The Discipline of Grace: God's Role and Our Role in the Pursuit of Holiness

by Jerry Bridges

The Discipline of Grace offers a clear and and thorough explanation of the gospel and what it means to be a believer.

Written by Navigator author Jerry Bridges, this book explores how the same grace that brings us to faith in Christ also disciplines us in Christ. In learning more about grace, you also will learn about God's character, His forgiveness, and the Holy Spirit.

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Paperback, 253 pages

Published April 28th 2006 by NavPress Publishing Group (first published November 1st 1994)

tags: theology, spirituality, faith, christianity, christian non fiction, religion, nonfiction, christian living, discipleship, christian

Book Quotes

“Our 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.”

― Jerry Bridges

topics: Bad Days, Christ, Good Days, Grace

“Preach the gospel to yourself every day.”

― Jerry Bridges

“All pain we experience is intended to move us closer to the goal of being holy as He is holy.”

― Jerry Bridges

“Sometimes the end God has in mind is to exercise our faith, so He brings us into straitened circumstances so that we might look up to Him and see His deliverance.”

― Jerry Bridges

“In times of adversity Satan will seek to plant the thought in our minds that God is angry with us and is disciplining us out of wrath. Here is another instance when we need to preach the gospel to ourselves. It is the gospel that will reassure that the penalty for our sins has been paid, that God's justice has been fully satisfied. It is the gospel that supplies a good part of the armor of God with which we are to stand against the accusing attacks of the Devil (see Ephesians 6:13-17).”

― Jerry Bridges

topics: Adversity

“Faith itself has no merit; in fact, by its nature it is self-emptying. It involves our complete renunciation of any confidence in our own righteousness and a relying entirely on the perfect righteousness and death of Christ.”

― Jerry Bridges

topics: Faith

“Nothing cuts the nerve of the desire to pursue holiness as much as a sense of guilt. On the contrary, nothing so motivates us to deal with sin in our lives as does the understanding and application of the two truth that our sins are forgiven and the dominion of sin is broken because of our union with Christ.”

― Jerry Bridges

topics: Grace, Guilt, Holiness, Union With Christ

“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.”

― Jerry Bridges

“If we are going to persevere as committed disciples of Jesus Christ over the course of our lives, we must always keep the gospel of God’s forgiveness through Christ before us.”

― Jerry Bridges

“To the degree that we feel we are on a legal or performance relationship with God, to that degree our progress in sanctification is impeded. A legal mode of thinking gives indwelling sin an advantage, because nothing cuts the nerve of the desire to pursue holiness as much as a sense of guilt. On the contrary, nothing so motivates us to deal with sin in our lives as does the understanding and application of the two truths that our sins are forgiven and the dominion of sin is broken because of our union with Christ.”

― Jerry Bridges

“Run, John, run. The law commands But gives neither feet nor hands. Better news the gospel brings; It bids me fly and gives me wings.”

― Jerry Bridges

“The point of this good-day-bad-day comparison is this: Regardless of our performance, we are always dependent on God’s grace, His undeserved favor to those who deserve His wrath. Some days we may be more acutely conscious of our sinfulness and hence more aware of our need of His grace, but there is never a day when we can stand before Him on our own two feet of performance, when we are worthy enough to deserve His blessing.”

― Jerry Bridges

“I’ve asked people why they think God would probably not use them to share the gospel with someone on a “bad” day. A typical reply is, “I wouldn’t be worthy,” or “I wouldn’t be good enough.” Such a reply reveals an all-too-common misconception of the Christian life: the thinking that, although we are saved by grace, we earn or forfeit God’s blessings in our daily lives by our performance.”

― Jerry Bridges

“Romans 3:19-26. To help us examine that passage, I will quote it here in its entirety. Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin. But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished — he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.”

― Jerry Bridges

“When I use the term the law of God here, I am not referring specifically to the Law given to the nation of Israel through Moses. Rather, I am using the term in a more general sense to refer to the transcript of God’s nature and the rule of obedience that He requires of all human beings. It includes all of the ethical commands scattered throughout the Bible. The standard of obedience required by the law is absolute perfection, for James 2:10 tells us, “For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.” The apostle Paul said essentially the same thing when he wrote, “All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law’” (Galatians 3:10). Only perfect obedience is acceptable to God. Years ago Ivory soap had a slogan, “Ninety-nine-and-forty-four-onehundredths-percent pure.” Apparently that is quite an accomplishment for soap, but that is not good enough for God. Only 100 percent is acceptable. Yet the average person walking around”

― Jerry Bridges

“George Smeaton wrote, “[The apostle Paul] exhibits the two great counterparts of sin and righteousness as equal realities — the one as the world’s ruin, the other as its restoration. The one is a completed fact as well as the”

― Jerry Bridges

“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.”

― Jerry Bridges

“The word faith is a noun and has no verbal form in”

― Jerry Bridges

“Undoubtedly, one of the reasons God allows us to fall before temptation so often is to teach us experientially that we really are dependent on Him to enable us to grow in holiness.”

― Jerry Bridges

“Perhaps we have become self-righteous about our Christian lives because we look at society around us and see flagrant immorality, pervasive dishonesty, wholesale greed, and increasing violence. We see growing acceptance of abortion as a “right” and homosexuality as an acceptable alternate lifestyle. Because we are not guilty of these more gross forms of sin, we can begin to feel rather good about our Christian lives. When”

― Jerry Bridges

Jerry Bridges

Jerry Bridges is an evangelical Christian author, speaker and staff member of The Navigators. He is the author of more than a dozen books, including The Pursuit of Holiness, which has sold more than one million copies. His devotional Holiness Day By Day garnered the 2009 ECPA Christian Book Award for the inspiration and gift category, and The Discipline Of Grace received a similar award in 1995 for the Christian living category.

Bridges earned his undergraduate degree in engineering at the University of Oklahoma before serving as an officer in the United States Navy during the Korean War.

He joined Christian discipleship organization The Navigators in 1955, where he served as administrative assistant to the Europe Director, office manager for the headquarters office, Secretary-Treasurer of the organization, and as Vice President for Corporate Affairs before moving to a staff development position with the Collegiate Mission.
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