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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What Luther is doing in his Catechism is teaching how the gospel is an action of the whole Trinity, not just one of the persons.
Mankind’s “thoughts and ways” on the matter of pardon and forgiveness do not even come close to exhausting, let alone fathoming, God’s “thoughts and ways.”
The story of Juneteenth is one of living between proclamation and emancipation, and the story of the Christian faith is one of living in that same tension.
The Holy Spirit does what his name implies. He makes us holy. We believe in Jesus Christ, our Lord, and come to him only by the Holy Spirit who calls us with the gospel.
Repentance means to turn or change your mind. It is not a turn from sin to righteousness. It is a turn from sin to the righteous Son of God who has defeated all sin.
Each day gives us occasion to die to our sinful identities of all kinds and to live out a life in Christ’s footsteps as children of God.
The truth is we’ve always mixed up the roles of penitent and priest.
Being able to tell the difference between truth and lies is at the core of repentance.
James and John come before Jesus and request positions of honor in His coming Kingdom. While we may be surprised at their actions, we understand their desires. They are interested in upward mobility.
The fact of Jesus being the greatest of all priests in the greatest of all orders of priesthood, means Jesus is the consummate pastor for those in need of a powerful and availing shepherd.
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.
Jesus lives to intercede. So we needn’t bring him our feigned righteousness or our faux rehabilitation.