Book Review: “The Discipline of Grace.” by Jerry Bridges, NavPress Publishing Group, 1992

Overview—Give a brief overview of the book, including its theme, perspective and approach.
Jerry Bridges challenges the oft unstated premise of many Christians: We begin the Christian life by grace, but then it’s up to us to grow in Christ through the disciplines of discipleship. In “The Discipline of Grace”, Bridges shows the reader that the whole of the Christian life is of grace, from beginning to end. Bridges begins by laying the foundation of the gospel in our lives and then shows how the gospel infuses all the classic pursuits of Christian discipleship. He concludes his book with five chapters devoted to applying the gospel to the practical pursuits of holiness.

Critique—Offer a brief critique of the book, including elements of strength and weakness.
Bridges has given us a very helpful book in “The Discipline of Grace”. His writing style is very straight forward and unencumbered with either archaic or trendy language. In a workman like way, he walks us through a gospel-centered approach to discipleship. His chapter on “Preach the Gospel to Yourself” is alone worth the price of the book. Bridges approach is balanced and biblical, yet he offers new perspectives in the pursuit of holiness as well. The weakness of “Discipline by Grace” is one I have found in several authors. In his chapter entitled “Transformed into His Likeness” he urges his readers to spend time beholding the glory of Christ in the gospel, but fails to tell us exactly how to do that (or at least how he does that). Many authors rightly instruct us to spend time beholding the glory of the Lord, but if it were that easy we would be doing it already!

Application—Offer some specific application to your own ministry— demonstrating the value and relevance of the material in this book.
Especially helpful were Bridges’ concluding chapters on the spiritual disciplines. But rather than addressing the classic spiritual disciplines like prayer, Bible study, fasting, etc…, Bridges discusses the disciplines in terms of what they are meant to achieve in our lives. So he discusses topics like, “The Discipline of Commitment”, “The Discipline of Convictions”, and “The Disciple of Watching”. Thus, the classic spiritual disciplines become tools to advance the progress of Christian character and discipleship. This is helpful in keeping the classic disciplines from becoming an end in themselves.

Best Quote—Be sure to include the page number where the quote can be found.
p. 57, “It is not our contrition or sorrow for our sin, it is not our repentance, it is not even the passing of a certain number of hours during which we feel we are on some probation that cleanses us. It is the blood of Christ, shed for all on Calvary two thousand years ago but appropriated daily or even many times a day, that cleanses our consciences and gives us a renewed sense of peace with God.”