Three Life Lessons from Jerry Bridges on Being Transformed

This month we are offering the book The Transforming Power of the Gospel by Jerry Bridges to coincide with our current broadcast series on Romans 12 called Shaped by Grace. The heart of the book and the broadcast is to demonstrate that while “grace alone saves; grace that saves is never alone.

Join us in looking at excerpts from Jerry's book to gain a better understanding of how grace works in the life of the believer and to possibly pass his book along to a friend, family member or co-worker.

Jerry Bridges writes:

God has predestined all believers to be conformed to the image of His Son (see Romans 8:29). The process toward that goal is called by various names such as sanctification, growth in grace, or transformation (see 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24; 2 Peter 3:18; 2 Corinthians 3:18). This process of transformation into the image of Christ begins at our new birth (see John 3:3-5) and continues until we die and enter into the presence of the Lord. At that time, according to Hebrews 12:23, our spirits will be made perfect. The transformation process will be completed. Not only has God predestined us to be transformed into the image of His Son, He has commanded us to be transformed. Through the apostle Paul, God said, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind” (Romans 12:2).

In a similar way, the apostle Peter wrote, ‘As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy”’ (1 Peter 1:14-16).

To be transformed into the image of God’s Son and to be holy as God is holy are essentially synonymous expressions. But what I want us to see through these similar expressions is that what God has predestined for us, He commands us to pursue. There is no conflict between God’s sovereign will, which He will certainly accomplish, and His moral will for us, which we are to pursue.

This transformation into the image of Jesus is much more than a change of outward conduct; rather, it is a deep penetrating work of the Holy Spirit in the very core of our being, what the Bible calls the heart — the center of our intellect, affections, and will. It is what is sometimes called ‘a change from the inside out.

But though the transformation process is primarily the work of the Holy Spirit, it very much involves our earnest, active pursuit of that holiness without which no one will see the Lord (see Hebrews 12:14). So what is it that will engage our affections or desires to earnestly pursue transformation into the likeness of Jesus? What is it that will inspire us to want to do what we ought to do?

Bridges goes onto share about his personal spiritual transformation over the years and the all-too-often extreme approaches taken by Christians such as moralism or passivism. In bouncing between these two extremes, Bridges shares some lessons learned along the way:

1. The internal warfare between the flesh and the Spirit that Paul described in Galatians 5:17 is the normal Christian life. Regardless of how much we grow spiritually, we will all our lives experience the conflict between the desires of the flesh and the desires of the Spirit.
   
   
2. The more we grow in Christlikeness, the more sin we will see in our lives. It isn’t that we are sinning more; rather we are growing more aware of and more sensitive to sin that has been there all along. The Holy Spirit does not reveal all our sins of the heart to us at once. Instead He brings us along gradually as He works to transform us into the image of Christ.
   
   
3. Spiritual transformation requires of us what I call dependent responsibility. All the moral commands and exhortations of Scripture assume our responsibility. We cannot ‘just let Jesus live His life through me.’ No, we are responsible. At the same time, we are dependent on the Holy Spirit to both do His own work and enable us through His power to do the work we must do.

It is our prayer that between Bridges’ book and the broadcast, we all will have a better understanding of grace in our lives and give grace more freely. We trust that God will work in you to heed the call for transformation and show you how to depend on him in doing so.

Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
--Philippians 3:12-14

^{Sample from The Transforming Power of the Gospel / ISBN 978-1-61747-922-9 Copyright © 2012 by Jerry Bridges. All rights reserved.}