Bible Specialist Vindicates Grace Doctrine at Holiness Lectures

Saturday, Aug. 30, 2008 Posted: 11:53:40PM HKT

Dr Jerry Bridges speaking at The Chase: pursuing holiness in your everyday life organised by The Navigators, Singapore this afternoon at True Way Presbyterian Church. (Photo: The Christian Post Singapore)

A member of the audience raising a question during a question-and-answer session. (Photo: The Christian Post Singapore)

Well-known author and Bible teacher Dr Jerry Bridges restored the doctrine of grace to its Biblical proportions at a seminar on Christian holiness held this afternoon at the True Way Presbyterian Church.

And Dr Bridges, who serves as a senior staff member on the collegiate ministry of The Navigators in the U.S., could not have been summoned to a Singapore pulpit at a more appropriate time.

The republic’s Church has not been spared the onslaught of the recent global resurgence of Gnostic spiritualism. Leading figures in the church and theological scene are in agreement that such secular tendencies are present even among the local body of Christ, and have spoken on and responded variously on the matter.

In spite of the dire situation, the spiritually healthy condition of many sections of the Church was demonstrated in the unexpected turnout at the meeting today—organisers from The Navigators indicated that they had made preparations for a mere 400, but the actual attendance, at more than 550, far exceeded expectation.

There is no doubt that Christians here perceive the need for clearer instruction regarding the central doctrine of their faith.

And those who attended today’s meeting did not leave with unfulfilled hopes, as Dr Bridges, an expert in the field of holiness, preached on the subject of Biblical grace with simplicity that disentangled misconceptions and took the matter beyond controversy, restoring it to its effective and sure role in the transformation of the Christian.

Some people believe that God’s approval does not have to be earned, he said, speaking on what constitutes a Biblically accurate definition of grace, but nothing could be further from the truth.

“God’s approval does have to be earned,” said the renowned author and teacher, correcting a prevalent misunderstanding on the part of many believers in the world presently.

He was quick to restate, however, his belief that God has imputed both forgiveness of sins, through the passive obedience of Jesus Christ His Son, and His righteousness, through the active obedience of Christ to undeserving sinners who rather deserved His curse, but apart of and through that and the enabling power of God's Holy Spirit, there was an approval to be gained for the believers through their obedience to God’s moral commands in His Word.

God demands, of the believers, their obedience to His Word, and this purely out of gratitude for His act of justification rather than out of legalism, based on the desire to glorify God rather than self, through dependence on His Holy Spirit, he said in response to a question raised during a question-and-answer session.

He negotiated the usual legalism/licentiousness dilemma by conceptualising the Christian life in terms of a ‘dependent responsibility’ in which there is both a part for God as well as for the believers to play.

The Christian is responsible for dealing with sin, but at the same time, dependent on the Holy Spirit to do that. For persistent sins, he said, the believers need to learn to pursue incremental rather than one-time progress.

For the most part of his two lectures, he led his audience into a deep self-reflection and repentance of what he termed ‘respectable sins’.

There should be no such divide, he said, for there is none in God’s perspective, and those who commit such sins, usually in the way of how they treat other people, such as dishonesty, and the intent to deceive, and not being generous with possessions, and premarital sexual relationships and lustful thoughts, and practicing corrupted talk—which he unpacked as referring to speech that serves to tear down the other or another person rather than build them up—are as culpable as those who commit the ‘major’ sins like murder, adultery and theft.

In this he used examples to show that believers were focused exclusively on ‘putting off’ sinful habits rather than ‘putting on’ Christ-like qualities, terminology the Apostle Paul used frequently in his letters, and he explained this trend in terms of how believers are usually more concerned not to live lives defeated by sinfulness, but do not concentrate on pursuing holiness in Christ.

He exhorted believers not to be ungodly, or live lives where God does not matter, but to live in a godly way, seeking to do all things to the glory of God, with self-control, which is defined not just as restraining one’s sinful desires, but also includes practicing moderation with regard to amoral desires where if they become excessive are sinful, and to live upright lives, whereby they treat others as they would have others treat them.

In his final point, Dr Bridges in his characteristic clarity of style and excellent use of illustration showed from Scripture that believers are called to train themselves to be godly just as athletes train for the Olympic Games, with the same focus and intentionality.

The musicians who performed a touching duet on the song Speak, O Lord did not become singers and musicians in an instant, he pointed out, but they went through hours of training. It is the same with medical professionals.

If these professionals need training to attain and to maintain their skills, so do Christians need the same discipline in order to become and stay holy.

He pointed out with soberness that it was possible for self-professed believers to be ‘experts’ in greed, as a result of lack of discipline.

“All of us are training ourselves in one direction or another direction… either in self-control or lack of self-control… in godliness or in ungodliness,” he said, urging the Church to make a deliberate commitment, using the power the Holy Trinity—which God the Father placed in Christ and who gave the Holy Spirit to His followers—have made available for the believers, to grow in holiness.

The Chase: pursuing holiness in your everyday life was organised by The Navigators, Singapore, in partnership with six churches including: Bartley Christian Church, Bethesda Frankel Estate Church, Covenant Evangelical Free Church, Glory Presbyterian Church, St John St Margaret Church, and True Way Presbyterian Church.

The talks were based on two books written by Dr Bridges, The Pursuit of Holiness, which has sold over 1.3 million copies, and The Discipline of Grace.

Dr Bridges will speak on Respectable Sins, the theme of his latest book, on Friday, September 12, at 7.30 p.m. at the St John St Margaret Church.

Edmond Chua
edmond@christianpost.com