The Men's Discipleship group at my church has been reading Respectable Sins by Jerry Bridges. It's been a good read, well, depending on how you look at it. It's tough to look at those sins we commit daily and gloss over them as if no one, especially the Spirit, notices. Frustration, impatience, self pity, selfishness are just a few of those "respectable sins" we choose to ignore. In his fourth chapter, "The Remedy for Sin," Bridges brings to the forefront some uses of the gospel of which we should take note. The gospel is our remedy for sin, after all.1. ...the first use of the gospel, as a remedy for our sins, is to plow the ground of our hearts so that we can see our sin.
2. Second, not only does the gospel prepare me to face my sin, it also frees me up to do so.
3. Third, the gospel motivates and energizes me to deal with my sin.
He goes on...We are commanded to put sin to death. It is our duty to do so. But duty without desire soon produces drudgery. And it is the gospel that stokes the fire of our motivation to deal with our respectable and subtle sins. It is the gospel that motivates us to seek to be in our daily experience what we are in our standing before God. ...I urge to commit yourself to a daily, conscious appropriation of the gospel. ..."Preach the gospel to yourself every day." That is what we must do in order to daily, consciously appropriate the gospel (pgs. 34-36).
This is life changing stuff here. I would urge you to do the same, embrace the gospel for yourself every day. I'll go a step further and encourage you to get a hold of this book and read through it slowly so that you may absorb what Bridges has for us his readers. I'll post more later on this book as our group reads through it.
S.D.G.
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