My conference has come to a bit of an early end. Because there are so many Canadians heading home from Florida this week, we were not able to find me a flight that left after the conference. Instead I’m having to duck out a few hours before it all wraps up. I’ll be heading home through Montreal and, if all goes well, should be home on time to sleep in my own bed tonight.

It has been a very good conference. Not too many organizations do a better job of putting these things together than Ligonier. You know, earlier I found myself thinking that the Ligonier conference is unique in the attendees it attracts. Some conferences cater to pastors, some to young people, some to parents. This one draws all of the above. Of all the conferences I’ve been to it probably has the largest number of “older” people (I’ll leave that term general and undefined) attending it. Yet I also haven’t been to many conferences that have more families attending together. There are many families here with children and teenagers sitting with their parents; there are groups of teens sitting together. The conference attracts people of all ages.

Also noticeable at this conference is how long and how often some people have been attending it. Earlier on I met a gentleman who is currently enjoying his twelfth consecutive National Conference. It has become an annual tradition, whether he travels with friends or whether he travels alone. I don’t think too many other conferences can boast people who have attended for twelve years running. This is, I am sure, a testament to the long and faithful ministry of R.C. Sproul and the people who serve him and who serve the Lord through this ministry. It is a testament to this ministry’s faithful service to the church.

For those who come from northern states or provinces, it certainly doesn’t hurt any that the weather in Florida this time of year is just beautiful and a full seventy or eighty degrees higher than what we’re experiencing at home. It’s supposed to be over eighty degrees here today. When I get home it will be below freezing.

This morning began with John MacArthur’s second and final sermon. His topic was “Simultaneously Righteous and a Sinner” (or, to use the latin theological term, simul iustus et peccator). He turned first to the well-known story of the raising of Lazarus and on that basis titled his message (rather creatively, I might add), “We Have Been Raised but We Stink.”

He looked to the story of Lazarus and remarked on the fact that, even after Lazarus left his grave, the smell of death would have been upon him. His clothes would have been scented with death, so that though he was alive, death clung to him. MacArthur used that as a metaphor for Christians today—people who have been saved from sin but who still have death upon us. Of course eventually the metaphor breaks down. After all, once Lazarus removed his grave clothes, the smell of death would have left him. He could have bathed and all traces of death would have been gone. But our predicament is not quite so easy. We do not just have grave clothes that stink, but we have a full, dead carcass—the presence of sin that remains upon and within us. The stench of death is not just on us, but all through us.

From here he turned to Romans 6 and 7 and showed that there the Lord tells us that we are no longer slaves to sin because once a person dies he is no longer a slave. Death frees him. Through Christ’s death we have been freed from sin’s mastery—we are no longer in slavery to sin. Sin no longer rules or has dominion. We now need to consider ourselves dead to sin but alive to God. Having been freed from sins we now become slaves of righteousness. There was an entity in existence that is no longer in existence. There was a real death and this was a real transformation. We often hear that when we are converted we have a new nature added to our old nature. But this is not the language of the New Testament. It is not addition but transformation—the death of one entity and the creation of a new one. The change in you when you were converted is greater than the change will be at your death. Death is simply subtraction.

Can we become total masters over sin and achieve sinlessness? Is that our goal or objective? Those who hold to perfectionism necessarily separate the act that brings justification and an act that brings sanctification. They separate these so a person can, by an act of his free will, become entirely free from sin. To support this, they downgrade the definition of sin only to acts which are premeditated.

Even mature, theologically-informed Christians can fall into the trap and fall into wrong thinking about sanctification. Part of the cure is ensuring that we truly understand both justification and sanctification—the similarities and differences. If you know these things you can immediately dismiss all talk of perfectionism.

He outlined five similarities between justification and sanctification:

• -Both arise from the free grace of God.
• Both are part of Christ’s redemptive work of salvation.
• Both will (and must) be present in the same persons.
• Both begin simultaneously.
• Both are necessary to glorification.

