At our recent Clarus conference, speakers D.A. Carson and Fred G. Zaspel spoke on our theme, “The Cross-Shaped Christian Life.” In his recent post over at The Gospel Coalition Blog, “Rest in the Gospel or Strive Unto Holiness?“, Ryan followed up on an issue that came up during the Clarus panel discussion: the nature of effort in the Christian life:

During the recent Together for the Gospel conference, Kevin DeYoung delivered an excellent message, “Spirit-Powered, Gospel-Driven, Faith-Fueled Effort.” My prolific friend and fellow Council member for The Gospel Coalition also has a book coming out on the subject, The Hole in Our Holiness: Filling the Gap between Gospel Passion and the Pursuit of Godliness. Anyone attuned to the reformed evangelical blogosphere will know that Kevin’s sermon and book spring in part from lively in-house discussions over the last year about the nature of sanctification: its relationship to justification, the gospel, effort, and so on. (If that’s news to you, start here.)

Those who have been tracking that ongoing discussion might be interested to know that many of these sanctification-related issues were recently addressed by D. A. Carson and Fred G. Zaspel at Clarus ’12, a TGC regional conference.

Ryan’s post continued with a partial transcript of his discussion with Carson and Zaspel on this particular issue. His post concluded with a list of the questions that guided the 83 minute conversation, largely focused on the doctrine of sanctification:

• How do you understand Paul’s struggle with sin in Romans 7:17-25? (Fred and Don have differing views of Rom. 7—and neither is the most popular view!)
• What is the relationship between justification and sanctification? Are they tied or separate?
• Can we see our own growth? Or is growth only the further, deeper acknowledgment of our need for the gospel?
• If we have only one nature, why do we still sin?
• What is “perfectionism”? And what is the “higher life movement”?
• Warfield wrote a work called Miserable Sinner Christianity. What is “miserable sinner Christianity”? Is that the kind of language we should use to speak of Christians?
• Concerning indicatives and imperatives, how do we avoid neglecting or distorting one or the other?
• How do we teach new believers the basics of discipleship without promoting check-list Christianity?
• What are some encouraging and concerning trends in North American Christianity?

The 83-minute video of our panel discussion is now online:

Audio for the this year and previous Clarus conferences is available here.

For a nice summary of the conference and a round-up of helpful links, photos, and audio, check out Matthew Barnett’s recap of Clarus over at Credo Magazine.