Interview Part 2

Interview with Mr. Jerry Bridges
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Part 2

How in the world can we ever live with ourselves with all this sin in our hearts?
We all have been overwhelmed by our sin. Go back to the gospel…all of our sin has been charged to Christ (Romans 4:8). The hymn, It is Well with My Soul, expresses it well – 'my sin, nailed to the cross and I have it no more'. There is a book I am reading by a Puritan author and he suggests 3 steps for just this process. The first is to acknowledge to the Lord that I am a practicing sinner. Secondly, as a sinner I make the exchange of my sin for His righteousness. Thirdly, I say to the Father, 'Here I am, clothed in the righteousness of Christ'. The clincher is this: this is something I must do everyday.
Another way of understanding this concept can be illustrated by a conversation I had after preaching in South Carolina. I had used Isaiah 1:18 to explain my point that our sin is washed away by the blood of Christ and He clothes us in His righteousness ("Come now, let us reason together," says the LORD. "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool). After my talk a landscape gardener came up to me and said he still did not understand the concept. I asked him to explain to me what he does when he comes home from a long day of his job. He said the first thing he did was get in the shower and put on clean clothes before dinner. I asked him if he would ever come in and not take a shower before dinner. The man answered absolutely not. I asked him if he would ever take a shower and put back on his dirty clothes. He said never. I reasoned that to be clean and come to dinner, he came home, washed off all the dirt and put on clean clothes, and he concurred. He then understood.

I asked Mr. Bridges if I could relay this story and use this story. He said we are welcome to it as long as his name is identified with it. He is using this illustration in an upcoming book.

If we have very strong feelings about the political path our government is taking and if we feel that our country is going in a dangerous direction, how do we reconcile these feelings without being judgmental? I need more guidance as I try to apply Romans 14:4-5.
I share these concerns. Romans 14 can be applied by respecting the person in office by respecting the office. I served in the Navy during the Korean War and learned to salute and respect the rank. I served under a difficult commanding officer and God convicted me. I learned I can respect the office and respect the person because of the office.

Also, we pray for the salvation of those with whom we vigorously disagree. Further, we learn to separate personalities from policies. For instance, I may disagree with my Congressman because of such-and-such, but not smear him.

Does the pursuit for holiness become more intense and difficult the longer we are believers?
Yes. It becomes harder because you deal with the more subtle sins and the guerilla warfare tactics. For instance, it is a known fact that Colorado still has gold. However, it is more expensive and difficult to get out. All the easy gold has been taken out. This is what it is like the longer we live as a believer. The easy sins have been taken out and the ones remaining are more subtle, more difficult and more costly, especially if we have had a long habit of a particular sin.

In your 55 years of ministry and in regard to ‘acceptable sins’, what observations do you have…
of our culture…
I am 80 years old and have been with The Navigators for 55 years. As far as our culture goes, it used to be that I saw more of a Christian culture even if people were not Christian. For instance, in my high school class it became known that a senior girl had become sexually promiscuous. Consequently, she was dismissed from her leadership duties and eventually went to a private school. Today, that kind of thing would hardly be noticed. In areas of integrity and truthfulness, I see a sweeping change and it seems the speed of decline increases each year. Today’s culture unfortunately is one where every person does what he thinks is right in his own eyes.
of the Christian community…
The news is good and bad. The bad news is that subtle sins are rampant. The good news is that people are waking up and sounding the alarm.
of the world…
At this point in the interview we only had a few more precious minutes so I skipped and got in two more questions.

How do you decide your next book?
Skipped this one…

What encouragement or wisdom that you wish someone had told you could you give young adults?
1 – Take seriously God’s command to be Holy, and 2) they need to learn to preach the gospel to themselves everyday. No, I’d have to say that there are three lessons I would give: 1) seek to intensely obey the Bible; 2) depend on the Holy Sprit as outlined in Chapter 5 of Respectable Sins. I cannot do it in my own strength. I must depend on the Holy Spirit; and 3) preach the gospel to myself everyday.

When you write, do you follow a set pattern or a certain discipline?
Skipped this one…

What are you currently reading?
Skipped this one…

What are you currently writing?
The working title of my new book is Gospel Based Transformation. Romans 8: 29 is the theme verse (For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.) and the book builds the concept of living by the gospel everyday.

I told Mr. Bridges again what an impact Chapter 4 has had on my life and that I am learning to preach the gospel to myself. I thanked him for giving this concept to all of us and told him I’d be looking forward to the new book. Maybe it could be our book club book a few years from now.

Ben and I went to visit my sister in North Carolina over the weekend. During the 8 hour trip I relayed to Ben many of Mr. Bridges' statements. The more I’ve thought about his illustrations, especially about the landscape gardener and Colorado gold, the more profound they have become. Aren’t we all blessed to have read this book together!