“We Died to Sin” is the fourth 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.

The first response might be something like, “If I died to sin, why do I still have trouble with it?” Bridges says there is a different between “putting sin to death (Romans 8:13),” which he will discuss in chapter 11, and having died to sin.

This chapter studies Romans 6:1-14, but to fully understand that, we have to back up to Romans 5, where we learn that “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” In Adam as our representative head, we all sinned, but “our old man is crucified with [Jesus], that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin” (Romans 6:6). It doesn’t say we won’t sin any more, because the next few verses instruct us not to yield to sin. But sin’s dominion over us has been broken. We’re able to resist it, through Christ. In Erwin Lutzer’s book How To Say No to a Stubborn Habit, he likened it to moving from one house to another, and having the old landlord come knocking on the door asking for our rent payment: we don’t owe him any more, and we don’t have to pay him.

Some have the reaction that, if we died to sin in Christ, if He paid for all of it, then we can relax and do whatever we want. Paul’s response in Romans 6:1-2: “Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” Because in Him we died to sin, and now we’re united to Christ, such a thing is impossible.

Another resulting thought might be “‘Why…if we died to the reign of sin, do we need to be exhorted not to let sin reign in our bodies?’ Basically Paul was saying…’Live out your lives in the reality of the gospel. Take advantage of and put to use all the provisions of grace God has given to you in Christ'” (p. 75). A former pastor used to say of Philippians 2:12b, “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling,” that that meant not to work for salvation (numerous other verses tell us it is by grace through faith, not out own efforts), but to work it out, like a math problem, to its logical conclusions: take those high and lofty principles and ideals and truths and work them out into your everyday life.

“The gospel is far more than ‘fire insurance’ from eternal punishment in hell. We will learn that through Christ’s death on the cross, we are given the ability to live lives that are both pleasing to God and fulfilling for ourselves” (p. 62).

In many ways, this is the most difficult chapter in the book so far, and these chapters and concepts in Scripture are difficult as well. I’m just scratching the surface here. They are not really hard to follow, exactly, but they do take concentration. But it is definitely worth the effort.

More discussion on this chapter is here.

In Safely Home by Randy Alcorn, Ben Fielding is on the fast track to becoming CEO of Getz International. To increase the company’s business with China, Ben’s boss wants him to spend a few weeks there and suggests Ben stay with his old college roommate, Li Quan, to get a feel for what the “common man” in China might need from their business.

Ben has been in China many times before, is familiar with much of the culture, even speaks fluent Mandarin, but he has never looked up his old roommate. He is uncomfortable doing so now. Quan had come to college in America an atheist and became a Christian while here: Ben was a professing Christian in college, but his business goals have usurped everything else in his life. But, being put on the spot by his boss, he has little choice but to go and see Quan.

Ben is shocked that his brilliant roommate, who as a student had been asked to stay on at Harvard as  history professor, is living in such poverty. When he begins to learn about house churches and persecution of Christians, he is disbelieving, having fallen for the public relations hype fed to American businessmen and officials. But the more time Ben spends in China with Quan, the more his eyes are opened, not only to the true situation there, but also to the needs of his own heart.

Interspersed with Ben and Quan’s story are glimpses into the heavenlies as Alcorn interprets it, the great “cloud of witnesses,” the King’s care, watchfulness, and preparation for His own.

The story was inspired by Ron DiCianni’s beautiful print Safely Home, depicting a martyr being greeted home by his Savior, an angel waiting to the side with the new arrival’s white robe, the nations of earth visible below.

Knowing a couple of people who have worked in China, I do know that true Christians have to meet “underground,” have to be very careful about their words, actions, and even e-mails, and they can lose their jobs or be arrested for their faith.

We have it so relatively easy in America, we forget the hallmark of many Christians through the ages has been suffering and martyrdom. This book is a wake-up call, and it was a rebuke to me over the “little things” that I get grumbly about or the ways I fail to stand. In myself I know I don’t have it in me to face what some Christians do. But they would say they don’t either: their Savior helps them, as He will us as we walk for Him. We just need to remember that, in a world that hates Him, we often need to make a choice whether we’ll play it safe here, or do what we ought to and take the consequences; temporary safety and ease here, or being joyously welcomed Safely Home there.

A couple of my favorite lines from the book:

From the King: “They don’t understand that I am not only at work here, preparing a place for them, but I am at work there, preparing them for that place” (p. 313).

“The hands and feet of the only innocent man became forever scarred so that guilty people would not have to bear the scars they deserved” (p. 375).

My only little teensy criticism was that the story seemed a little more message-driven rather than story-driven. All writers are conveying a message, of course, and craft stories around the truths they wanted to convey or portray. It’s just a little more obvious here. But that may just be my impression — the reviews I looked through didn’t mention that, so it’s obviously not a drawback.

I do not only recommend but encourage the reading of this book.

I’m joining in the “Reading Classics Together” at Challies‘ place for the first time. I’ve always liked the idea: a group of people reads a chapter of a book a week and discusses it. But this is the first time the title they are discussing appealed enough to me for me to jump in.

The Disciplines of Grace by Jerry Bridges attracted me for a couple of reasons. I’ve heard Bridges favorably mentioned and recommended for years but just have never gotten to one of his books. And the title of this one seemed to explore what I was pondering in a post a while back, Of grace, law, commandments, rules, and effort (who knew someone had already written a book about it? 🙂 ) As I said there, people often seem to go too far one way or the other, either emphasizing grace to the point of having a laid-back attitude toward sin and obedience and even accusing those who emphasize obedience of legalism (I’ve seen this so many times in online discussions), or emphasizing obedience so much that they get caught up in their own performance and think they have to earn favor with God.

The first chapter, “How Good Is Good Enough?” deals with those two sides and illustrates them by contrasting two days, a good one where we’ve done pretty well by our standards, and a bad one where we failed at the starting block and can’t seem to get back on track all day. Bridges emphasizes that we can never earn God’s grace — by its very nature grace is undeserved, and though God wants us to obey (by His grace), even if we do, it’s only by His grace. He also emphasizes that depending on God’s grace every day doesn’t negate the need for vigorous personal effort in the pursuit of holiness.

Here are just a few quotes from the chapter that stood out to me:

The pursuit of holiness requires sustained and vigorous effort. It allows for no indolence, no lethargy, no halfhearted commitment, and no laissez faire attitude toward even the smallest sins. In short, it demands the highest priority in the life of a Christian, because to be holy is to be like Christ — God’s goal for every Christian (p. 12).

When we pray to God for His blessing, He does not examine our performance to see if we are worthy. Rather, He looks to see if we are trusting in the merit of His Son as our only hope for securing His blessing (p. 19).

It is only the joy of hearing the gospel and being reminded that our sins are forgiven in Christ that will keep the demands of discipleship from becoming drudgery. It is only gratitude and love to God that comes from knowing that He no longer counts our sins against us (Romans 4:8) that provides the proper motive for responding to the claims of discipleship (p. 21).

And my favorite:

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 (p, 19).

More discussion on this chapter is here.