False confidence has a stubborn strength. Even after warnings, even after close calls, it often returns unchanged.
Ignorance Rejoins the Pilgrims
Ignorance appears again, still trusting in his own righteousness and still convinced that sincerity and personal goodness will carry him through. Christian and Hopeful warn him plainly. They point him to Christ and mercy, not self-effort. But he refuses correction.
His pleasantness hides a fatal deception: he believes the gate of heaven will open for him because he feels sure it should. Bunyan is not unkind here, but he is unflinching. A man can be amiable and still be lost if he will not come to Christ.
Titus 3:5 (KJV)
Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost.
Trusting one’s own works instead of Christ ends in ruin.