Paige Benton Brown: In the Temple – The Glorious and Forgiving God (The Gospel Coalition National Women’s Conference LiveBlog)

(I’m already beginning to pray for friends who are serving at next year’s The Gospel Coalition Women’s Conference: Resurrection Life in a World of Suffering. I hope that you can be at the conference June 16-18, 2016 in Indianapolis! I am so excited to hear from some of the finest teachers on these important topics—Kathleen Nielson, Rosaria Butterfield, Don Carson, Nancy Guthrie, Tim Keller, Carolyn McCulley, Ellen Dykas, Melissa Kruger … and more!)

To whet your appetite for the next TGCW conference, why not enjoy a quick review of the inimitable Paige Benton Brown from her 2012 TGCW plenary? Just click “Replay” below:

The actual LiveBlog replay above has over 11,600 words in it, so I won’t even attempt to restate the entirety of this teaching. However, here are just a few points that will hopefully whet your appetite and encourage you to read the entire entry.

Paige Benton Brown: In The Temple

• God says, “I will be Your God, you will be my people.” But we want to know … how “in” is He? …
• 1 Kings 8 … The temple is not an aspect of God’s omnipresence. This is his personal presence manifest …
• All of this godly extravagance points to God’s glory but the actual glory is even more awesome; even then, God is holding back. The cloud reveals and conceals …
• The cloud is about the covenant; the uniqueness. The glory of Israel is that relationship. In the midst of God’s omniscience, God says, “I know everything, but only you have I known” …
• But they cannot keep the commandments. So how can we meet God? Those tablets are covered with the mercy seat. We cannot meet God at the ark; we must meet him at the altar. God provides a mercy seat, a covering, for the ark …
• Do you steal and do abominations and then stand in God’s house and say, “We are delivered”? …
• Jesus is very closely associated with this temple; presented at 40 days; age 12 reasoning; paying temple tax … always acknowledging it is his father’s house. But also: He was its superior. Tear this temple down and I will rebuild it in three days. Not one stone will be left upon another …
• What do you do with the people who will come to the temple but will not run to the outstretched arms of God? …
• God does not forgive sin. He can’t. He forgives sinners—but it has to be paid for. This is what our sins cost.