Respectable Sins

Village Seven is blessed with a number of well-established authors. One of whom is Jerry Bridges. I just finished his book Respectable Sins and I am trying to find the right word to describe it. I think convicting sums it up best.

I used to have a very shallow view of my own sinfulness. I would confess sins such as lust or driving too fast or other obvious things and never see the real sins of my heart. It was my experience with Sonship and my readings of men like Bridges, Chappell, and Keller that began to expose the depth of my sin more and more. I find it rather ironic that many people think Sonship (a discipleship program by World Harvest Mission) is antinomian. My experience was just the opposite.

In Respectable Sins, Mr. Bridges takes the reader on a guided tour of the sinful recesses of the human heart. He shows us all the places we tolerate sin. It is a painful tour. Throughout the book, Mr. Bridges uses God's grace as both the agent to expose sin and as the cure for sin. The book is thoroughly gospel-centered from beginning to end.

I would recommend reading the book slowly. He exposes so many different sins of the heart that it can be truly overwhelming to look at them all at once. Also, is a good book for group study--if you are in a group that can be honest with one another.

For me, the most convicting chapter was the one on the first sin he exposes - ungodliness. We usually define ungodliness as vile activity or atheism. However, Mr. Bridges defines it as "living one's everyday life withlittle or no thought of God, or of God's will, or of God's glory, or of one's dependence on God." This sin of ungodliness is subtle and results in all sorts of other sins. Think of how much of your day you spend not thinking about God at all? That is ungodliness. How our lives (my life) would be transformed if I did all my work/family/leisure to the glory of God.

I recommend this book whole-heartedly--not as a good, informative read--but as a good MRI of the heart.