Quotes from Respectable Sins
by Jerry Bridges

This book, as the title announces, is about sin - not the obvious sins of our culture but the subtle sins of believers, the target audience of this book. (9)

Those of us whom I call conservative evangelicals may have become so preoccupied with some of the major sins of society around us that we have lost sight of the need to deal with our own more “refined” or subtle sins. (9)

The gospel is a vital gift from God not only for our salvation but also to enable us to deal with the ongoing activity of sin on our lives. (10)

Every believer - even the most ordinary and the most immature - is a saint. (12)

Every believer is a saint - a person separated from his old sinful way of life and set apart by God to increasingly glorify God as his life is transformed. (13)

One of our problems, however, is that we neither think of ourselves as saints - with our new state’s concurrent responsibility to live as saints - nor do we think of such actions as our gossip and impatience as sin. (16)

So we see that the entire concept of sin has virtually disappeared from our American culture at large and has been softened, even within many of our churches, to accommodate modern sensibilities. (18)

God has not given us the authority to establish values for different sins. (20)

Those whose lives most reflect the fruit of the Spirit are usually those who are most keenly aware of and groan inwardly over these so-called acceptable sins in their owns lives. (22)

Since we usually live at a higher moral standard than society at large, it is easy for us to feel good about ourselves and to assume that God feels that way also. We fail to reckon with the reality of sin still dwelling within us. (24)

It does not matter whether our sin is scandalous or respectable, all our sin is sinful, only sinful, and altogether sinful. (29)

We are in fact totally dependent upon the enabling power of the Holy Spirit. (41)

Remember, Christ has already paid the penalty for our sins and won for us the forgiveness of them. And then He has sent His Holy Spirit to live within us to enable us to deal with them. (45)

Ungodliness may be defined as living one’s everyday life with little or no thought of God, or of God’s will, or of God’s glory, or of one’s dependance on God. (54)

Closely akin to anxiety or worry is the sin of frustration. Whereas anxiety involves fear, frustration usually involves being upset or even angry at whatever or whoever is blocking our plans. (69)

All sin is serious in the eyes of a Holy God. (70)

We have nothing that will enable us to achieve success that we did not receive from God. (94)

It is only by God’s enabling power that we can make any progress. (114)

It is never okay to be angry at God. (127)

The world around us watches us even as it ridicules our values and rejects our message. They pick up on our self-righteousness, our anger, and our judgementalism. They think of us as “holier than thou” people or else they see us as hypocrites who do not practice what we preach. Dealing with our acceptable sins in humility and honesty can go a long way in dispelling that image. (181)