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

How can we best talk about the Gospel with an Old Testament accent? Chad Bird provides us with a helpful "map" that highlights Egypt, the Red Sea, and Jerusalem. These three places represent the ways in which God graciously redeems, delivers, and sanctifies us. This brief essay was delivered at the 1517 Regional Conference in Bentonville, Arkansas, on April 17, 2021.
The biblical shepherd leads his sheep. He provides for their needs. He protects them from enemies, and he does not leave his sheep unattended.
God loves you no matter what. Loves you no matter how many times you have screwed up. Loves you to death, he does.
Jesus is not just another king in the line of David—this is the new King David! Hosanna in the highest!
Jesus takes the sins of man upon Himself and carries them to the cross to make our hearts holy and acceptable in the eyes of God.
When we look upon the cross, we see our sin. We also see the One who washes it away and gives life.
The words “sanctify” and “sanctification” have deep roots in the Old Testament. There, holiness is about nearness to the presence of God. He is the holy-maker. Sanctification is his gift. The Old Testament helps us to avoid the common misunderstanding today that sanctification is all about our life of good works.
Different groups within Christianity disagree as to whether Jesus should be depicted in icons, crucifixes, paintings, or other visual media. In this article, Chad Bird approaches the question from the angle of both the commandments and the incarnation.
What do Abraham's near-sacrifice of Isaac, the place where David built an altar to stop a plague, and the temple of Solomon all have in common? All three were on the same mountain. On this mountaintop, you can see the whole story of salvation.
What more could God do to prove to us that he is for us and not against us than to give his own Son into this fallen world to take the cross in our place, exchanging his righteousness for our many sins.
Christmas-time is the bold proclamation that God was born to save sinners.
God's Word is the final word on you, and his claim on you as his people, his children, is the ultimate claim.