Luther neither removed the Apocrypha from the Bible nor discouraged its use. Rather, he received and preserved the ancient distinction inherited from the fathers: the Apocrypha is valuable, edifying, and worthy of reading, but it is not Holy Scripture and therefore cannot serve as the foundation of Christian doctrine.
The confessors at Augsburg remind us that every generation of Christians is called to bear witness to the gospel amid the challenges and pressures of its own age. As they confessed Christ before emperors and kingdoms, so the Church continues to confess Him before the world today.
When Jesus washes you with baptismal water, you can rest assured that the Lion of Judah is on the move.

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The usual acclamation when one becomes King is: “Long live the King!” But this King of kings, this son of David, has come to die.
As the writer to the Hebrews affirms, what makes the Christian gospel so much better is that we are no longer dealing with “types and shadows."
God resolves his wrath through the unexpected giving of his Son.
The king has arrived and has already begun his reign forever and ever.
Who would ever want all these screamers and haters? It turns out that Christ does.
If Jesus shows up and you are a sinner, ‘tis more blessed to receive than to give
It is terribly easy to set up our theology as a buffer against the real coming of the Lord and its consequences.
For with God we look not for the order of nature, but rest our faith in the power of him who works.
The epistle text from Colossians 1 declares how the great drama of redemption and human history ends.
The mind-blowing part of this entire story, though, isn’t that only one leper came back to “give thanks,” but that the Lord Jesus healed all ten knowing full well that only one would come back.
Weak faith in a strong Christ is still saving faith.
Only by faith can we believe the mystery that salvation in all it various forms comes through Jesus, the Son of Righteousness.