“The Discipline of Watching” is the 12th chapter in the book The Discipline of Grace by Jerry Bridges, which we’re discussing every Thursday in the “Reading Classics Together” challenge at Challies‘ place. More discussion on this chapter is here.

The epigraph for this chapter is Matthew 26:41: “Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Just as the Titanic sank because its captain and crew ignored warnings and didn’t employ methods at hand for watching out for icebergs, so we can fall into temptation if we’re not watchful and if we don’t employ the tools God gave us for that purpose.

The first step in watchfulness is knowing our enemies: the world, the flesh, and the devil. Each has unique ways of attempting to lure one into sin.

Probably most of us have the most trouble with the “flesh,” our old nature. Bridges quotes Sinclair Ferguson as saying, “Freedom from the dominion of sin is not…the same thing as freedom from its presence and influence. Indeed, the power of sin remains where the dominion has been banished, and though that power of sin be weakened, yet its nature is not changed” (p. 212). We’re saved from the dominion of sin when we become Christians, but we won’t be totally free from its presence until we get to heaven, so we must be on guard against its influence and pulls. “Our flesh is always searching out opportunities to gratify itself according to the particular sinful desires each of us has” (p. 213-214). Though we can be tempted by most anything, each of us has certain sins we’re more inclined to. Jim Berg, in his book Changed Into His Image, calls them “designer sins.”

We need to know our particular weaknesses in order to watch out for our particular temptations. But we need to be careful of our strengths, too, “because that is where we are apt to trust ourselves and not depend on God” (p. 217). We need to be careful not to let “little” sins slide, because they can snowball into bigger problems before we know it.

All this talk of watchfulness might cause some to wonder, “What about Christian liberty?” Paul urges us not to”turn our freedom into an opportunity for the flesh” (Galatians 5:13). We can’t make up a Pharisaical list of don’ts (we can too easily judge our spirituality and everyone else’s by our “lists”), but we need to know that our heart is desperately wicked and will look for excuses to follow its own way. Some helpful guidelines to keep ourselves in check are:

“All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be enslaved by anything.  I Corinthians 6:12.

All things are lawful, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful, but not all things edify. Let no one seek his own good, but that of his neighbor. (I Corinthians 10:23-24).

“The best defense is a good offense,” as the old saying goes, and “the best offense is meditation on the Word of God and prayer. It is surely no coincidence that they are the only two spiritual exercises that we are encouraged to do continually” (p. 223). “For every temptation that you face, there are specific passages of Scripture that address that issue” (p. 223). We can seek some out, perhaps asking the help of another mature Christian if we don’t know where to look, and then “memorize those verses, meditate on them, and pray over them every day, asking the Holy Spirit to bring them to your mind in times of need. Ask, also, that He will strengthen your will to enable you to obey the word that He brings to your mind” (p. 223). And we can pray, as Jesus instructed His disciples, that God would “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one” (Matthew 6:13).

Even with all of that, we sin every day, and we need God’s grace for forgiveness. “The gospel of God’s forgiveness of our sins through Christ’s death frees us to face those sins honestly and bring them to the cross and Jesus’ cleansing blood. The freedom and joy that then come from a cleansed conscience create the desire and give us the right motive to deal with those sins. We cannot effectively pursue holiness without going back again and again to the gospel” (p. 225).

And even though Bridges doesn’t say this directly, it’s implied through the whole chapter that grace doesn’t negate the need for watchfulness. That we can be forgiven for sins doesn’t mean we should not make every attempt to avoid them. Jesus said to “watch and pray” and to pray that we wouldn’t be led into temptation, Paul told readers to “flee youthful lusts,” to do and not to do certain things. We can’t be presumptuous and negligent, thinking that it doesn’t matter if we sin because God will forgive us. Psalm 19:13 even contains the prayer, “Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me.” But, thank God, when we do fail we can experience His grace and forgiveness.

“The Discipline of Choices” is the 11th chapter in the book The Discipline of Grace by Jerry Bridges, which we’re discussing every Thursday in the “Reading Classics Together” challenge at Challies‘ place. More discussion on this chapter is here.

This was a hard chapter for me. Not hard to understand so much, but hard to come to grips with. As “spiritual” as it sounds to want to fight sin by “giving it all to God” or asking Him to take it, what it comes down to is my choice. I can’t make the right choices without Him, but I have to yield either to righteousness or unrighteousness. But it was also a helpful and hopeful chapter.

I’m not going to outline or summarize the chapter this time, but I will just share a few key points that stood out to me:

“We obey one choice at a time” (p. 191). That was a major relief to me. Looking at a lifetime of fighting sinful tendencies sounds exhausting, but I only have to focus on one choice at a time.

Whichever way we yield ourselves, we’re training and developing our character either further in righteousness or further in sin.

We might agree with what the Bible says about a certain sin, “and even make a commitment of sorts to put it out of our lives…..We would like to be rid of that sin, and even pray to God to take it away, but are we willing to say no to it?” (p. 194).

