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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We don’t start with behavior and work toward Christ. We start with Christ and everything works out from there.
Through water, blood, and word, the Spirit never stops pointing us to Christ, and even more, giving us Christ.
The good news is that with our God there is always more: more than we deserve, dare, ask, or expect, more than we can see, hear, feel, or think.
The reason that God’s commandments are not burdensome is that Jesus has fulfilled them.
Both now and forever, the bruised and crucified Lord nailed to a cross is our assurance of deliverance.
The love mentioned in 1 John 4:15-21 fourteen times (!) is a love that needs no apology but is determined at all times to sacrifice for the other.
Logos theology is a theology of presence without division. It is a way of unification, of which the incarnation is the greatest visible example.
We need to hear the gospel because it is good news that is not from you, or about you, or because of you.
When we cry to the Lord in our trouble, he will send us a preacher with words that deliver us from destruction.
“There,” the Queen said, “That’s so much better than talking, isn’t it?”
When God makes promises, he is incapable of not keeping them.
The one who embodies the dove, that is, the Holy Spirit will be mounted upon the staff of Calvary.