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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The sign of the cross, according to the earliest centuries of Christians, is “the sign of the Lord,” and every baptized Christian was “marked” with it.
Fullness, truth, reality – all this God gives us as his gift in Christ.
God is not calling us to “grow up.” He is calling us to dependence.
All our sin and shame is answered for in the death and resurrection of our Lord.
It all starts with God; and it all ends with God. He is the alpha and omega of giving and generosity.
We ache in eager anticipation as we see Christ in action and as we take in the snapshots of his life, death, and resurrection.
Who is God really? He is offensive, anarchic by the world’s standards, and far too gracious to people who don’t deserve his time or attention.
You are a child of God. You’re blameless, holy, perfect, and righteous. Don’t feel that way? Too bad. God is greater than your heart.
You’re not new because of what you do. You’re new and so you do new things, even in spite of yourself, because of your sinful nature.
Our God is a living God and he listens to our cries for help.
From the beginning to the end of his letter, John really wants one thing: for us to be in Jesus.
This is an excerpt from the Sinner/Saint Advent Devotional (1517 Publishing, 2022), written by Kathy Morales and Kyle G. Jones.