Together for the Gospel Finale

Two weeks ago today, I was at the second day of the Together for the Gospel conference in Louisville, KY. It was a fantastic two and a half days of discussing the gospel, listening to the gospel, preaching the gospel, singing the gospel, and meditating on the gospel. And I feel like we just scratched the surface... The Apostle John seems to have felt the same way, "Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written" (John 21:25). Such is the good news about the Savior!

Last week, I posted some of my favorite quotes from the conference, if you missed that, you can find it here. Instead of talking about which session was my favorite, I just want to mention a few take-aways from the conference. I want to answer the question: "What themes/concepts most helped me?" Here are just a few:

1) Were it not for the imputed righteousness of Christ to my account, I'd have no hope. I'd be doomed to hell. This is my justification - as I am in Jesus, Jesus' righteousness by the grace of God is mine. I praise God for the glorious truth of 2 Corinthians 5:21 - “God made Christ to be sin who knew no sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” John Piper at T4G put it this way, "By trusting Christ alone, we are united to him. And because we are “in him,” what he is counts for us, his righteousness, his morality, his devoutness. (See Philippians 3:9; Romans 3:28; 4:4-6; 5:18-19; 10:3-4; 1 Corinthians 1:30; Galatians 2:16)." Praise God for the imputed righteousness of Christ! T4G helped me to think upon this glorious truth, revel in it, and think about its hopeful implications for my life.
2) We ought to love our local churches. I left T4G thankful for T4G and thankful for conferences in general, but I left T4G excited to get back to my local church. I am so thankful for the body of believers that God has placed me in. We're imperfect (I'm a part of the church!), but God is being glorified in our imperfect church because His people are gathering to worship His name, to live their lives caring for and encouraging one another, and to share the good news of Christ with our friends and neighbors together. We are living lives "that don't make sense" in order to display the character of God.
3) Jesus is building His church around the world. I saw Matthew 16:18 ("I will build my church") in part at T4G. I saw a glimpse, in the brothers gathered, of the global church. A couple times during the singing portions of the conference, I would stop and just look around. I probably seemed weird to the brothers sitting around me, but, for me, it was a moment of praising the Savior by reflecting on heaven and the endless "worship service" that will go on there. 7,000 redeemed voices raised was a glorious thing, but I can't even begin to imagine the glory and honor that will be directed towards the Savior on that day. I can't wait! Until then, Jesus is building His church, drawing men and women unto Himself as a display of His glory in this sin-cursed world. It's a treat to, by God's grace, be a small part of this work.

Now, I would not be giving the whole T4G story if I failed to mention the books I was given. Praise God for these guys' desire to serve pastors (and seminarians like me!). I left with 33 free books between T4G and the Band of Bloggers pre-conference. On his blog, Justin Taylor lists out all the books given away at T4G. You can find that here.

Here's a pic of all the books given away at T4G...


And the books given away at Band of Bloggers (they are listed here)...


I'm looking forward to working my way through these books in the coming months.

All in all, I praise God for T4G. It was a tremendously encouraging and profitable 2.5 days!