Excerpt from The Blessing of Humility by Jerry Bridges-
This is the gospel, the message of “good news.” This is the door each of us must walk through by trusting in Christ as the one who bore my sins in His body on the cross. But as I said earlier, the gospel is also a path we must walk along until the day we die. As we walk along, we learn that Jesus not only died in my place, but He also lived that perfectly righteous life in my place. That’s when the good news of the gospel really becomes good news!
How, then, does this good news of the gospel help us live our daily lives in humility? For one thing, it frees us up to be honest with ourselves about our sin. We can face our sin squarely when we know that it is forgiven. Even when a particular sin is vile in our eyes—not to mention God’s eyes—we can call it what it is, and thank God for His forgiveness.
My personal way of doing this is to acknowledge the particular sin without any excuses, and then quote Isaiah 53:6 to myself and to God:
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way.
I stop at that point and say, “Lord, that’s me in this sin. I’ve turned to my own way.” And then I continue, “And you, Lord have laid on him, your Son, all of my iniquity—even this ugly sin I am now confessing.” I do this as I become aware of sin throughout the day.
Read the entire introduction of The Blessing of Humility here.
Select any of the bestselling books by Jerry Bridges at navpress.com.