This is an excerpt from Chapter 6 in Sinner Saint: A Surprising Primer to the Christian Life (1517 Publishing, 2025). Sinner Saint is available today from 1517 Publishing.
On its journey from Byzantium to Constantinople to Istanbul, this special place helps us understand the broader arc of Christian history, which goes on until Christ's return.
We needn’t fear statistics and studies as palm readings into a certain future. God is God, and his Spirit is alive through his Word.

All Articles

Through Martin Luther, God would unleash a far greater storm than the one which overwhelmed Luther on July 2, 1505.
Christian mercy should not seek its own. It must be round, and open its eyes and look at all alike, friend and foe, as our heavenly Father does.
How do we preach a text of exhortation while keeping the sermon Gospel-centered?
There’s no possibility of understanding the grace of Romans 6 and the glory of Romans 8 unless you identify with the excruciating struggle of Romans 7.
The only solution to free will is the announcement from a preacher that the Father forgives us for Christ's sake.
The question is, how are you going to live out your life as someone who has taken up the Robe of Freedom?
When the Law is viewed in its true light, when its "glory" is revealed, it is found to do nothing more than to kill man and sink him into condemnation.
The celebration of Trinity Sunday–the only church festival specifically dedicated to a doctrine–reminds us of the necessity of confessing that the one God exists in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
The list of things our kids need to know when they leave the house is much simpler than we might believe.
I trust that because of the gospel, God will continue to mend what I, in my sin, continue to break.
The point Luther made, again and again, was that distance between God and sinners is collapsed when the crucified Christ himself comes to sinners through a preacher.
The God who abundantly restores is still in the business of total restoration, even today. Even now the God of heaven restores dead sinners to life.