"The Discipline of Grace" and "The Pursuit of Holiness" by Jerry Bridges

While I was looking for a book that talked about how evangelicals deal with works I came across the book "The Discipline of Grace" and felt drawn to buy it.  I eventually did after reading all the reviews about it on Amazon.  Most of the reviews were highly complimentary except that one that said that he thought that it stuck him as being "legalistic."

That's one thing that I've learned in my readings; it seems that no evangelical wants to be "legalistic."  In the second book "The Pursuit of Holiness" Pastor Jerry uses the LDS as an example of a "legalistic" cult.  Strangely enough he was using us as a positive example of living the Word of Wisdom.  He said that if we could live exemplary lives and we were members of a cult then surely real Christians could as well.

I bought "The Discipline of Grace" and I really liked it.  Nothing in the book was talked about that couldn't have been talked about in Sunday School, of course we'd use scriptures from the modern revelations as well but that would be about the only difference.  This book really struck me and opened my eyes.  For some reason I'd thought that all evangelicals believe in "cheap grace," totally forgetting about the Arianism debates in Calvinism.

In reading about the author at the end of the book it turns out "The Pursuit of Holiness" is probably his most popular book.  The review said that the book had sold over a million copies and is something of a classic.  I decided that I would buy it as well.

I liked this book as well especially the part I talked about above.  I like him pointing out Exo 11:44 "...ye shall sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy; for I am holy:"  Great scripture.  Pastor Jerry points out in this and other scriptures the command is “...sanctify yourself...” as in we need to take part in the process.

I don't remember him ever talking about the scriptures talking about us being judged by our works.  But I do know that he quoted the Savior as saying a number of times "Believe on me."  I've actually thought about this, that the Savior said this, but in the cases that I can think of he says something like "Whosoever believeth in me and is baptized" so it seems to me that it is usually combined with an action.  That seems to me how it works.

Anyway I liked both of these books and would rate them both a 4 out of 5 stars.