As Jesus hung on the cross there would be no last second escape. No Greek goddess would swoop in to rescue him. He suffered alone. And yet even in that suffering he declared his victory on the spiritual battlefield to be your victory.
God can handle grief, rage, and cries for justice. God can handle the victim who cannot yet forgive. God can handle the prayer that comes out jagged and wounded. The good news is that God is holy and merciful enough to handle all our prayers.
But while scholars are right to focus on the bond between Martin and Hans, the evidence of Martin’s own words suggests their relationship may not have been as troubled as some suppose. For Hans Luther was not a cartoon villain but a normal human being attempting to make his way in the world and raise his children to the best of his ability.

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There’s no possibility of understanding the grace of Romans 6 and the glory of Romans 8 unless you identify with the excruciating struggle of Romans 7.
The only solution to free will is the announcement from a preacher that the Father forgives us for Christ's sake.
Ethics begins not with our doing, but with the Triune God’s giving.
This week, we are grateful to publish a series of sermons from our beloved late Chaplain, Ron Hodel. This is the fourth installment of that series.
This week, we are grateful to publish a series of sermons from our beloved late Chaplain, Ron Hodel. This is the second installment of that series.
This week, we are grateful to publish a series of sermons from our beloved late Chaplain, Ron Hodel. This is the first installment of that series.
The Trinity is a handy shorthand for all that God has done to justify sinners.
When the Law is viewed in its true light, when its "glory" is revealed, it is found to do nothing more than to kill man and sink him into condemnation.
Our God is the one who brings back the exile, who restores the outcast, he is the one who devises means to do so.
Our only hope in life and death is that God loves sinners, who fail and forget constantly, with a love that is just as constant.
As astounding as co-eternity and co-equality with the Father in majesty and glory is, this is not the most significant answer Jesus gave in this Gospel reading, not for us at least.
Our daily remembrance of baptism, our daily dying and rising, is a daily joining to Jesus and His death and resurrection for us.