Short Reviews: The Discipline of Grace by Jerry Bridges
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. 9).
These two sentences alone made this work by Jerry Bridges a future re-read on my list. Filled with insightful analogies, and practical steps to practice holiness from the springboard of the gospel, The Discipline of Grace stands in the middle of legalism and antinomianism (abusing grace), which is right where the gospel keeps you — pursuing holiness from the power of grace.
The Thesis
Bridges wrote this book in order to show believers that:
Grace and the personal discipline required to pursue holiness… are not opposed to one another. In fact, they go hand in hand. An understanding of how grace and personal, vigorous effort work together is essential for a lifelong pursuit of holiness (p. 3).
Bridges wants believers to understand that holiness should be based on the gospel alone, not on whether we are having spiritually “good days” or “bad days”. “Every day of our Christian experience should be a day of relating to God on the basis of His grace alone” (p. 9). “We are saved by grace, and we are to live by grace every day of our Christian lives” (9).
At the same time, the gospel is not good news to sit and “become holy by osmosis” (p. 160). We are to obey the truth we learn, and not “equate knowledge of the truth, and even agreement with it, with obedience to it” (p. 176). The gospel frees us to obey.
One of my Favorite Parts
In this time of quarantine, I have been challenged to fill my time with more prayer. After watching David Platt’s T4G talk on how “prayerlessness is pride”, I was challenged to spend more time interceding for my church, my community, my nation, and the nations. The Lord also used Bridges’ observations from Nehemiah to help me practice prayer with two useful categories in mind.
The first category of Nehemiah’s prayer life can be described “as planned, protracted, and persevering prayer. It was planned because it was made a part of his daily schedule, protracted because it extended over a period of several months, and persevering because he continued to pray until God answered” (p. 135). Given that Nehemiah was the king’s cupbearer, he had duties to perform, and had to plan his prayer times.
The second category can be described as unplanned, short, and spontaneous. How so? When time came for Nehemiah to lay before the king his request to go to Jerusalem and rebuild its walls, Nehemiah “prayed to the God of heaven, and [he] answered the king” (Neh. 2:4–5). Bridges adds, “Obviously the king was not aware of Nehemiah’s quick, silent prayer. It was probably something like ‘Lord, help me to speak, give me favor in the king’s heart’” (p. 135). Nehemiah practiced both categories of prayers, and we can practice them too. The first category might include the salvation of a friend. The second might be short prayers as you do mundane work through the week.
Future Book Reviews
While I could reference several other parts that spurred thought and moved me, I hope the thesis and one of my favorite parts will help you decide whether you should read the book or not. My aim is not to give extensive reviews, but to simply show the thesis of the book and one of my favorite parts. I will only be writing about parts I disliked when I find something I outright disagree with. Look for future book reviews to follow this format. You can purchase The Discipline of Grace here.
