After I first became a Christian, when I would become convicted of some sin, I’d make a commitment never to do that again…and of course, fall flat on my face. So I began to think making a commitment was not the way to go about it and was, in fact, setting oneself up for failure. And since it is better not to make a vow than to vow and not fulfill it, I began to just pray that the Lord would help me not to do that particular thing.

But Jerry Bridges makes a compelling argument for making commitments against sin in the chapter “The Discipline of Commitment” in his book The Discipline of Grace. For one thing, in Scripture we see people like Job (“I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid?” Job 31:1) and Daniel (“But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s meat, nor with the wine which he drank” Daniel 1:8) do so.

But before we get into making specific commitments against specific sins, we’re called to commit ourselves totally to the Lord. Romans 12:1 says, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” Bridges says, “When we commit ourselves to the pursuit of holiness, we need to ensure that our commitment is actually to God, not simply to a holy lifestyle or a set of moral values” (p. 148).

Also, “We should not seek holiness in order to feel good about ourselves, or to blend in with our Christian peer group, or to avoid the sense of shame and guilt that follows the committing of persistent sin in our lives. Far too often our concern with sin arises from how it makes us feel” (p. 149). And we need to guard against being “more vexed at the lowering of our self-esteem than we are grieved at God’s dishonor” (p. 149).

Plus, our commitment should not but just to avoid sin, but to pursue Christlike virtues. Colossians 3:12 says, “Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering.”

Psalm 119:106 says, “I have sworn, and I will perform it, that I will keep thy righteous judgments.” Bridges quotes Stephen Charnock as saying, “Frequently renew settled and holy resolutions. A soldier unresolved to fight may easily be defeated” (p. 151). “If you do not commit yourself to the pursuit of holiness in these specific areas of your life, you will find a tendency to vacillate in the face of these temptations” (p. 159).

Perhaps the hardest thing for me in this chapter was Bridges’ consistent urge to allow no exceptions. “If we do not make such a commitment to obedience without exception, we will find ourselves constantly making exceptions” (p. 153).

But how can we do such a thing? Bridges says one way is by intention. “Is it our intention to please God in all our actions?” (p. 152). He quotes William Law as saying that our lack of holiness often is due to a lack of intention. Law goes on to say, “This doctrine does not suppose that we have no need of divine grace, or that it is in our own power to make ourselves perfect. It only supposes that through the [lack] of a sincere intention of pleasing God in all our actions, we fall into such irregularities of life, as by the ordinary means of grace, we should have power to avoid” (p. 153). Or as I saw quoted somewhere else recently, “Drift is almost always away.” When we don’t have a daily intent to please God in everything, we’re going to find ourselves allowing those things that don’t please Him.

What about grace? Doesn’t this all sound a little legalistic?

“Is God really this strict?” Yes…because he cannot compromise His holiness the least bit. His goal is to conform us to the likeness of His Son, and Jesus was completely without sin, though He was tempted every way we are (Hebrews 4:15). No, we cannot, or perhaps will not, keep these commitments perfectly, but keeping them perfectly should at least be our aim. In a battle, some soldiers will always be hit, but every one of them makes it his aim not to be hit. To have a lesser aim would be the height of folly. (p. 160).

“It was in view of God’s mercy that Paul urged the Romans, and us today, to commit our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God” (p. 160). Paul had spent the preceding 11 chapters of Romans detailing God’s grace in the gospel. Bridges has several paragraphs, too long to repeat here, bringing out some of the truths of grace from the first part of Romans.

“It is this mercy that is reveled to us in the gospel and that we believers have experienced that is the ground for our commitment. Such a commitment as Paul called for would indeed be a legalistic and oppressive commitment if it were not grounded in love. And the only way Paul would stir up our love is to remind us of God’s love for us, revealed through His mercy and grace. What Paul asked for from us is only a response of love and gratitude, which expresses itself in loving commitment (p. 161).

God provides the grace for the commitment He calls us to (Romans 6:11-14, Hebrews 4:15-16). We need to remind ourselves of the gospel frequently not just to cleanse our consciences, but to reaffirm our commitment to Him as a response of love and gratitude (p. 162-163).

