Three Attitudes Towards Money & Possessions

There are three attitudes we can have towards money and possessions:

• "What's yours is mine; I will take it."
• "What's mine is mine; I will keep it." 
• "What's mine is God's; I will share it."

Jerry Bridges, The Discipline of Grace, pg. 91

Dealing with Guilt

Jerry Bridges in The Discipline of Grace offers this helpful counsel on dealing with our guilt.

Justification is a completed work as far as God is concerned.  The penalty has been paid and His justice has been satisfied.  But it must be received through faith and must be continually renewed in our souls and applied to our consciences every day through faith.  There are two "courts" we must deal with: the court of God in Heaven and the court of conscience in our souls.  When we trust in Christ for salvation, God's court is forever satisfied.  Never again will a charge of guilt be brought against us in Heaven.  Our consciences, however, are continually pronouncing us guilty.  That is the function of conscience.  Therefore, we must by faith bring the verdict of conscience into line with the verdict of Heaven.  We do this by agreeing with our conscience about our guilt, but then reminding it that our guilt has already been borne by Christ. (The Discipline of Grace, 54)

The Gospel

In his book The Discipline of Grace, Jerry Bridges outlines seven truths that we need to clearly understand if we want to understand the gospel.  Bridges derives these truths from Romans 3:19-26.

1. No one is declared righteous before God by observing the law (19-21)
2. There is a righteousness from God that is apart from law (21)
3. This righteousness from God is received through faith in Jesus Christ (22)
4. This righteousness is available to everyone on the same basis, because all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (22-23)
5. All who put their faith in Jesus Christ are justified freely by God's grace (24)
6. This justification is "through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus" (24)
7. God presented Jesus as a Sacrifice of Atonement, through faith in His blood (25)

What a message! And what a Savior!

What Does Love Look Like?

Jerry Bridges in his book The Discipline of Grace takes 1 Corinthians 13 (The great love chapter) and writes out verses 4 and 5 as action statements, encouraging the reader to "Ask yourself how your doing in your day to day practice of love."

• I am patient with you because I love you and want to forgive you. 
• I am kind to you because I love you and want to help you. 
• I do not envy your possessions or your gifts because I love you and want you to have the best. 
• I do not boast about my attainments because I love you and want to hear about yours. 
• I am not proud because I love you and want to esteem you before myself. 
• I am not rude because I love you and care about your feelings. 
• I am not self-seeking because I love you and want to meet your needs. 
• I am not easily angered by you because I love you and want to overlook your offenses. 
• I do not keep a record of your wrongs because I love you, and "love covers a multitude of sins."  

So how is your love?

The Discipline of Grace

This morning I picked up a book that I haven't looked at in a couple of years - The Discipline of Grace by Jerry Bridges.  One of the bloggers that I follow, Tim Challies chose this book to read through, inviting his readers to join him (he does this a couple times each year).  So I decided to join in on this read and wanted to share a few thoughts with you.

In chapter one (titled How Good is Good Enough?) I was reminded once again of this truth that I so often forget - THIS LIFE IS NOT ABOUT ME; SALVATION IS NOT ABOUT ME.  Meaning it's not about my sins and failures, or the guilt that I experience when I sin and fail.  Rather it's about God's grace in forgiving my sins and failures.  Nor is it about my good works, rather it's about God's grace working through me to accomplish good.   Here is how Bridges summarized this point: 

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 (19)

Bridges goes on unpacking what he means throughout the chapter, and I thought these lines offered a helpful explanation.

Pharisee-type believers unconsciously think they have earned God's blessing through their behavior.  Guilt-laden believers are quite sure they have forfeited God's blessing through their lack of discipline or their disobedience.  Both have forgotten the meaning of grace because they have moved away from the gospel and have slipped into a performance relationship with God. (22)

In other words Bridges is saying it's not about what WE did or do...it's about what CHRIST did through His death and resurrection - the Gospel!  But then the question comes if I cannot use "duty" or "guilt" to motivate myself and others to follow Christ, what should I use?  Bridges addresses this too:

We believers do need to be challenged to a life of committed discipleship, but that challenge needs to be based on the gospel, not on duty or guilt.  Duty or guilt may motivate us for awhile, but only a sense of Christ's love for us will motivate us for a lifetime.  (25)

So Christ's love for us should motivate us to lives of Radical discipleship...that's good stuff!  It's not to late to join in on the read.  If you are interested click here to see how it all works.