to say that there is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. On account of our indwelling sin we are still sinners; but because of our faith and trust in Christ, God is favourable to us, and will act toward us according to our faith in Christ till our sin is completely mortified within us.

From the above it is not difficult to see why John Bunyan considered Luther's Galatians as "most fit for a wounded conscience".