Preach the gospel to yourself
Minister’s letter – 30 April 2026
Dear Friends, Jerry Bridges was an excellent Christian author from the United States, long involved with the Navigators, who died a decade ago this year. You would benefit from reading any of his books if you can find them, from his 1976 classic, The Pursuit of Holiness, onwards through Transforming Grace: Living Confidently in God’s Unfailing Love, The Discipline of Grace, and The Joy of Fearing God. He wrote thoughtfully, and very much for the ordinary Christian in the pews.
In a number of his books, he talks about the importance of a believer preaching the gospel to yourself every day. For example, in Respectable Sins, Bridges explains that many people have heard of this discipline but do not know how to practice it. So he provides an overview of how he does so.
For more on preaching to yourself,
read this article from NavPress
What could be more important than beginning each day with a fresh understanding of the what Jesus has done for us, and its application to your life? Here’s some of what Bridges says:
Since the gospel is only for sinners, I begin each day with the realization that despite my being a saint, I still sin every day in thought, word, deed, and motive. If I am aware of any subtle, or not so subtle, sins in my life, I acknowledge those to God. Even if my conscience is not indicting me for conscious sins, I still acknowledge to God that I have not even come close to loving Him with all my being or loving my neighbor as myself. I repent of those sins, and then I apply specific Scriptures that assure me of God’s forgiveness to those sins I have just confessed.
I then generalize the Scripture’s promises of God’s forgiveness to all my life and say to God words to the effect that my only hope of a right standing with Him that day is Jesus’ blood shed for my sins, and His righteous life lived on my behalf.
What Scriptures do I use to preach the gospel to myself? Here are a few I choose from each day:
As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. (Psalm 103:12)
“I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.” (Isaiah 43:25)
Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin. (Romans 4:7-8)
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:1)
There are many others, including Isaiah 53:6; Ephesians 1:7; Colossians 2:13-14.
Whatever Scriptures we use to assure us of God’s forgiveness, we must realize that whether the passage explicitly states it or not, the only basis for God’s forgiveness is the blood of Christ shed on the cross for us. As the writer of Hebrews said, “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins (9:22), and the context makes it clear that it is Christ’s blood that provides the objective basis on which God forgives our sins.
Personally I like to recall Romans 5:8. On that basis, I remind myself there is no sin I can commit that will stop God loving me and no good deed I can do to make him love me more, since he already loved me to the ‘nth degree’ by sending Christ to die for me as a sinner!
Warmly in Christ,
Sandy Grant
Dean of Sydney