Most of us have at least a couple of areas we struggle with, have made commitments about, memorized applicable verses about. “We need to be especially vigilant in these areas to make the right choices. We have already made too many wrong choices; that is why these sin patterns are so deeply entrenched in us. It is only through making the right choice to obey God’s Word that we will break the habits of sin and develop the habits of holiness. This is where we desperately need the power of the Holy Spirit to enable us to make the right choices. So cry out to God every day for His help that day, and then cry out again each time you are confronted with the choice to sin or to obey” (p. 194).

There were several standout statements about “mortification” from Romans 8:13: “For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.”

“Mortification, or putting sin to death, is our responsibility. Paul said, ‘You put sin to death’ (emphasis added). This is something we must do. It is not something we turn over to God. Rather, it is our responsibility, as Paul also emphasized in Colossians 3:5” (p. 196).

“Although mortification is our responsibility, it can only be done through the enabling power of the Holy Spirit. Paul said, ‘But if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live’ (emphasis added)” (p. 196).

“To mortify a sin means to subdue it, to deprive it of its power, to break the habit pattern we have developed of continually giving in to the temptation of that particular sin. The goal of mortification is to weaken the habits of sin so that we do make the right choices” (p. 197).

“To mortify sin we must focus on its true nature. So often we are troubled with a persistent sin only because it disturbs our peace and makes us feel guilty. We need to focus on it as an act of rebellion against God” (p. 198).

After explaining that the word for “mortify” is used several times in the NT of putting someone to death in the context of hostility (as when Jesus was put to death), Bridges says, “Now apply that sense of hostility toward the sin you wish to mortify. See it for what it is and what it stands for — a rebellion against God, a breaking of His law, a despising of His authority, a grieving of His heart. This is where mortification actually begins, with a right attitude toward sin. It begins with the realization that sin is wrong, not because of what it does to me, or my spouse, or child, or neighbor, but because it is an act of rebellion against the infinitely holy and majestic God who sent His Son to be the propitiation for my sins” (p. 199).

“Think of an unusually persistent sin in your life…You say you cannot overcome it. Why not? Is it because you exalt your secret desire above the will of God?” (p. 199).

Just as in past chapters Bridges has emphasized that the pursuit of holiness is not just against sin but towards Christ-likeness, so he applies that truth here as well. Our choices are not just to avoid certain temptations but to grow in holiness.

“Just as it is ‘by the Spirit’ that we put to death the misdeeds of the body, so it is by the Spirit that we put on the virtues of Christlike character. That is why Paul could say in Colossians 3:12-14 that we are to clothe ourselves with these qualities (emphasizing our responsibility), while in Galatians 5:22-23 he refers to Christian character traits as the ‘fruit of the Spirit’ (emphasizing our dependence on the Spirit). The same Spirit who enables us to mortify sin also enables us to put on godly character” (p. 203).

“There is a fine line between using grace as an excuse for sin and using grace as a remedy for our sin,” but we do need to understand that we will often fail, especially when fighting long-held and deeply engrained habits, and to remember “that we stand before God on the basis of His grace rather than our performance.” (p. 204).

“The solution to staying on the right side of the fine line between using and abusing grace is repentance. The road to repentance is godly sorrow (2 Corinthians 7:10). Godly sorrow is developed when we focus on the true nature of sin as an offense against God rather than something that makes us feel guilty….Dwelling on the true nature of sin leads us to godly sorrow, which in turn leads us to repentance” (p. 205).

Contrary to the postmodern belief that there is no absolute truth, the Bible discloses much absolute truth, and it is incumbent upon believers to know it both so that we worship God “in spirit and in truth,” and so that our behavior reflects our beliefs. Otherwise our morality is determined by consensus, by what everyone else is doing. Even Christians fall too easily into that trap, of adapting their lives to their particular Christian culture rather than on Bible-based convictions.

Jerry Bridges, in The Discipline of Grace, defines conviction as “a determinative belief: something you believe so strongly that it affects the way you live. Someone has observed that a belief is what you hold, but a conviction is what holds you” (p. 167).

God tells us “do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God” (Romans 12:2). Renewing our minds comes about as we read God’s Word, delight in it, meditate on it, and thereby derive convictions from it. “One who delights in the Law of God sees the Bible not just as a book of rules that are difficult to live by, but as the Word of his or her heavenly Father who is the God of all grace and deals with him or her in grace” (p. 169).

Without regular time reading and studying the Bible, our beliefs and morality will be influenced by the ungodly. Psalm 1 contrasts the righteous with the ungodly.

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. The impact of our culture with its heavy emphasis on materialism, living for one’s self, and instant gratification is simply too strong and pervasive for us not to be influenced by it. Once again, there is no such thing as a neutral stance on the continuum of influence. We are being drawn more and more under the transforming influence of Scripture, or we are being progressively drawn into the web of an ungodly society around us (p. 171).

