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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What’s the big deal about Jesus’ name?
God has a hall ready for us, for us and for so many more
In an autobiographical telling, Gretchen Ronnevik shares the fate of two different fathers and the hope she has in Christ.
When the waters of anxiety and depression rise, there is One who understands.
We do not choose our struggles, but there is One who has chosen to always be with us.
Theology and history go hand in hand in the real person of Jesus Christ, making the truth of the Gospels profoundly human and powerfully meaningful.
The Lord assures Jeremiah he has not forgotten him. He is there and will rescue him.
The Lord has remembered to help his servant Israel, to fulfill his promises to Abraham and to his offspring forever, not mostly or mainly because of his mercy, but exclusively so.
Lord, remember us to remind us, that we may know all good things come from you.
This is an edited excerpt from the conclusion of The Resurrection Fact: Responding to Modern Critics, edited by John Bombaro and Adam Francisco. (1517 Publishing, 2016).
In that moment of greatest despair, we find the antidote for all our fears. We know we are beloved of God and there is salvation in Christ’s atoning death.
God comes to us through the flesh and blood and spirit of Christ precisely where he promised to be manifest to us and for us.