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.

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God is often hidden in history, even as we make it now, but He is always manifest where He has promised to be.
Belonging to Christ means we have a place where we fit, a resting place where we are at peace because we know our Lord accepts us as His own.
Theologians of glory searched for God everywhere except the Cross of Christ.
You can die now, you can let go, and because that is true, you can begin to live!
Edward's goal of teaching his people to know the scriptures and to believe that their salvation depended on Christ is also essential for us today.
God is not a preoccupied parent, he’s an invested and interested tender loving Father. He values what perplexes us.
For Luther, those who refuse Christ as a curse want their sin removed not in Christ but in themselves.
Confession is not another ecclesiastical bludgeon but is instead a gift. There we can tell the truth about ourselves, knowing that Christ has only mercy for us in response.
Luther had a living Word from God intended to land squarely among sinners.
This is the patient love of God. He is stubborn about the salvation of sinners. He will not be rushed even if his name is mocked, and the trustworthiness of his promises are called into question.
This world of unbearable grief and accidental calamity is being renewed and, soon, will be completely bereft of every pernicious foe.
Christ powerless on the Cross is where the false definitions of glory theologies are exposed and everything is turned upside down.