Trueman engages the question of “What is man?” and demonstrates how contemporary definitions of mankind result in the dehumanizing of our neighbor.
This is an excerpt from the third chapter of By Water and the Word: God’s Gift of Baptism for You by Brian Thomas (1517 Publishing, 2026), pgs 52-60.
Even when the bitter places sink down deep into our bones, the Restorer never relinquishes his grip on you.

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Your loving Lord is not oblivious to your pain and sadness.
I trust that because of the gospel, God will continue to mend what I, in my sin, continue to break.
God's Son comes to deal with the infestation of sin, but in an unforeseen twist of grace, he’s the only one who goes under the knife.
God excludes our boasting out of his abundant mercy.
The God who abundantly restores is still in the business of total restoration, even today. Even now the God of heaven restores dead sinners to life.
On May 2nd, Cantate Sunday, in the year 1507, Luther celebrated his first Mass.
In the Church, the cry is, “He loves,” and it is that message which transforms our worldviews from taking to giving, from radical individualism to trans-demographic inclusivism, from selfishness to selflessness, from “tolerate my rights” to “loving rightly together.”
Our Judge (the one who can condemn us) has become our Advocate (the one who doesn’t condemn us) because he is also our Substitute (the one who takes our condemnation).
To give us God’s name, the name that is above every name, Christ gave us the exact words to say at baptism: the name of the triune God who is three persons, one God: “I baptize you in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”
False holiness is always a possession and achievement of the individual in isolation from the good of others. And so it isn’t holiness at all.
We cannot love first. Therefore God comes, takes hold of the heart, and says: "Learn to know me."
God is often hidden in history, even as we make it now, but He is always manifest where He has promised to be.