On a personal note…in the course of reading this chapter, I became convicted of a bad driving habit. You wouldn’t think to look at me that I’d be guilty of “road rage,” and as a general rule I am not an angry driver, but when other drivers do something particularly dumb that impacts me, I can get pretty hot under the collar. Just recently I had been stuck behind not one but two different pokey drivers on roads where I couldn’t pass, and I was in danger of being late for church, so when the second one finally turned off the road, I gunned the engine and veered around him before he was totally turned. Then I noticed a car behind me, and hoped it wasn’t someone from church…but it was (and interestingly, after this incident, Bridges shared a very similar one, driving the conviction even deeper.) I always feel guilty about these incidents and think, “I really shouldn’t react that way.” But while reading this chapter I began to feel that I should go further than that. I made a commitment that, God helping me, I would not react in anger while driving for several reasons: It’s dangerous (I could hit someone else while angrily reacting), it is a poor testimony to the driver I’m reacting to as well as anyone watching, and it is not demonstrating the self-control that is a fruit of the Holy Spirit. And, of course, I’ve been tested on this about 3 times since then…but God has used the commitment, or intention, to remind me and help me not to respond in a fleshly way. Bridges urges us to make a general commitment as well as commitments in specific areas….I think if I did that I’d have a very long list to work on, but this is a start.

“The Discipline of Commitment” is the 9th 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. I had to miss Thursday, but wanted to go through the chapter anyway for my own edification.

“Transformed Into His Likeness” is the sixth 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.

When believers are first saved, the penalty for their sin is lifted, having been borne by Christ on the Christ, and His righteousness is put to their account. Yet they still have what the Bible calls their old nature or “old man” within them. Sanctification is the word for the process whereby Christians are gradually transformed from looking and acting like the “old man” to looking and acting more like Christ. It happens in fact at salvation, it happens progressively through life, and it culminates in our perfection when we get to heaven. Or, as Bridges explains it:

Sanctification is the work of the Holy Spirit in us whereby our inner being is progressively changed, freeing us more and more from sinful traits and developing within us over time the virtues of Christlike character. However, though sanctification is the work of the Holy Spirit in us, it does involve our wholehearted obedience and the regular use of spiritual disciplines that are instruments of sanctification (p. 96).

It is “the carrying out of regeneration to its intended end” (p. 99).

You don’t hear this so much these days, but there used to be people who thought that their entire old nature was removed or changed when they became Christians and they could no longer sin. I don’t know how they missed the remaining sinful tendencies in their own hearts or the verses in the Bible that speak of our growth and change.

Today we have more of the opposite problem: people who say they have been regenerated (saved), yet do not display any evidence of a new life or any growth spiritually. Bridges says, “The solution for these people is not to change their conduct so that they might see some evidences of regeneration. The solution is to come to Jesus, renouncing any confidence in their own goodness, confessing themselves to be sinners in the sight of God, and trusting entirely in His atoning work” (p. 98).

After one becomes a Christian, the goal of our transformation is to become more like Christ. “To be like Jesus…is to always seek to do the will of the Father…Not only did Jesus do the will of the Father, not only was that His whole goal in life, but Psalm 40:8 tells us He delighted to do the will of the Father…What is our aim? Is it to please the Father in all we do, or is it just to get through life as comfortably as we can? (p. 102).

But it is not just in our actions and goals that we’re transformed into Jesus’ likeness, but in our character.

This process involves the Holy Spirit’s leading and enabling and our obedience and cooperation.

Our part, that is, our response to the Holy Spirit’s work and our cooperation with Him in His work is the pursuit of holiness…the pursuit of holiness, though requiring diligent effort on our part, is dependent on the enabling power of the Holy Spirit…It is difficult to grasp this principle of being responsible yet dependent. But it is absolutely vital that we grasp and live by it” (p. 100).