But as we approach the Scriptures, we need to do so with the conviction that it is the Word of God, asking God to teach us its truths rather than just looking to shore up our own opinions, and we need to seek to apply it to our lives, not just store up knowledge and facts.

Our acceptance by God the Father is based solely on His grace to us through Christ. His favor is never earned by what we do nor forfeited by what we don’t do. But we may say with equal emphasis that our progress in the pursuit of holiness is to a significant degree conditioned on our use of the disciplines that God has appointed for us (p. 184).

Bridges mostly discusses how developing Bible-based convictions will keep us from veering off into ungodly thoughts and behaviors, but it will also help us not to veer into Christian lines of thought that are off-base or off-balance. Sometimes Christians can get hold of one aspect of truth without its balance of another, or take a Bible-based conviction and extrapolate from that certain standards of behavior that aren’t Biblically based at all, and defend those convictions with as much or more vigor than the clear teaching of Scripture. That can do great harm to the cause of Christ and the testimonies of believers. We desperately need to form convictions based on Scripture itself.

“The Discipline of Commitment” is the 10th chapter in the book The Discipline of Grace by Jerry Bridges, which we’re discussing every Thursday in the “Reading Classics Together” challenge at Challies‘ place. More discussion on this chapter is here.

“Dependent Discipline” is the 8th chapter in the book The Discipline of Grace by Jerry Bridges, which we’re discussing every Thursday in the “Reading Classics Together” challenge at Challies‘ place.

Bridges likens dependence and discipline to the two different wings of an airplane, both of which are needed to fly. By discipline here he means not God’s discipline of us, which he discussed in chapter 5, but rather “certain activities designed to train a person in a particular skill”as when Paul told Timothy “to train himself, or discipline himself, to be godly (I Timothy 4:7)” (p. 130).

Now we will be looking at the discipline of ourselves, the responsibilities we must shoulder to pursue holiness. But the point of the airplane illustration is that we must not carry out our responsibilities in our own strength and willpower. We must depend upon the Holy Spirit to enable us. At the same time we must not assume that we have no responsibilities simply because we are dependent. God enables us to work, but He does not do the work for us (p. 130).

Bridges then discusses several Scriptural examples of dependence coupled with work, such as Psalm 127:1, Nehemiah’s rebuilding of the city wall (especially 4:8-9), and Paul’s testimony in Philippians 4:11-13 and Colossians 1:28-29. In that last reference, Paul says he labored, striving (or struggling, depending on the translation), using “a strong [Greek] word, denoting toil to the point of weariness or exhaustion,” the word “agonizomai, from which we get our word agonize, and conveys the idea of an athlete straining to win the race” (p. 133). But he labored “according to his working, which worketh in me mightily,” not in his own strength.

Balance comes up so often in the Bible, and balance is needed here as well. People tend to err by leaning too far one way or the other. In this instance, many advocate the passive approach of “letting Christ live His life through me.” I’ve known some very good people whom I greatly respect who advocate this view, and it never set right with me, because of its passivity as opposed to the action verbs in the gospels and New Testament. Bridges clarified the problems with this approach for me. “He does not live His life through me. Rather, as I depend on Him, He enables me to live a life pleasing to Him” (p. 134). “God’s work does not make our effort unnecessary, but rather makes it effective. Paul did not say, ‘Christ shows contentment through me.’ Rather, he said, ‘I have learned to be content through Him who gives me strength'”(p. 134-135).

The other end of the off-balance spectrum is relying on our spiritual disciplines, necessary as they are, as the source of our spiritual strength rather than on Christ’s strength applied in our lives by the Holy Spirit.

There were times in Old Testament battles when God miraculously gave a victory without Israel having to fight or provided food without any effort of the people involved. But more often than not, He worked through the people going to battle and planting and watering and toiling.

As I Corinthians 3:7 says, planting and watering is needed, but God gives the increase. “The truth is, we must plant and we must water if we are to make progress in holiness, but only the Holy Spirit can change us more and more into the likeness of Jesus. Our problem is that we tend to depend upon our planting and our watering rather than on the Lord” (p. 137). Farmers can plow, plant, fertilize, irrigate, cultivate, and harvest, but they can’t control weather or make things grow. So in our spiritual growth, there are things we can and should do, but we can’t make ourselves grow.

We know that apart from Him we can do nothing (John 15:5), yet sometimes we can live an act as if we’re doing it all ourselves. One way we can combat that is through prayer, expressing our dependence on God. Bridges brings up several examples from Psalm 119 of the psalmist’s diligence in studying and attempting to obey God’s word while asking for God’s help and direction and ability. Bridges also points out Nehemiah’s times of protracted prayer as well as spontaneous prayer in the moment of need and points out that we need both kinds of prayer as well.

This was a helpful chapter in many ways. I probably err more on the side of relying on spiritual disciples and need to frequently remind myself my strength and ability comes from God alone, yet there are a few “besetting sins” that I keep waiting for God to take completely away without employing the efforts I need to.

More discussion on this chapter can be found here. My discussions of previous chapters are here.