Wade Johnston, Life Under the Cross: A Biography of the Reformer Matthias Flacius Illyricus, Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis: MO, 2025.
This ancient “tale of two mothers” concerns far more than theological semantics—it is the difference between a God who sends and a God who comes.
This story points us from our unlikely heroes to the even more unlikely, and joyous, good news that Jesus’ birth for us was just as unlikely and unexpected.

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Nostalgia is a powerful emotion. It can get ahold of a person and turn him all the way in on himself.
Even “our faith” is a gift from God’s fatherly hand. Our performance, desire, and perseverance do not factor into God’s will for us.
In Christ, the Word become flesh, this is a concrete, real fact. It is the bedrock foundation of the Gospel.
The promise is trustworthy because God has proven Himself to be trustworthy.
Where Jesus speaks to us, takes ahold of us, and gives Himself to us.
In Christ we are freed to be for our neighbor without fear of sin and damnation falling upon us.
We are forgiven for Christ’s sake. Losers set free to trust in God’s promises.
Jesus’ life and work is now ours through faith.
But where love is necessary we pray for our enemies and bless them in the hope that God will repent and convert them to the Gospel.
Satan cannot stand the Gospel, and so he goes to work to undermine and render God’s Word an impotent and absurd message.
We demand that our Creator defend His judgment and justification of sinners in a courtroom where we are judge, prosecuting attorney, and jury.
This is why a Christian must keep learning to forget himself so long as he lives.