Jerry Bridges’ book Transforming Grace is an amazing read! Check out my book review by clicking here.
“One of the best-kept secrets among Christians today is this: Jesus paid it all. I mean all. He not only purchased your forgiveness of sins and your ticket to heaven, He purchased every blessing and every answer to prayer you will ever receive. Every one of them—no exceptions.
“Why is this such a well-kept secret? For one thing, we are afraid of this truth. We are afraid to tell even ourselves that we don’t have to work anymore, the work is all done. We are afraid that if we really believe this, we will slack off in our Christian duties. But the deeper core issue is that we don’t really believe we are still bankrupt. Having come into God’s kingdom by grace alone solely on the merit of Another, we’re now trying to pay our own way by our performance. We declared only temporary bankruptcy; we are now trying to live by good works rather than by grace.”
“To be justified means more than to be declared ‘not guilty.’ It actually means to be declared righteous before God.”
“God not only blots our sins from His record, He also remembers them no more. This expression means He no longer holds them against us. The blotting out of our transgressions is a legal act. It is an official pardon from the Supreme Governor. The remembering them no more is a relational act. It is the giving up by an injured party of all sense of being offended or injured. It is a promise never to bring up, either to Himself or to you, your sins.”
“God’s reward is out of all proportion to our service and sacrifice.”
“God often does bless people who seem to us to be quite unworthy. But that is what grace is all about, because we are all unworthy.”
“We all want grace, but we cannot enjoy grace when there is an attitude of comparing.”
“The Bible is full of God’s promises to provide for us spiritually and materially, to never forsake us, to give us peace in times of difficult circumstances, to cause all circumstances to work together for our good, and finally to bring us safely home to glory. Not one of those promises is dependent upon our performance. They are all dependent on the grace of God given to us through Jesus Christ.”
“Our love for God, expressed through obedience to Him, is to be a response to His love, not a means of trying to earn it.”
Craig T. Owens 