Transforming Grace

A wonderful book about God's Grace. Jerry Bridges backs up his writing with Scriptures. A must-read for every Christian! Most Christians do not realize the depth of God's Grace in us. Once you start reading this book, you will recommend it to everyone you know, so they can join in with the joy you experienced about God's Grace.

Excellent biblical help on God's grace.

Prompt service / as advertised

Bible study text

It is a bit repetitive, but sound theology that makes one think.

The first chapter of this book caught my interest. I was hoping for a refreshing, encouraging read that focused on grace. I'm sorry to report that I did not find this book to be what I was looking for. The upbeat, vibrant, conversational tone of the first chapter faded into a book which made many true statements, but continuously left me feeling as though I disagreed on some deeper level. I found it extremely challenging to pinpoint where and how I disagreed with the author until about a third of the way into the book. The first three chapters of the book were dedicated to expounding on the concept of grace itself, more or less and I enjoyed them. By the end of the book, I had decided I could not recommend this book.As I reached chapter 7, I was starting to form an idea of why I disagreed with the author in some areas. For example, Evangelist D.L. Moody was credited for saying something along the lines of "You've got to get people lost before you can get them saved."Bridges states, "This principle applies to us even as believers living under grace. We don't have to get 'lost' time and time again, but we certainly need to be reminded that we are still sinners. The best way to do this is to take seriously the commands of God as a required rule of life. As we do, we will be continually reminded that we really are spiritually bankrupt- even as believers."I, personally, believer that most believers are painfully aware of the fact that they are still sinners. I disagree with the statement that we are spiritually bankrupt as believers. "Spiritually bankrupt" is a term explained earlier in the book, which I would briefly paraphrase to mean, "Acknowledging that we have no spiritual credit, power, or sway to pay the debt which is clearly owed due to our sins." Once we become believers in Christ, His very righteousness becomes ours. (1 Corinthians 1:30; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Romans 10:17; Romans 4:5; Romans 10:4 as a few references). If we believe this, we can hardly say believers are spiritually bankrupt, which is contradictory to the message of the beginning three chapters of this book which urge the reader to grasp the great gift of grace which Christ has offered believers.If I boiled the book down to a sap, I'd summarize it to say that the book explains the greatness of the grace of Christ, and urges us to place our faith in His work alone, then he turns and expounds on how important it is to continue to look to the Old Testament laws as rules for life. Although the author explicitly states several times that the believers motivation for obedience should be gratitude, the book left me with a read-between-the-lines feel that it should play out like this:Remember you're a sinner and you mess up a lot.Feel guilty and bad about this.Remember you're forgiven.Be grateful for forgiveness.Obey because you are commanded to.I'd love to see #1 and #2 tossed out and #5 changed to "Obey because you want to show love as He loves You."Now, I did find this gem of a quote on page 203, "The Bible is not nearly a book about God; it is a book from God. 'All Scripture is God-breathed,' said Paul (2 Timothy 3:16). The Bible is God's self-revelation to us of all He wants us to know about Himself and His provision for our salvation and our spiritual growth. It is God's only objective, authoritative communication to us."The confirmation that I had a differing theology and worldview from the author was solidified when I read that he believes all hardship is God disciplining the party suffering. This, for me, was a real deal-breaker. The following statements made by the author do not align with the Biblical understanding I have of the character of God or His role in suffering. "Hebrews 12:7, however, says, "Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons." The writer of Hebrews did not qualify hardship. He did not suggest that some hardship is God's discipline, while some may not be. He simply said endure hardship- all of it- as God's discipline. You may be sure that whatever hardship comes into your life from whatever immediate source, God is in sovereign control of it and is using it as an instrument of discipline in your life. (page 210)I have come to a place where I acknowledge, almost reluctantly sometimes, that all hardship is God's discipline, either corrective or remedial. The rub comes in submitting to it. (page 212) "Please read this section of Scripture in context below. The writer of Hebrews is not writing a one-line proverb, he is writing a letter. Let's start reading at verse 4 of chapter 12. I have left the verse reference numbers intact in the following quote:"4 In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 5 And have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son? It says,“My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline,and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,6 because the Lord disciplines the one he loves,and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.”7 Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? 8 If you are not disciplined—and everyone undergoes discipline—then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all. 9 Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live! 10 They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness. 11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.12 Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. 13 “Make level paths for your feet,” so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed."Notice that verse 4 indicates the writer is talking specifically to people struggling against sin... people who are not resisting the temptation as strongly as the writer would urge them to. So, does this portion of a letter sound like it is addressing ALL hardship, or specifically addressing hardships that enter ones' life due to ones' poor choices? Taking in a larger section of Scripture, I think it ought to be clear that the topic being discussed is not "What is God's Role in our Hardship or Suffering?" but rather, "It is Hard When God Disciplines Us." Attempting to claim, as the author did, that all hardship=God's discipline is dangerous. It sends the wrong message to those whose hardships include cancer, the death of children due to accident, illness, birth defect, etc. Imagine a person in an abusive relationship being given the advice, "Oh, anytime you experience a hardship, that's God disciplining you, so just stick it out- you must deserve it. Oh- and you'll probably be better off in the end for staying there through it all."It may sound all holy and sanctified to come to a peaceful resolution that all hardship should be submitted to as God's discipline, but I strongly believe it is not a Biblical solid standpoint. Job suffered tremendous hardship when he lost his home, his family, his livestock, his health, and more. Does the Bible indicate Job was being disciplined? Not at all, quite the contrary. Job 1:8 says, "Then the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.”We live in a fallen world, which means we experience hardship from 3 sources: the world (natural causes- disease, accidents, weather, etc.), the flesh (suffering for our own sins or because of sins committed by others), and the devil. Yes, God disciplines believers when He sees fit, and this could certainly constitute hardship. It is faulty logic to assume that every hardship we encounter is God's discipline. He is sovereign, so He allows circumstances to occur, but this is much different from being the driving force behind every single event. He has allowed limited power to Satan and to people, since we can make choices, and this causes many hardships.There is so much more I could say, and I realize some people will disagree with me, but I believe we can be motivated to obey God's commands because we love Him. I do not believe we need to be constantly reminded of our sin or guilt. I believe we would be better served to be constantly reminded of our identity in Christ, that we might grow in boldness of faith- truly grasping His righteousness covers all our sins and no amount of introspection or attempted good behavior could increase His tremendous love for believers. If we stopped over-analyzing and micro-managing our potential, perceived, and committed sins, how much freer could we be to love Jesus and show His love to the world? Grace is good news- the shackles of guilt and the immense sense of unworthiness should be gone. Yes, we were guilty and unworthy- but we were made new and adopted. This is the heart of the Gospel.**In the spirit of full-disclosure, I received a complimentary copy of this book for the purpose of reviewing from Tyndale Blog Network. I am not required to give a positive review, my opinions are genuine.

