Jul
01
2009
Preach The Gospel To Yourself Everyday
I’m almost done with a book based on my Jonah sermons entitled Surprised by Grace: God’s Relentless Pursuit of Rebels. My good friends at Crossway publishers will be publishing it in Spring 2010. I just sent the manuscript off this morning. Working on the book has whet my appetite for a bigger, better, deeper, and brighter understanding of God’s grace and the riches of the gospel. So, while I’ve been away with my family on vacation I’ve been re-reading Jerry Bridges’ excellent book The Discipline of Grace. A little while ago I read his comments on 2 Corinthians 3:18 where the apostle Paul writes:
But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed.
Bridges reminded me of just how important it is to “preach the gospel to ourselves everyday” if we are going to be transformed into the likeness of Christ. He writes:
The glory that has a transforming effect on us is the glory of Christ revealed in the gospel, the good news that Jesus died in our place as our representative to free us not only from the penalty of sin but also from its dominion. A clear understanding and appropriation of the gospel, which gives freedom from sin’s guilt and sin’s grip, is, in the hands of the Holy Spirit, a chief means of sanctification…Our specific responsibility in the pursuit of holiness as seen in 2 Corinthians 3:18, then, is to behold the glory of the Lord as it is displayed in the gospel. The gospel is the mirror through which we now behold His beauty. One day we shall see Christ, not as in a mirror, but face to face. Then, “we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2). Until then we must preach the gospel to ourselves everyday.