Wisdom and strength require bootstrap-pulling and the placing of noses to grindstones.
“If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:36).
How do the words “The righteous shall live by his faith” go from a context of hope in hopelessness to the cornerstone declaration of the chief doctrine of the Christian faith?

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Christ our Word, as with a two-edged sword, burst the devil's belly.
I think the problem with the idea of eternity is that we do not have any direct experience of it, but we encounter enough of its possibility to be unsettling.
This is an excerpt from “The Alien and the Proper: Luther's Two-Fold Righteousness in Controversy, Ministry, and Citizenship,” edited by Robert Kolb (1517 Publishing, 2023). Now available for purchase.
The gospel's message is the scandalous announcement that Yahweh has stooped to our frame, to where we are.
Fullness, truth, reality – all this God gives us as his gift in Christ.
Maybe, just maybe, our goal for 2023 should not be to live more but to die more.
That great truth of creedal Christianity – that God is man in Christ – is not set forth for our speculative enjoyment.
To trust in the Lord, the Messiah, the Deliverer, is our salvation and our only hope. Yet he does not trust us to have this “trust” on our own or of our own will.
Hains offers a novel yet simple contention: Luther is most catholic where he is boldest.
God is not calling us to “grow up.” He is calling us to dependence.
It all starts with God; and it all ends with God. He is the alpha and omega of giving and generosity.
A theologian is a passive receiver of God’s active revelation about Jesus Christ, his words, works, and ways.