Comments on: Grace on the Ground

By: J. R. Daniel Kirk

J. R. Daniel Kirk — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 21:35:54 +0000

Angela and Tim,

Wonderful, enriching thoughts from both of you.

Tim, I am tracking with you. There’s a “big picture,” exciting, “get out and die to conquer the world” part of missional living, and then there’s a whole lot of everyday, mundane bearing with one another as God bears with us that often is the truer test of how deeply saturated we are with the gospel of the crucified Christ. And, too often, this is where I see that the gospel has nothing to do with how Christians parse our life together. You’ve nailed it.

By: Tim Gombis

Tim Gombis — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 17:52:36 +0000

I’ve had this post on my mind for a few days now, Daniel, so thanks for that! Very honestly, I’ve found it wonderful to discover missional Christian discipleship and so thrilling to uncover and ponder cruciformity and cross-shaped Christian relational postures.

But I’ve also found that it is RELATIVELY VERY EASY to do that when compared to actually having relational stress and having to put cruciformity into action. Even more difficult to do it over time. Relationships and the rough and tumble of community life seriously stress theological convictions and cruciformity is no exception.

You discover this in marriage, child-rearing, and intentional community life over and over and over and it doesn’t stop . . . . The hope comes from knowing that death is the only pathway to resurrection. Again, it’s one thing on “paper” / on a blog, but quite another in practice.

Wonderful food for thought — cheers!

By: Angela

Angela — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 05:44:53 +0000

Grace on the Ground brought my attention back to your, “What’s in the Name of the Lord” discussion. I think we maybe leaving out the crucial role of the Spirit in God’s name placement.

The word that is striking to me is in Rom 1:4. In Greek, it means to determine, appoint, designate. If I am reading this right, it was the Spirit who was the one who gave the designation for him to be called the Son of God. It was the resurrection—the act of God raising a man from the dead that gave the Spirit credence to appoint the name. The Spirit placed God’s name and identity on the risen Lord Jesus. Why was it after the resurrection?

How is the resurrection-name designation by the Holy Spirit different than say an announcement of Jesus as son? (see Luke 3:22) I would argue that it because with the designation by the Spirit came the giving of grace to Jesus Christ’s followers in order for them to work on behalf of the Lord Jesus’ name (Romans 1:5). I’d say that the difference was to inaugurate representatives “for his name” among nations like of old.

I think the thoughts in Grace on the Ground are linked to What’s in the Name of the Lord. What we receive through Christ is grace in order to “bear the name of the name-bearer,” for his name sake, and for the nations.

Thanks, Daniel for giving us some great thoughts to wrestle with!