This is an excerpt from Chapter 6 in Sinner Saint: A Surprising Primer to the Christian Life (1517 Publishing, 2025). Sinner Saint is available today from 1517 Publishing.
On its journey from Byzantium to Constantinople to Istanbul, this special place helps us understand the broader arc of Christian history, which goes on until Christ's return.
We needn’t fear statistics and studies as palm readings into a certain future. God is God, and his Spirit is alive through his Word.

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Forty-five seconds is about how long I have as a pastor leading a Sunday morning service to sit at the feet of the cross and receive Jesus’ body and blood given to me by the hands of another at the Lord’s Table.
Throughout the eighteenth century and into the nineteenth, Anglicans, Presbyterians, and Lutherans would work together on the mission field, at home, and abroad.
When we — sinful, reprehensible we — become the enforcers of justice, we never bring about true justice. We either go too far or not far enough.
The church’s reformation is not about fragmentation, but a way forward to unity around that which is central to the church, around Christ and him crucified.
Luther understood when the Word of God came it did not offer sinners a choice.
This is a Q&A for 1517 Publishing’s newest release, “How Melanchthon Helped Luther Discover the Gospel,” by Lowell C. Green. This release also marks the launch of our new Melanchthon Library.
Even if not a turning point, 1518 is a point of no return for Luther.
The Son of God is still God the Son in the Incarnation.
The way to salvation does not consist in works invented by men, but that which leads to God is believing and trusting in Him.
Grace does not emancipate us from any requirement of obedience. Rather, grace allows Jesus to be obedient on our behalf that the righteous demands of the law can be fulfilled.
Except for the Augsburg Confession, Melanchthon’s Loci communes of 1521 were the most important of his writings.
For Luther, Erasmus’ Christ-less, Spirit-less theological conclusions demonstrated that behind his supposed humanistic optimism lay a profound despair and pessimism.