Remembering Jerry Bridges: One Year Later

Evangelical author and speaker Jerry Bridges passed away one year ago today at 86 years old. He published widely with The Navigators, an organization instrumental in his own journey to saving faith as a young U.S. Navy officer.

Bridges achieved lasting good for the Kingdom by writing or contributing to more than a twenty books. He authored The Pursuit of Holiness, which has sold in excess of a million copies. But despite his success, The Navigators recalled Bridges first and foremost as “a kind, gentle soul who desired nothing more than to walk humbly with his God.”

This touching commemoration was echoed by those I know who met Bridges and heard him speak. By all accounts, he embodied a pastoral spirit borne out of a humble heart. Both in person and in his writing, he prioritized practical, simple, and applicable truth over flashy rhetoric. His passion was to encourage others to follow Christ.

While perhaps Bridges’ best known book remains The Pursuit of Holiness, another one remains most memorable for me. I first read Trusting God: Even When Life Hurts during a difficult period in my life. I needed to be reminded of why and how I should trust God.

The recommendation to “trust God” might sound trite for those experiencing suffering, but Bridges’ tone never came across as preachy. Quite the opposite. His wisdom came from first-hand experience. Bridges was upfront about his own shortcoming and eminently sympathetic, while still emphasizing the need to apply God’s Word.

Right now, I happen to be studying Bridges’ book The Transforming Power of the Gospel with other members of my local church. His truly pastoral emphasis shines through brightly from the beginning of the Preface:

Spiritual transformation is the process through which we grow more and more into the likeness of Christ. Since 1951, when I first came in contact with The Navigators ministry, I have sought to understand and live out the principles of that process. I have by no means “arrived,” either in understanding or application, but I have learned a lot and hopefully have grown some over these sixty years. …

I gladly acknowledge that I stand on the shoulders (though somewhat precariously) of some of the great giants of the faith of previous centuries. That is why you will find numerous quotations from them. I hope their words, in addition to the many Scriptures cited, will give you confidence that what I have written is not new and novel but is essentially the teaching of Scripture and is consistent with the teachings of these respected men of the last four centuries.

In a very real sense, Jerry Bridges represented Evangelical Protestantism at its best. His humble reliance on Scripture informed by Church tradition to encourage Christians to apply Gospel truths and pursue Godly holiness encapsulated the very best elements of Evangelicalism.

The Apostle Paul warned Timothy that people would soon have “itching ears.” Paul’s admonition was to “preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.” (1 Timothy 4:2-3, ESV)

Hearers certainly have itching ears in our contemporary culture. Thus the kind of humble, clear, and biblically grounded teaching promulgated by Jerry Bridges represents precisely what we need today more than ever. Let us thank the Lord for Bridges’ ministry, and pray for God to grant us more leaders like him!