In my circles, the idea of progressive sanctification is taught often, but the emphasis tends to be more on our responsibility.  It wasn’t an entirely new thought that Holy Spirit was the agent, the enabler, the One ultimately responsible for our transformation, but I had never heard this truth brought out as thoroughly as Bridges does it, and that was a great blessing to me. Among his comments on this aspect:

Paul said in 2 Corinthians 3:18 that we are being transformed by “the Lord, who is the Spirit.” The verb being transformed is passive, that is, something being done to us, not by us. This does not mean we have no responsibility in sanctification. It means that in the final analysis it is the Spirit of God who transforms us. He calls on us to cooperate and do the part He assigns us to do, but He is the one who works deep within our character to change us (p. 106).

Several passages of Scripture emphasize the fact that sanctification is primarily the work of the Holy Spirit. In 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 Paul said, “May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.”…

Again, Paul wrote in Philippians 1:6, “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”(p. 107).

Finally, the writer of Hebrews prayed that God will “work in us what is pleasing to Him” (Hebrews 13:21) (p. 107).

Yet:

The Spirit of God has indeed given us certain responsibilities in the sanctifying process. In fact, the Bible is filled with exhortations, challenges, and commands to obey, as well as spiritual disciplines to be practiced (p. 107).

I’ve often wondered what exactly is our part and what is His, where does one end and one begin, how does it all work together. Bridges says this is a mystery. It is never quite thoroughly explained in Scripture. But as we do our part, we trust Him for His enabling and transforming.

Bridges then goes on to discuss the various means that the Holy Spirit uses in our sanctification: adversities, exhortations and encouragement from others, Scripture, and prayer. But perhaps the most significant means is found in 2 Corinthians 3:18: “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory.” “The glory of the Lord denotes the presence of God and all that He is in all of His attributes — His infiniteness, eternalness, holiness, sovereignty, goodness, and so on…God is glorious in all of His being and all of His works” (p. 109). The more we seek Him and gaze on Him in Scripture, the more we are transformed into His likeness.

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

“Disciplined by Grace” is the fifth 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.

“Disciplined by Grace” seems an oxymoron to many who don’t associate the two together, but Bridges asserts that that’s because of a misunderstanding of both concepts.

The epigraph for this chapter is Titus 2:11-12: “For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age.”The word for “teach” there “means much more than…imparting knowledge. Originally it was used as a term for the rearing of children and included not only instruction, but also admonition, reproof, and punishment, all administered in love and for the benefit of the child” (p. 80).

Spiritually, “discipline includes all instruction, all reproof and correction, and all providentially directed hardships in our lives that are aimed at cultivating spiritual growth” (p. 80). But, “all of God’s disciplinary processes are grounded in His grace – His unmerited and unconditional favor toward us (p. 80).

It’s so important to keep these two concepts in balance. With a heavier leaning towards discipline, even good spiritual practices designed to grow us can become performance-based (thinking we earn God’s favor by doing them), while a heavier leaning toward grace can lead to laxity.

Bridges points out from the verse above that grace teaches us to say “No” to some things — ungodliness and worldly passions (and he points out that ungodliness is basically “disregarding God, ignoring Him,  or not taking Him into account in one’s life. It is a lack of fear and reverence for Him”[(p. 85]) — and “Yes” to others — self control, uprightness, and godliness. This is the basic “put off/put on” scenario of Ephesians 4:20-32.

But we need to always remember “With all this emphasis on practical Christian living…we must lose sight of the fact that it is grace — not law — that teaches us” (p. 92). The law “commanded but gave no ability to obey” and then “condemned me for my failure to obey” (p. 92).  But “where the law condemns, grace forgives through the Lord Jesus Christ. Where the law commands but gives no power, grace commands but does give power through the Holy Spirit who lives and works in us” (p. 93).

I appreciated, too, what Bridges pointed out about the fact that while our acceptance before God is on the basis of grace rather than our “performance,” on the other hand, there are many admonitions about the importance of our testimony before unbelievers and the harm that can be done to the cause of Christ by a poor example in ourselves (pp. 89-90).

