My journey with this book began in high school, when my youth pastor used it to disciple me and another young man from the youth group. Although I was a good kid and active in church, at that point in my life I was not overly concerned about developing a deep relationship with Christ. So, the book did not sink into my thinking in a substantial way at the time.

Years later, as a pastor I began to wrestle with how to teach people how to grow in their sanctification. Sanctification refers to the process of spiritual growth as we become less like our sinful selves and more like Christ. It is something all Christians know is important, yet transferring the desire into action can be challenging.

One day, I picked up a book I was given at a pastor’s conference called No Quick Fix. This book critiques several approaches to sanctification that are not grounded in Scripture. Although it helped identify how not to approach sanctification, it did not teach how one should pursue it. Thankfully, the author supplied an appendix that listed books that taught the proper approach to the process of sanctification. The Discipline of Grace headlined this list. I bought it, devoured its content, and have been recommending it ever since. It is the most useful book I know on the subject.

What makes The Discipline of Grace such a masterpiece is how it captures the principle of Philippians 2:12-13 so well. Those verses tell us to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. Sanctification is a work of God’s grace done in us by His Spirit through His word; yet we must engage in the process if we are to see growth. Sanctification involves the willful engagement of both God and man. We are to work out (exercise) our salvation because God is working His gracious purposes within us.

The message of the book is captures in Bridges’ now famous phrase preach the gospel to yourself every day. The book hinges on this concept. Preaching the gospel to ourselves daily does two things. First, it reminds us when we have sinned that Jesus has already dealt with it on the cross. Therefore, we need not be weighed down with an undo sense of guilt, for Jesus bore our sin in His body on the cross. Yet in preaching the gospel to ourselves does a second thing as well. It reminds us that Jesus bore our sins on the cross so that we might die to sin and live for righteousness (1 Peter 2:24). He delivered us, not only from sin’s consequence, but also from sin’s enslaving power. Yes, it remains a strong foe, but it is a defeated foe. This motivates and empowers us to overcome sin through the means of grace God gives us.

After explaining what it means for us to work out our own salvation by engaging in the process, Bridges moves on to explain in practical terms, the various spiritual disciplines God calls us to exercise in the pursuit of His holiness and usefulness in His service.

I have read The Discipline of Grace four times now. There is no other book, other than the bible, that I have read more. I cannot recommend it to you enough.

Putting Down Roots

Colossians 2:6-7 – Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude.

For several summers during college, I worked for a man who built logging roads out in the woods. Of all the secular jobs I have done, this was probably my favorite. I have always enjoyed working outside and running a chainsaw. I liked the variety of work we did, and I enjoyed the men I worked with.

One day, when we were working way back in the woods, I noticed several dry creek beds in the area. I commented to one of my coworkers that I was surprised to see the creeks dried up so early in the summer. He told me that those stream beds were formed the last time the area was logged. When the trees were removed, the demand on the ground water was greatly reduced. The excess water rose to the surface, forming creeks. When the area was replanted with new trees, the demand for ground water increased, and the streams dried up. When I expressed my surprise at this process, he laughed and told me that there was as much if not more tree below the ground than there was above the ground.

I had not thought of that interaction again, until I began preaching through Colossians in 2014. When we came to Colossians 2:6-7, God brought the memory of that conversation to my mind. The vision of a tree, with more going on unseen under the dirt than above ground, creates a wonderful picture of the Christian life.

The Christian life begins when we receive Christ Jesus as Lord. There must be a moment in every person’s life where they recognize that they are a sinner alienated from God and deserving His wrath. In desperation, they turn from their sin to trust in Jesus, whose sinless life, sacrificial death, and victorious resurrection are God’s gracious means of forgiving our sin and giving us eternal life.

Receiving the Savior is the initial expression of our faith. But the Bible teaches that true belief finds daily expression in our lives as we begin to follow Jesus. Paul describes this aspect of faith as walking in Him. This means that our lives are ordered around who Jesus is and who we are in Him.

In vs. 7, Paul gives three participles to define for us what it means to walk in Him. The first is that we are to be firmly rooted in the unchanging truths of God. The world and its thinking is like sand on the seashore that shifts every time the tide changes. But the word of God is unchanging. Like a tree, we are to sink roots into Christ. From Him we draw the spiritual life we need to thrive in our relationship with God and to live for Him in the world.

As our roots sink deeper into Christ, we are built up in Him. This describes our spiritual growth. The closer we walk with God, the more He transforms us into the image of Christ. Eventually, we are established in the faith. Like the house built on the rock that Jesus described in Matthew 7, the established Christian cannot be moved.

I love how the life of a tree pictures the Christian’s cycle of growth. A tree must put down roots if it is to survive. Once its roots are established it can grow. But as the tree grows, it needs more water and nutrients. Therefore, it sends roots down deeper and wider in search of these things. As the roots expand, the tree grows, creating this ongoing cycle that, given enough time, causes a large tree to be established in the forest. So it is with the Christian. We are to be in a constant growth cycle of seeking God’s truth in His word so we can put it into practice in our lives. Consistently doing this establishes us in the faith.

My hope for this blog is to help people deepen the roots of their faith. When I think about the Christians I admire the most, three elements seem to mark their pursuit of spiritual growth. First and foremost, they have a love for God’s word that causes them to study and apply it to their lives. Second, they have a curiosity about spiritual things that causes them to ask and seek answers from God’s word. Third, they read good books that help them understand God’s word.

I cannot create a love for God’s word in anyone. That is a work God must do in our hearts; and it is something each of us should seek to cultivate within ourselves; so I will focus on the second two elements. On the first of each month, I will recommend a ‘book of the month’ from a wide array of Christian literature. Then on the 15^th of each month, I will, to the best of my ability, seek to answer questions about specific passages or subjects that people have asked me about. My hope is that together we might grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (2 Peter 3:18).

To God alone be the glory!