Until recently, the only book I’d read by Jerry Bridges was Respectable Sins a number of years ago—it probably merits a re-read, truth be told. I’ve recently begun reading some more of his work, and it’s been wonderful.
It’s hard to pinpoint what I love most about Jerry Bridges, so I’ll highlight two items.
First, Jerry Bridges clearly communicates complex truths in simple ways so that many may come to understand them. He takes big theological concepts, some of the deepest truths about God, and makes them accessible for everyone. I try hard to do this myself, so I appreciate it greatly.
Second, Jerry Bridges is widely respected by Christians across denomination and theological perspectives. I’m sure he has his detractors, but best as I can tell, he has earned wide respect from all kinds of Christians. I am always grateful to see Christians whose dearly held doctrinal positions don’t prevent them from serving people who may think differently.
Earlier this summer I finished Trusting God. I am always comforted by the sovereignty of God amid the good and the bad I come across in my life, and Bridges brought the beauty of God’s sovereignty to bear afresh for me. So, I wanted to share some of my favorite quotes with you. Here are 10 reminders about the sovereignty of God from Jerry Bridges:
1. Discipline for Our Good
God disciplines us for our good. There is no agonizing by God, no hoping He has made the right decision, no wondering what is really best for us. God makes no mistakes. He knows infallibly with infinite wisdom what combination of good and bad circumstances will bring us more and more into sharing His holiness. He never puts too much of the “salt” of adversity into the recipe of our lives. His blending of adversity and blessing is always exactly right for us.
2. God’s Wisdom, Satan’s Affliction
Satan was given permission to afflict Paul with a thorn in the flesh to torment him. Satan probably thought he would thereby nullify the effectiveness of Paul’s ministry. Instead, he succeeded only in putting Paul in the circumstance where Paul learned experientially the sufficiency of God’s grace and that His strength is made perfect in our weakness (see 2 Corinthians 12:9). Think of how many thousands of believers down through the centuries have found God’s grace to be sufficient for them through meditating on God’s words to Paul at that time. God’s wisdom, then, is greater than the wisdom of any of our adversaries, whether they be other people or the Devil himself. Therefore, we should not fear what they seek to do, or even succeed in doing to us. God is just as much at work in those “things” as He is in the adversities of sickness, death, financial reversal, and ravages of nature.
3. Our Discipline Is Necessary
God disciplines us with reluctance, though He does it faithfully. He does not delight in our adversities, but He will not spare us that which we need to grow more and more into the likeness of His Son. It is our imperfect spiritual condition that makes discipline necessary.
4. Compassion Amid Affliction
Even the grief that He Himself brings into our lives is tempered with His compassion. “Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love” (Lamentations 3:32). The assurance here is that God will show compassion. It is not enough to say that He is compassionate, but He will show compassion. That is, even the fires of affliction will be tempered by His compassion, which arises out of His unfailing love. Our afflictions are always accompanied with the compassion and consolation of God.
5. God Loves Us as He Made Us
If I have difficulty accepting myself the way God made me, then I have a controversy with God.
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The eternal God who is infinite in His wisdom and perfect in His love personally made you and me. He gave you the body, the mental abilities, and the basic personality you have because that is the way He wanted you to be. And He wanted you to be just that way because He loves you and wants to glorify Himself through you.
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God not only created us as He intended us to be, He also sovereignly determines how long we live. This in itself is a glorious truth. Along with David, our times are in His hands. As one line from a song says, “Till He bid, I cannot die.”
6. Godly Efforts, Godly Acceptance
The realization that God has planned our days for us should not lead us to a fatalistic acceptance of the status quo. If we have an opportunity to improve our situation in a way that will honor God, we should do so. Even to believing slaves Paul wrote, “If you can gain your freedom, do so” (1 Corinthians 7:21). But immediately before that statement Paul had written, “Were you a slave when you were called? Don’t let it trouble you.” There has to be in our lives a delicate balance between godly efforts to improve our situation and godly acceptance of those situations that cannot be changed by us.
7. God’s Plan Includes Our Foolishness
We do have a responsibility to make wise decisions or to discover the will of God, whichever term we may prefer to use. But God’s plan for us is not contingent upon our decisions. God’s plan is not contingent at all. God’s plan is sovereign. It includes our foolish decisions as well as our wise ones.
8. Peering Over God’s Shoulder
God’s guidance is almost always step-by-step; He does not show us our life’s plan all at once. Sometimes our anxiousness to know the will of God comes from a desire to “peer over God’s shoulder” to see what His plan is. What we need to do is learn to trust Him to guide us.
9. Profit From Discipline
We shrink from the rod of God’s discipline instead of seeking to profit from it. We are more desirous of relief from the adversity than we are of its profit unto holiness. But as we look to God to use His discipline in our lives, we may be sure it will in due time produce “a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it” (Hebrews 12:11).
10. Trusting God in All Times
God makes the good times as well as the bad times. In adversity we tend to doubt God’s fatherly care, but in prosperity we tend to forget it. If we are to trust God, we must acknowledge our dependence upon Him at all times, good times as well as bad times.
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A mark of Christian maturity is to continually trust the Lord in the minutiae of daily life. If we learn to trust God in the minor adversities, we will be better prepared to trust Him in the major ones.
I hope these truths about the sovereignty of God comfort you as they have comforted me. Snag Trusting God if you want a whole book full of these reminders.
Thank you. Such great reminders.
We had the opportunity to meet Jerry Bridges a few times at Sola Scriptura conferences, the last time in Orillia... what a genuinely humble servant of God.