More discussion on this chapter is here.

Previous chapters discussed from The Discipline of Grace are:

1) How Good Is Good Enough?
2) The Pharisee and the Tax Collector
3) Preach the Gospel to Yourself
4) We Died to Sin.

I’m joining in the “Reading Classics Together” at Challies‘ place, and the book currently under discussion is The Discipline of Grace by Jerry Bridges.

I wasn’t able to discuss last week’s chapter due to family activities with loved ones from out of town, but its title was “The Pharisee and the Tax Collector.” Tim summed it up nicely here, but I’ll just say, if anyone has any shred of hope in their own goodness, this chapter will trounce that idea. We think we’re ok, like the Pharisee, because we don’t do any of the “really bad,” obvious sins like murder, adultery, etc., but we overlook our “refined” sins like pride, envy, and the like. But sin is sin. And even the good we do is shot through with wrong motives and lack of faith.

It could actually be a depressing chapter, even for one who has known those truths for years. But it is necessary to remind ourselves of those things in order to see the need for God’s grace, not just for salvation, but for daily living that pleases Him.

The title of the current chapter is “Preach the Gospel to Yourself.” My former music pastor once said that the gospel is not just the first step of the Christian life, but it is the hub of the wheel that everything else in the Christian life connects to and emanates from. Bridges says “The gospel is for believers also, and we must pursue holiness, or any other aspect of discipleship, in the atmosphere of the gospel” (p. 46).

Bridges then thoroughly discuss Romans 3:19-26, bringing out the gospel truths that “no one is declared righteous before God by observing the law,” “there is a righteousness from God that is apart from the law,” “the righteousness of God is received through faith in Jesus Christ,” “this righteousness is available to everyone on the same basis because we have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” “all who put their faith in Jesus Christ are justified freely by God’s grace,” “this justification is ‘through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus,'” and “God presented Jesus as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in His blood.” Those phrases are all sections of the chapter that he then discusses in more detail.

One important distinction he makes is that between “justification and mere pardon. A pardon is excusing an offense without exacting a penalty, “such as when a president or governor pardons someone even though they are guilty. “In God’s plan of justification, however, justice is not violated by a gratuitous pardon of the convicted sinner. Rather, justice has been satisfied; the penalty has been fully paid by the Lord Jesus Christ” (p. 56).

“It is not our contrition or sorrow for our sin, it is not our repentance, it is not even the passing of a certain number of hours during which we feel we are on some kind of probation that cleanses
us. It is the blood of Christ, shed once for all on Calvary . . . that cleanses our consciences and gives us a renewed sense of peace with God” (p. 58).

“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” (p. 59). Just as in salvation we depended on Jesus’s goodness and righteousness rather than our own, so we do every day of our Christian lives as well, rejoicing that our sins are forgiven and we face no condemnation since we are in Christ.

This does not mean we do not pursue holiness. Much of the latter part of the book discusses holiness. It’s not that once we’re forgiven, we sit back, relax, and live however we want til we get to heaven. Rather, out of love for God and gratitude to Him, we should be even more motivated to pursue holiness. But we need to remember “when you set yourself to seriously pursue holiness, you will begin to realize what an awful sinner you are. And if you are not firmly rooted in the gospel and have not learned to preach it to yourself every day, you will soon become discouraged and will slack off in your pursuit of holiness” (p. 60).

On a side note, I have to admit, before reading this chapter, the phrase “preach the gospel to yourself every day” grated on me a bit. Not that I didn’t believe its truths, even before reading here, but we have such a tendency to operate by catch-phrases: I kept seeing and hearing this brought up in the face of any problem or situation. Yes, if someone has financial or marital or other problems, we do apply the truth of the gospel to it and operate on the basis of the forgiveness wrought for us in Christ. But as Wendy Alsup often says, the gospel affects everything, but the gospel isn’t everything. We apply the gospel and operate from its base, but we go on to learn the whole counsel of God and apply it to our lives as well.

This chapter is very beneficial. I would even venture to say it is the key chapter of the book. More discussion of it is here.