The Gospel Driven Life

Shannon and I just returned from a weekend in northeast Florida visiting some dear friends in St. Augustine and attending a big chunk of The Gospel-Driven Life Conference hosted by Westminster Seminary California and Ponte Vedra Presbyterian Church. Actually, the full name of the conference was The Gospel-Driven Life: Growing in Holiness by Living in Union with Christ. One of the great things about conferences like this are the free goodies and not-so-free goodies...meaning books. I resisted tempation for the most part, but still came back with a sack full of "stuff". Michael Horton and R.C. Sproul led things off on Friday evening. Herewith a few notes...

Mike Horton, who's had a huge influence on my life and thinking through his writing (especially for Modern Reformation magazine) and hosting of the White Horse Inn program, opened by giving us an overview of the conference's theme by presenting an exposition of Genesis 15, especially the theophany of Abram's vision where the LORD himself passes through the severed carcasses revealing himself to be the ultimate promise-keeper and covenant fulfiller...all while Abram sleeps. It's interesting to reflect on how many important events in redemptive history happen while the patriarchs are asleep! Horton challenged our propensity to focus on circumstances instead of promises, and the American church's tendency to confuse the law (often cloaked in therapeutic self-help language as opposed to the older fire and brimstone language) with the gospel. One thing he said stuck out to me: "the law will always make sense and the gospel will always seem strange." It's because "we're wired for law" and the news of the gospel shatters the paradigms that come naturally to us. Incidentally, I had the pleasure of chatting with Dr. Horton briefly and told him how much I loved the program on political temptation (which I posted here last week). He said he got quite a few angry e-mails in response to that one.

For good reason, R.C. Sproul is a legend in Reformed circles. He quipped that he's still surprised when people come up to him at these conferences and ask him to sign their Bible as if he wrote it. He was the general editor of the Reformation Study Bible after all! Interestingly, he said that if he was thrown in prison and could only have one book of the Bible he would choose Hebrews, if only one verse, Genesis 15:17...making a nice segue from Horton's talk. Sproul's topic was "Justification by Faith Alone: The Heart of the Gospel", probably a topic he's spoke on hundreds of times, but you wouldn't have known it, as he spoke passionately (and without notes) -- holding the room spell-bound for 45 minutes as he presented the Biblical and historical foundations of this doctrine that both Luther and Calvin considered the central doctrine of Christianity. More importantly he sent us out into the chilly north Florida night with a song in our hearts for what Christ has done for us and a renewed appreciation for what's at stake for the church if she loses this glorious doctrine -- a doctrine better described as "justification by Christ" rather than "justification by faith", for even the faith is a gift and not something that we can claim for ourselves. It's also the grounds of our righteousness and sanctification, as opposed to the view that says to be justified a person must first be sanctified, or the view that says one must have an inherent righteousness of one's own to get into heaven. This is where the doctrine of Christ's imputed righteousness comes in. Sproul reminded us that the cross only does half the job -- removing the guilt of our sins -- we must also appropriate Christ's perfect fulfillment of the law, thus gaining a righteousness "extra nos" outside of ourselves. To sum up...it's faith alone, not faith and works -- grace alone, not grace and merit -- and Christ alone, not Christ and the sacraments. This is the gospel that saves us and keeps us saved. We never outgrow our need to hear this message preached clearly and often. Thank you Dr. Sproul for your many years of faithful preaching and teaching! It was a thrill to hear you in person.

The Saturday sessions with Robert Godfrey and Scott Clark were terrific and I'll post some thoughts on those later this week.


UPDATE: here are some highlights from Saturday.