Gospel Ministry—Gift, Giver, and Getter

Abstract

It’s easy to speak about the grace of God in an abstract, ethereal kind of way—it’s out there somewhere, because it’s everywhere – which is about as useful as saying – it’s nowhere. Rather than remain in ethereal, impenetrable obscurity, God locates his gracious, saving presence for humanity’s benefit to work faith where and when it pleases him. The Deity, who is eternally free, has bound his people to the use of external means as the way he will create faith, by which he sets bound sinners free eternally. In its foundational sense, the Christ-instituted ministry of teaching the gospel and administering the sacraments is God’s activity to us and for us before it is God’s activity through us. This essay will explore the Christo-centricity and Christo-primacy of the ministry of Word and Sacrament. Keeping God-in-the-flesh at the center of ministry is both the Christian’s joy and the Christian’s God-ordained tool to bring his embodied gifts into an increasingly disembodied world.