When it comes to spiritual disciplines, there are two competing schools of thought. The first says we need God’s grace to save us, but we must rely on our works to become holy. And the second one says God alone matures us and makes us holy; we contribute nothing. Both thoughts are wrong. God saves us by grace and empowers us by grace to pursue holiness. Jerry Bridges explains this in his book, The Discipline of Grace: God’s Role and Our Role in the Pursuit of Holiness.
The Discipline of Grace follows up Bridges’ previous books, The Pursuit of Holiness and Transforming Grace. In this book, Bridges explains how Christians need both God’s grace and discipline to grow in holiness. He says, “As I sought to relate the biblical principles of living by grace to the equally biblical principle of personal discipline, I realized that it would be helpful to bring these two truths together in one book. This is the purpose of the book.”
He wrote it primarily to remind Christians of their daily need for the gospel of God’s grace. The path to holiness is long and hard, and God never meant for us to walk it in our strength alone.
The book has thirteen chapters, each based on a section of Scripture. In the first five chapters, Bridges explains our need for God’s grace from justification to glory, the importance of preaching the gospel to ourselves, and how they both affect our daily lives. In chapter six, Bridges provides a biblical exposition of sanctification. And the subsequent chapters address different disciplines God uses to grow us and conform us into His image, such as obedience, dependence, commitment, convictions, choices, watching, and adversity.
I love Bridges’ emphasis on our daily need for the gospel. Many Christians falsely believe the gospel is only for unbelievers. I used to be one of them. I assumed its only power was to save and redeem sinners. Bridges kills this unbiblical notion and shows us just how much we need it and why we must preach the gospel to ourselves day in and out.
He says, “to preach the gospel to yourself, then, means that you continually face up to your own sinfulness and then flee to Jesus through faith in His shed blood and righteous life. It means you appropriate, again by faith, the fact that Jesus fully satisfied the law of God, that He is your propitiation, and that God’s holy wrath is no longer directed toward you.”
We need to remember gospel truths and preach them to strengthen us when our weaknesses and sinfulness threaten our faithfulness in pursuing holiness.
The disciplines featured in this book also challenged me, as I had never considered many of them before. Take the discipline of choices, for example. Bridges explains that making the right choices is a matter of discipline. We can train ourselves to put odd sinful attitudes and put on Christlike character and develop a spiritual pattern. “We obey one choice at a time.”
Wherever you are in your walk with Christ, I am sure this book will bless you. Bridges provides a compelling case for our commitment to discipline and our dependence on God’s grace that will enrich your faith. It was a delightful read, and I will return to it for its valuable lessons. I highly recommend it!
Favorite Quotes
“Your worst days are never so bad that you are beyond the reach of God’s grace. And your best days are never so good that you are beyond the need of God’s grace.”
“We must by faith in God’s Word lay hold of the fact that we have died to the reign of sin and are now alive to God, under His reign of grace.”
“Preaching the gospel to ourselves everyday addresses both the self-righteous Pharisee and the guilt-laden sinner that dwell in our hearts.”
“The problem with self-righteousness is that it seems almost impossible to recognize in ourselves.”
“To preach the gospel to yourself, then, means that you continually face up to your own sinfulness and then flee to Jesus through faith in His shed blood and righteous life.”
“As we by faith feed on the gospel, that faith will express itself in love; that is, in loving obedience to God.”
“God’s work does not make our effort unnecessary, but rather makes it effective.”
“One reason we do not see more progress in holiness in our lives is because we have, for the most part, lost sight of the necessity of commitment.”
“One thing we can be sure of: If we do not actively seek to come under the influence of God’s Word, we will come under the influence of sinful society around us.”
“We become more holy by obedience to the Word of God, by choosing to obey His will as revealed in the Scriptures in all the various circumstances of our lives.”
“It is through knowledge, plus meditation, plus application of the Scriptures to concrete situations in our daily lives that we develop Bible-based convictions.”
“Holiness of character, then, is developed one choice at a time as we choose to act righteously in each and every situation and circumstance we encounter during the day.”
“We cannot effectively pursue holiness without the Word of God stored up in our minds where it can be used by the Holy Spirit to transform us.”
“As dangerous as are the world and the Devil, neither is our greatest problem. Our greatest source of temptation dwells within us.”
“There is no such thing as pain without a purpose in the life of a believer.”
