Reflections on Na 07: Part 1

The New Attitude 07 conference concluded over a day ago, and I write this blog freshly aware of the magnificence of the grace of God. I am grateful to God for the rich feast of teaching, worship, and biblical fellowship with fellow believers that has characterized these past four days. Through New Attitude, the Lord in His kindness enabled me to see more clearly areas of sin in my life, and at the same time He has taken me back to the glorious Gospel of His Son, through which I no longer stand condemned. Wow—how good this Good News really is!

The theme of NA07 was “Humble Orthodoxy Takes Discernment.” Josh Harris’ introductory message on Saturday evening laid the groundwork for the rest of the conference. On Sunday morning, Mark Dever preached on discerning your doctrine, followed in the afternoon by Al Mohler on discerning your culture. One of the highlights for me was the fourth general session Sunday evening, when CJ Mahaney preached on discerning your heart. Without doubt, Monday was my favorite day of the conference: Eric Simmons preached an excellent message on discernment in grey matters, and then God blessed us with two messages back-to-back from John Piper that afternoon and evening. CJ concluded the conference on Tuesday morning with a profound and convicting application message . . . this is a message that I especially need to re-listen to every few months, for my experience at New Attitude will have been in vain if I am merely a hearer and not a doer of the word (James 1:22-23). I pray that the doctrinally rich teaching that I received from such world-class speakers this past weekend would be applied to my heart in increasing measure for the rest of my life. Praise God that He gives us His Holy Spirit to accomplish this.

In the first message of the conference, Josh Harris explained that the mission of New Attitude is to encourage Christians to believe, represent, and live the truth humbly. Discernment is crucial in this mission, for as Josh put it, you can only love the truth if you can discern it from error. The gravity of Josh’s message really hit me when he said that whether we as Christians have spiritual discernment is a matter of life and death—our souls are at stake because we are dealing with truth that has the power to redeem fallen humanity. Ultimately, the glory of God is at stake. Josh reminded us that discernment is a gift from God that comes from diligently studying His Word and His precepts as revealed in the Bible. The reason we want to grow in discernment, he explained, is because we want to glorify God . . . we want God Himself.

The final point of Josh’s message proved to be the most important: discernment requires the Gospel. His text was Romans 12:1-2 (ESV):

“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God [NIV: “in view of God’s mercy”], to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

Josh helped us to see that the finished work of Jesus Christ on our behalf—His life, death, and resurrection—is the rock solid foundation of our lifelong pursuit of discernment. Any effective application of discernment in our Christian lives is only possible because the sinless Son of God bore the wrath of God on the cross for our sins and then was raised from the dead so that those who have faith in Jesus would be justified before the righteous Judge of the universe. Thus, at Calvary, all grounds for arrogance and boasting are demolished. As Josh so wisely noted, let us be preoccupied with the great mercies of God poured out onto sinners through the cross as we seek to practice Christ-honoring discernment in our daily lives for the glory of God.