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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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.”
Our leaders, our pastors, our priests, our teachers, all have feet of clay, just as leaders in Israel did. We do not put our faith in them, even in the ones—perhaps *especially* the ones—in whom we are inclined to have great expectations. They preach the Messiah but are not the Messiah.
Ezekiel is not called/sent out to be “successful” in his prophetic ministry—he is sent out to be faithful!
As the sin-bearer, Jesus was also the sin-confessor in the psalms.
In the overall context of Lamentations this text stands out as a breath of fresh air, or perhaps more accurately, words of relief after so much dismal lamenting!
Christian hope means always hope in God and hope in Christ simultaneously without distinction.
The fact that the LORD answers Job is a great gift of love and mercy, but He does not provide the answers Job seeks.
God's new planting will keep the ancient Messianic covenantal promise alive and bring it to fruition.
This is the first direct promise of the Seed who will reunite all mankind to God by defeating Satan on the Cross.
We have the Gospel in Word and the Gospel in Sacrament. Both are poised to declare the peace of the Lord, the good news of God’s forgiveness because of the life, vicarious atonement, and resurrection of Jesus the Son.
Does Isaiah find himself in the Holy of Holies in the Jerusalem Temple, or is this taking place in the Heavenly Temple? Perhaps we might say the answer is “Yes.”
You and I have a God who pardons all our wrongdoing by taking all of them onto himself. He doesn’t zap us into oblivion at the first sign of rebellion.