Gerald Bridges > Quotes

“Pharisee-type believers unconsciously think they have earned God’s blessing through their behavior. Guilt-laden believers are quite sure they have forfeited God’s blessing through their lack of discipline or their disobedience. Both have forgotten the meaning of grace because they have moved away from the gospel and have slipped into a performance relationship with God.”
― Gerald Bridges, The Discipline of Grace: God's Role and Our Role in the Pursuit of Holiness

“Christ has already borne the curses for our disobedience and earned for us the blessings of obedience. As a result we are now to look to Christ alone -- not Christ plus our performance — for God’s blessings in our lives. We are saved by grace and we are to live by grace alone.”
― Gerald Bridges, The Discipline of Grace: God's Role and Our Role in the Pursuit of Holiness

“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.”
― Gerald Bridges, The Discipline of Grace: God's Role and Our Role in the Pursuit of Holiness

“God never intended that we relate to Him directly Our own performance is never good enough to be acceptable to Him. The only way we can relate to God is through the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ.”
― Gerald Bridges, The Discipline of Grace: God's Role and Our Role in the Pursuit of Holiness

“Every day of our Christian experience should be a day of relating to God on the basis of His grace alone. We are not only saved by grace, but we also live by grace every day”
― Gerald Bridges, The Discipline of Grace: God's Role and Our Role in the Pursuit of Holiness

“We believers do need to be challenged to a life of committed discipleship, but that challenge needs to be based on the gospel, not on duty or guilt. Duty or guilt may motivate us for awhile, but only a sense of Christ’s love for us will motivate us for a lifetime.”
― Gerald Bridges, The Discipline of Grace: God's Role and Our Role in the Pursuit of Holiness

“We need to continue to hear the gospel every day of our Christian lives. Only a continuous reminder of the gospel of God’s grace through Christ will keep us from falling into good-day--bad-day thinking,”
― Gerald Bridges, The Discipline of Grace: God's Role and Our Role in the Pursuit of Holiness

“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.”
― Gerald Bridges, The Discipline of Grace: God's Role and Our Role in the Pursuit of Holiness

“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.”
― Gerald Bridges, The Discipline of Grace: God's Role and Our Role in the Pursuit of Holiness

“Regardless of our performance, we are always dependent on God’s grace, His undeserved favor to those who deserve His wrath.”
― Gerald Bridges, The Discipline of Grace: God's Role and Our Role in the Pursuit of Holiness

“What is it, then, that sparks the desire in our hearts to lead a disciplined, godly life? It is the joy of knowing that our sins are forgiven, that no matter how much we’ve stumbled and fallen today, God does not count our sins against us (Romans 4:8).”
― Gerald Bridges, The Discipline of Grace: God's Role and Our Role in the Pursuit of Holiness

“The good news of the gospel is that Jesus paid for all our sins on the cross and that we are thereby forgiven. As we continually reflect upon that gospel, the Holy Spirit floods our hearts with a sense of God’s love to us in Christ. And that sense of His love motivates us in a compelling way to live for Him.”
― Gerald Bridges, The Discipline of Grace: God's Role and Our Role in the Pursuit of Holiness

“To live no longer for ourselves but for Him is the essence of discipleship.”
― Gerald Bridges, The Discipline of Grace: God's Role and Our Role in the Pursuit of Holiness