The Transforming Power of the Gospel by Jerry Bridges

Description

Jerry goes into detail about the gospel and our need to daily embrace it. We all struggle daily with sin, and it is the daily embrace of the gospel that helps us and motivates us to continue to fight the good fight. We all have to daily wrestle against the flesh. The sin nature doesn’t disappear after we commit our lives to Christ. As God’s light shines more and more in our heart, we grow in him, but not without struggle. It is in the light of God that we see our sin more clearly.

This book gives us a fuller treatment of the process of sanctification. It helps us understand on a practical level what that really looks like. I especially liked his treatment of the role of the Holy Spirit: balancing our responsibility and maintaining a constant reliance on God for the ability to do good works. He also covers God’s providence and how circumstances can help refine us. He ends with a chapter on “the already and the not yet”; meaning that God is continuing his work in us throughout our lives. It reminds me of Phil. 1:6, “He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”