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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Well, it is springtime! Just as you can always expect flowers to begin blooming, the days getting a little longer and everyone’s mood getting a little brighter, there’s something else you can always expect this time of the year.
So, on this Good Friday, our sinful self and all our sins rest with Jesus here in His tomb. Our transgressions are fully atoned.
At Golgotha, Jesus saves us from sin by becoming sin for us. Jesus takes all our messes, all our shame, all our guilt, all our fears and insecurities and He allows them to kill Him instead of us.
Jesus’ death was a direct fulfillment of the will of His Father as promised in the Scriptures.
Jesus was praying a Psalm. Psalm 22 to be precise, and both the Gospels of Matthew and Mark relay the story to us of Jesus praying that Psalm on the cross at the hour of His death.
Through this promise, God does not let us escape death because in and through Jesus He overcame death.
This Savior’s love for His church is no small thing. He gives up His own life so that she will live.
This is the first of seven words of Christ from the cross.
The disciples and Christ have just finished their last meal together. The disciples, of course, didn't know this, but Jesus did.
There is something about high art forms that touches the soul.
What makes a meal more than food? We all have important meals in our lives; birthday meals; anniversary meals; traditional holiday meals.
Jesus is the great Houdini of the grave for us. And through His death, He gives us the Great Escape from death that leads to the great joy of the Resurrection.