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.

All Articles

Jesus remakes us, rebuilds us, and resurrects us so the demons that hide in the cracks cannot get ahold of us, the devil cannot break us, and hell will never know us.
Jesus is the anti-Cain: a giver, not a taker.
The German Bible made Sola Scriptura a reality for all believers.
Luther's September Testament not only shaped the reformers’ theology but also was as big an influence on the German language as Shakespeare was for English.
When we cry to the Lord in our trouble, he will send us a preacher with words that deliver us from destruction.
Hope is found precisely while we’re dead.
This is an excerpt from “The Pastoral Prophet: Meditations on the Book of Jeremiah” written by Steve Kruschel (1517 Publishing, 2019).
It’s the notion of mercy that leads us to the atonement, and it is the atonement that provides a foundational basis for the justification of sinners.
This is an excerpt from “All Charges Dropped! Devotional Narratives from Earthly Courtrooms to the Throne of Grace,” written by Haroldo Camacho (1517 Publishing, 2022).
When God makes promises, he is incapable of not keeping them.
Only by faith in Christ are we truly awake.
Increasingly, to forgive is seen as winking at evil, as shrugging one’s moral shoulders, and as being complicit.