discipline of grace quote 1

I have been reading The Discipline of Grace, by Jerry Bridges to help me grow in the knowledge of God's grace since I tend to be more aware and driven by performance.  I'm praying that it will help me grow in remembering the gospel of grace, rather than laboring by my own merits, which don't get me anywhere anyway.  =)

It is because we do not realize the utter depravity of the principle of sin that remains in us and stains everything we do, that we entertain any notion of earning God's blessings through our obedience.  And it is because we do not fully grasp the fact that Jesus paid the penalty for all our sins that we despair of God's blessing when we have failed to live up to even our own desires to live a life that is pleasing to God.   

Your worst days are never so bad that you are beyond the reach of God's grace.  And your best days are never so good that you are beyond the need of God's grace. 

Every day of our Christian experience should be a day of relating to God on the basis of His grace alone.  We are not only saved by grace, but we also live by grace every day.  This grace comes through Christ, "through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand" (Romans 5:2, emphasis added) (p. 18).

Because we are focusing on our performance, we forget the meaning of grace:  God's unmerited favor to those who deserve only His wrath.  Pharisee-type believers unconsciously think they have earned God's blessing through their behavior.  Guilt-laden believers are quite sure they have forfeited God's blessing through their lack of discipline or their disobedience.  Both have forgotten the meaning of grace because they have moved away from the gospel and have slipped into a performance relationship with God. 

Most of us probably entertain either of these attitudes on different days.  On a good day, as we perceive it, we tend toward self-righteous Pharisaism.  On a not-so-good day we allow ourselves to wallow in a sense of failure and guilt.  In fact, it may be more than not-so-good days - it may be weeks or months.  But whether it is weeks or days, the problem is the same.  We have moved away from the gospel of God's grace and have begun to try to relate to God directly on the basis of our performance rather than through Christ. 

God never intended that we relate to Him directly.  Our own performance is never good enough to be acceptable to Him.  The only way we can relate to God is through the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ.  It is only the blood of Jesus that will cleanse us from a guilty conscience and give us the confidence to enter into the presence of God (Hebrews 10:19-20) (p. 22, emphasis mine).