This weekend I had the privilege to meet and hear from Dr. Jerry Bridges. Dr. Bridges is certainly one of my mentors of the faith. I read his book, The Discipline of Grace in Bible College.
I think I first learned about Jerry Bridges from my mom. I'm almost positive I've seen her read many books by him.
In my role as marketing coordinator at Trinity College, I was honored to have dinner with Dr. Bridges, Friday night, then hear him speak.
Then, Dr. Bridges preached at BLDG28 yesterday in both services.
Throughout the entire weekend, a singular theme seemed to permeate his preaching: As Christians we don't understand the WHOLE Gospel of Christ.
Dr. Bridges focused on 2 Corinthians 5:18-21, which says, "All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."
He told us today that his favorite verse in all the Bible was verse 21, because it encompasses the whole of the Gospel.
If you've spent any length of time in the church, then you have heard people say, "Jesus died on the cross for your sins", and that's true. Verse 19 tells us that God was reconciling (bringing us back) to himself. Verse 20, Paul makes an appeal to his reader to be reconciled. Verse 21 says that God made Jesus to be sin who knew no sin.
Dr. Bridges made it a point to make sure we knew that Jesus did not have a sin nature. He was not a son of Adam. He was born of a virgin. You can go to other verses that confirm this -
John 3:5,
Heb. 4:15, and
1Peter 2:22.
You could say that the first part of verse 21 goes hand in hand with
Isaiah 53:6. God laid on Christ all of our sin. One of my favorite passages that explains this truth is
Colossians 2:13-14, which tells us that our entire record of sin was nailed to the cross.
BUT...that's just half the Gospel, Jerry Bridges said...
He then challenged us all to look at the rest of the verse: "so that IN HIM we might become the righteousness of God."
Those two words, IN HIM, describe our union with Christ. You see, Christ not only died for us, he lived for us.
Dr. Bridges gave a great example of this: He told us about someone he was explaining this to who landscaped for a living. He said to the man, "What do you do first when you get home after a long day outside working?" The man replied that he goes home, takes a shower and puts on new clothes. Jerry said, "Well, what would your wife say if you just took a shower and put on your old clothes?" The man replied, "She'd have a fit." Jerry then asked, "What if you simply put on new clothes and didn't take a shower." The man exclaimed, "That wouldn't work either."
I hope you can see Dr. Bridges' point.
Jesus Christ cleansed us through his blood on the cross (the shower), but he didn't stop there. He also clothed us in the perfect righteousness of Christ so that when we stand before God, He sees complete and perfect obedience. You see that it exactly what God requires from everyone...100% perfection, but we have all failed. We were all born with a sin nature, and everyone of us sin.
This is why God's grace is so AMAZING! Dr. Bridges explained, "Jesus never, never, never sinned for 33 years." "He perfectly obeyed God for 33 years"...and that righteous life of Christ is now imputed to us.
"He not only died for me, He lived for me." - JB.
The Second half of the Gospel is that God credited you and I the perfect righteous life that Christ lived. You see the requirement to be saved is not only to be cleansed from all your sin, but to never sin, EVER! We cannot EVER attain this standard on our own. This is why God imputes Christ's righteousness to us. Now, go live a life of obedience from this foundational truth of God's Word. When God looks at you, he sees the perfect obedience of his son. Your identity found is IN HIM.
"Christ was our representative both in death and life." - JB
"Every blessing you receive is bought and paid for by Jesus Christ." - JB
Be Edified!
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