by one of the men at Covenant Family Church. He wanted me to give him my thoughts about it. So, I went ahead and wrote up a review of this little book by Dr. Jerry Bridges called, "Respectable Sins; Confronting the Sins We Tolerate".
Joel's Review - January 14th, 2013
The title of this book first
caught my attention. “Respectable sins?”
I thought, “I have to read this book!” This
was the first book by the author Dr. Jerry Bridges that has come across my desk, so
I wasn’t really sure what to expect.
However, I can now confidently assert that this book is a fantastic read
for any Christian man or woman! First
off, this book passed with flying colors my two basic litmus tests for any
Christian book that I read:
1) Does
the author possess and write from a worldview that is shaped by the belief of
the sovereignty of God?
2) Does
the author rely upon Scripture first and foremost as the chief authority, and
does the author quote the Scriptures often?
I am pleased to announce that Dr. Jerry Bridges met and exceeded those two basic tests in his thought-provoking book. In “Respectable Sins; Confronting
the Sins We Tolerate”, Dr. Jerry Bridges asks the probing question, “Are
there sins in our life that are not only allowed to remain in our lives
unhindered, but have we even ceased to be consider them as being really sinful?” Dr. Bridges continues by laying out his case
that the world always tries to remove the idea of sin from its vocabulary and
society. This shouldn’t surprise us as
we know that unsaved men “suppress the
truth in unrighteousness”. But when
Christians, men and women who have been given new natures in Christ Jesus our
Lord, stop calling sin in our own lives as sin, we have massive problems. But before Dr. Bridges begins
gently applying the surgeon’s knife to our consciences, he lays out the
solution; the Gospel. This is one of the
reasons I enjoyed this book so much! Dr. Bridges makes the point that the Gospel
is for sinners, not just for unbelievers.
So rather than berating ourselves over the sins that we discover have
become “respectable” in our eyes, Dr. Bridges instructs us to run to the cross
and cast ourselves upon the inexhaustible mercies of God, trusting that “He
who began a good work in you will perfect it until
the day of Christ Jesus”.
After laying out the problem and the solution, Dr.
Bridges takes a deep breath and
then plunges unreservedly into the sins which are increasingly viewed as more
acceptable in the modern evangelical church.
And keep in mind, my Reformed friends, that we are just as susceptible
and guilty as our evangelical brothers and sisters in Christ. Dr. Bridges confronts the sins of anxiety,
discontentment, anger, bitterness, resentment, envy, a critical spirit, and
selfishness, just to name a few. In each
chapter, he carefully inspects the smaller, more subtle expressions of these
sins which often lurk in the lives of Christians. At the end of the day, Dr. Bridges explains,
all of these “respectable sins” come from one root sin: ungodliness. I really liked how Dr. Bridges developed the
idea of ungodliness being a source of all the varied ways in which we still
express our sin natures. He defined
ungodliness as “living one’s everyday
life with little or no thought of God, or of God’s will, or of God’s glory, or
of one’s dependence on God.” Having
laid that definition out, Dr. Bridges goes on to make one of the best arguments
for the Reformation principle of “Soli
Deo Gloria” that I have ever read.
At the end of the day, whether our “respectable sin” happens to be an
occasional outburst of anger, selfish behavior, lack of self-control, anxiety,
discontentedness, etc., our practicing of that sin demonstrates that we are not
concerned first and foremost with bringing God glory and living our life to
please Him.
Now,
at this point, you might be wondering, “Dr. Bridges sure is making a big deal
about small stuff. Is he advocating
perfectionism or something?” The answer is emphatically no! Dr. Bridges is first to recognize that
perfection is not possible or achievable even as a Christian. Instead, Dr. Bridges maintains that we are to
strive to be more Christ-like and to “make
no provision for the flesh”. This means
that we are to confront ALL areas of
sin in our life, including the areas that might seem small or acceptable. Dr. Bridges summed it up best by writing,
“When we sin, when we violate the Law of God
in any way, be it ever so small in our eyes, we rebel against the sovereign authority
and transcendent majesty of God. To put it bluntly, our sin is an assault on
the majesty and sovereign rule of God.
It is indeed cosmic treason…The damage to God’s glory by our sin is
determined not by the severity of our sin but by the value of God’s glory.”
But
thanks be to God that He has sent His Holy Spirit to not only convict us of these
“respectable” sins, but also to produce in us the peaceable fruits of
righteousness and the blessings of freedom from those sins!
So,
in closing, I would highly recommend this book to Christians of all ages. I would especially recommend this book to
second and third generation Christians (I myself being a second generation
believer) as we can often times become complacent in our very moral and
law-abiding upbringing. This book will
cause you to recognize just how sinful we still are and, hopefully, motivate
you (as it did me) to confess and repent of these “respectable sins”. As Dr. Bridges said,
“Remember that our
progressive sanctification – that is, our putting off sin and putting on
Christlikeness – rests on two foundation stones: the righteousness of Christ
and the power of the Holy Spirit…Remember, if you are united to Christ, God
sees you clothed in His perfect righteousness.
And always look to the Holy Spirit to enable you to deal with the sin in
your life and to produce in you the fruit of the Spirit.”
Soli Deo Gloria!
Good job, bro! Looks like a great book.
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