Becoming a huge fan of this dude.If I didn’t already know and love the author, I probably wouldn’t have picked this book up because the colors on the cover hurt my eyes, the words are tiny, and it’s one of those books where the pages are that awkward size that it hurts your thumbs to hold the pages open. I’m literally in pain right now.But DANG it was good! Totally worth a hand cramp and the car sickness I experienced while reading it.These words have been stuck in my head for weeks:“Guilty, vile and helpless we,Spotless Lamb of God was He;Full atonement! Can it be? Hallelujah! What a Savior!”Think about it.Guilty. Vile. Helpless. ——Spotless. Lamb. God.FULL atonement.Wow. What extravagant, undeserved grace.The basis of this book is Galatians 3:3: “Are you foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?”Grace is not only the basis of our salvation but also the basis of the entire Christian life. Following salvation, we do not have to live as if we are “paying God back.” We never could. R.C. Sproul says that if we do that, we may begin to think that “we will go to heaven because we deserve to be there.”John Newton got it right in the hymn “Amazing Grace” - “‘Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home.” Grace at salvation. Grace in sanctification. Grace in glorification.Old way of the Law —> external code, demanding, hostility, fear, workingNew way of the Spirit —> internal desire, enabling, delight, gratitude, relying“Grace ceases to be grace if God is compelled to bestow it on the basis of human merit... Grace is treating a person without the slightest reference to deserving it whatsoever, but solely according to the infinite goodness and sovereign purpose of God.”One of the coolest things that I noticed while reading this book was that most of my underlining was of Scripture itself. Statements about the goodness of grace are sometimes so unbelievably good.May we cling to this, both in salvation and until glory: “Nothing in my hand I bring. Simply to Thy cross I cling.”

Hermoso y lleno del amor De Dios. Este libro está bellísimo es de los mejores que he leído.