The Bookends of The Christian Life by Jerry Bridges

This comparison of a Christian Life as a bookshelf was a perfect picture of "progressive sanctification". It describes the support of our spiritual and temporal books being encased between two bookends. The first being the Righteousness of Christ and the second being the Power of the Holy Spirit. "Our gratitude for the love that provided the first bookend encourages us to depend on the second for strength". It's descriptions of the Gospel Enemies: self-righteousness, persistent guilt and self-reliance, reveal the purposes in each bookend. The bookends are the God-given, God-centered graces that are available to us and show how our dependence on God draws us to be transformed to His likeness, being transformed from glory to glory!!