The Gospel for Real Life

I have often said one of my favorite books is The Gospel for Real Life by Jerry Bridges. This book is life changing and I do not say that lightly. Jerry Bridges challenges believers to put the gospel where it rightly belongs, in our every day life! I reading through it for the second time as I am leading our summer ladies Bible Study. I am excited to see how the gospel will not only continually shape and alter my life, but the lives of the women involved in the study. My hope is to blog a brief summary of each chapter to encourage you to seek to interact with the gospel in your life every single day and in every aspect of your life.  All these comments are either direct quotes or summarized thoughts from the book. 

Unsearchable Riches – Chapter One

Unsearchable riches are found in the gospel, however we set the gospel aside at the moment of salvation and seek to be disciples. What we forget is without the gospel we cannot become true followers of Jesus Christ. Instead of living victorious lives many believers live defeated and in desperation.  Why is that, “One answer is that we have a truncated view of the gospel, tending to see it only as a door we walk through to become a Christian… we fail to see the gospel as the solution to our greatest problem – our guilt, condemnation and alienation from God. Beyond that we fail to see it as the basis of our day-to-day acceptance with Him. As a result many believers live in spiritual poverty.” (14-15)

The gospel is the good news that directly addresses the bad news in our lives. Because of the gospel “we can begin each day with the realization that I am accepted by God, not on the basis of my personal performance, but on the basis of the infinitely perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ.” (18)

Why the Cross – Chapter Two

Before we can ultimately understand the good news we must begin to understand the desperate need that we have as a result of our sinful condition.  Between God and mankind there is a huge spiritual debt that must be paid, the payment is found in the cross.

When Adam & Eve were placed in the garden they were placed with one restriction, not to eat of the forbidden tree.  This involved no hardship, no inconvenience, just simple obedience.  We know the story that the failed to obey and as a result we have the “fall.” The will that was bent towards God is now bent towards evil. Adam serves as our legal representative (this is called federal headship) because of the fall we also have a sin nature and are guilty before God.

Not only do we bear original sin but we consciously and unconsciously, willfully and unintentionally sin every day.  We fail to keep the greatest commandment (Love the Lord your God) and often do not even consider the second great commandment (love your neighbor as yourself). We must understand that our sinful nature affects and pollutes everything we do. 

The importance of understanding our own sin is “not to be measured by our own sense of need, but by what God has done to meet that need… the cross is an expression of God’s wrath toward sin as well as his love to us… God’s holiness demands it (the cross) as punishment for our sins, and God’s love provided it to save us from our sins.” (29)

“It is only against the dark backdrop of our sinfulness that we can see the glory of the cross shining forth in all its brilliance and splendor. And, as we gaze upon the glory of the cross, we will also discover that Christ, in His great work for us, not only resolved our sin problem, but also secured for us those “unsearchable riches” (30) 

I welcome and would love to hear your comments and interactions with these thoughts! Stay tuned for chapter's 3 & 4 next week!