And then he outlined five differences:

• In justification a person is counted righteous because Christ’s righteousness is imputed to him. In sanctification a person has to work out his salvation over time.
• The righteousness of justification is not our own, but Christ’s. The righteousness of sanctification is ours, though wrought by the Spirit.
• Our works play no part in justification but are critical to sanctification.
• Justification is instantaneous and instantly complete while sanctification is an incomplete and imperfect work.
• Justification does not increase or develop or grow while sanctification is progressive as Christians grow in their spiritual walk towards glorification.

MacArthur took us on a survey through Scripture to show that perfectionism simply cannot be supported by Scripture. The Bible supports no leaps into eradication or total consecration. Rather, the Christian life is a slow and steady climb towards increased holiness (or, as J.C. Ryle says, a slow climb up an inclined plane). While we try to do the right thing, all we do and all we are is permeated by the flesh, by that old man who cannot be entirely eradicated until we are glorified.

What do we do about it? Believers do everything they can to kill the sin that remains. They do not imagine that they have no sin, but instead endeavor by all the means of grace to mortify the sin that remains. They abstain from sin, they avoid sin, they read Scripture, meditate upon Scripture, pray constantly. It is a lifelong battle we fight daily. It’s a battle that must be fought with passion.

MacArthur closed by borrowing an Old Testament example. He turned to 1 Samuel 15 where God commands Saul to utterly destroy the Amalekites for their cowardly attack on the Israelite women and children. But Saul and the people disobeyed God, sparing Agag and the best of the plunder. Failure to obey God cost Saul his throne and cost him his kingly lineage. Finally Samuel commanded that Agag be brought before him and he hacked him to pieces, but did not wipe out all of his people. A few years later the Amalekites were stronger than ever and began to torment the Israelites with raids and with battle. David attacked but once more did not destroy them utterly. A few generations later Haman showed up (in the book of Esther) and once more sought to destroy the Jews. The analogy is this: that you need to be obedient to God, ruthlessly hacking sin to pieces or it will come back and will come back stronger than ever. Putting sin to death is a lifelong process and one that will be perfected only in the day of Jesus Christ. Until then we are and shall remain both righteous and sinful.

Well, I made it. It is good to feel a hot sun for the first time in many months! It was an early start this morning—the alarm rang at 2:44 AM and I was out the door just a very short time after that. After having some very bad flights in the past few months, I was blessed to have two good ones today. So thanks to United Airlines for good and on-time service (insert Air Canada joke here)! We landed in Orlando right on time and I quickly found my friend Nick who had flown in an hour earlier. We also happened upon another conference attendee who needed a ride from the airport (and who knew we were heading to Ligonier because of the John Stott book Nick was holding). By the time I picked up a rental car, dropped my bag at the hotel, grabbed some lunch and found the church I had already missed the first couple of sessions of the preconference—sessions that were led by Steven Lawson and R.C. Sproul Jr.. Alex Chediak, posting over at the Ligonier blog, has notes on the first sessions if you want to know what they were all about. I’ll begin to add some thoughts as the evening goes on and as the conference proper begins.

The Ligonier Ministries 2008 National Conference kicks off later today and I’m on my way to Orlando to take it all in. Unfortunately I waited a little too late to book my flight, so I would up with a flight that necessitates leaving my home at 3:15 AM (just imagine when that means I need to wake up!). That has to be a new record for me. But, Lord willing, I should be in Florida for a lunch in the sun, even if I fall asleep face-down in my food.

You may have heard of some of the speakers for this year’s conference: Sinclair Ferguson, Steven Lawson, John MacArthur, C.J. Mahaney, R.C. Sproul and Joni Eareckson Tada. It promises to be a great weekend. I will be bringing you plenty of blog updates, though this year many of them will be over at the new Ligonier Blog to which I am a contributor. Alex Chediak will also be blogging and I look forward to working with him.

If you are unable to attend the conference, you may still wish to tune in for the live webcasts. You can find information for the webcasts right here.

I will check in again later in the day as the conference begins…