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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Bulls, lions, dogs. Why all these metaphors from the animal kingdom to describe humanity as it encircles the crucified Savior? Because the man on the cross, God incarnate, is there for all creation, not just humanity.
The entrance of children into the world reminds our world of the hope of redemption in Genesis 3:15.
God and Jeremiah may have been looking at the same person, but they were seeing very different things.
There are plenty of reasons why you do not already do whatever you want out of fear of the law, and you will find these reasons persist and remain long after the gospel has its way with you.
God has in fact executed his plans for his people, plans of peace (probably a better translation than welfare), a future, and a hope in Jesus Christ.
The goal of language in the mouth of a Christian isn’t to hold power for ourselves but to give it.
Preaching is the first line of defense and catechetical offensive against these corrosive falsehoods.
God uses the unlikely, the unexpected, and sometimes even the unsavory to deliver us and to crush the heads of his enemies
God’s word is creative in both the imaginative sense and the constructive sense. It brings things into existence and displays new ideas, images, and concepts we did not previously perceive.
The essence of sin is man substituting himself for God, while the essence of salvation is God substituting himself for man.
James makes it sound like prayer is actually effective, that God listens, God answers in line with our requests. Does James realize the questions he is raising?
Just like in the previous interview, I had to rewind to make sure I was hearing all this right. Yeah, that's actually what he said.