My Ten Favorite Jerry Bridges Quotes

My Ten Favorite Jerry Bridges Quotes

My 10 favorite Jerry Bridges quotesToday I want to honor Jerry Bridges, the author of Pursuit of Holiness, who died this Sunday at age 86. His writings have been a huge inspiration for many. Yet he was a very humble man always pointing to Christ. Here are my ten favorite Jerry Bridges quotes. May they bless you on your faith journey!

The realization that my daily relationship with God is based on the infinite merit of Christ instead of on my own performance is a very freeing and joyous experience. But it is not meant to be a one-time experience; the truth needs to be reaffirmed daily.

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.

But God has not called us to be like those around us. He has called us to be like Himself. Holiness is nothing less than conformity to the character of God.

Grace stands in direct opposition to any supposed worthiness on our part. To say it another way: Grace and works are mutually exclusive. As Paul said in Romans 11:6, “And if by grace, then it is no longer by works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace.” Our relationship with God is based on either works or grace. There is never a works-plus-grace relationship with Him.

The assurance of His total forgiveness of our sins through the blood of Christ means we don’t have to play defensive games anymore. We don’t have to rationalize and excuse our sins. We can call sin exactly what it is, regardless of how ugly and shameful it may be, because we know that Jesus bore that sin in His body on the cross.

Faith is not only necessary to salvation, it is also necessary to live a life pleasing to God. Faith enables us to claim the promises of God – but it also enables us to obey the commands of God. Faith enables us to obey when obedience is costly or seems unreasonable to the natural mind.

So we see that God has made provision for our holiness. Through Christ He has delivered us from sin’s reign so that we now can resist sin. But the responsibility for resisting is ours. God does not do that for us. To confuse the potential for resisting (which God provided) with the responsibility for resisting (which is ours) is to court disaster in our pursuit of holiness.

God does not believe for us, but through His Spirit He creates spiritual life in us so that we can believe. Faith is the gift of God. It’s part of the whole salvation package that God gives to us through the work of Christ for us and the work of the Holy Spirit in us. It’s not our contribution, so to speak, to God’s great plan of salvation. God does it all. It’s part of the unsearchable riches of Christ.

God does not require a perfect, sinless life to have fellowship with Him, but He does require that we be serious about holiness, that we grieve over sin in our lives instead of justifying it, and that we earnestly pursue holiness as a way of life.

Lord, I am willing
To receive what You give.
To lack what You withhold.
To relinquish what You take,
To suffer what You inflict,
To be what you require.

Can I get an Amen?
AMEN

Q4U: Which one of these Jerry Bridges quotes is your favorite one?

Be blessed, my fellow pilgrim, as you pursuit holiness on your journey home to God!

Image courtesy and design by Mari-Anna Stålnacke. Linking up withUnite the Bloggersphere and#tellhisstory.

2 thoughts on “My Ten Favorite Jerry Bridges Quotes

  1. This one, for sure: But God has not called us to be like those around us. He has called us to be like Himself. Holiness is nothing less than conformity to the character of God.

    I find that I’m more tempted to feel like I need to be like the Christians around me–to people please–more than I should. I always appreciate reminders that it’s him I’m to look to.

    1. Thank you for sharing, Natalie. Yes, it’s very tempting to conform to the surroundings. We want to be accepted. But it’s nothing compared to being accepted and loved and cherished by God Almighty. So glad this post blessed you. May God continue his amazing work in you, sis!

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