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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Understanding the doctrine of the hypostatic union can help us understand what God is up to in the Incarnation.
For a long time, well-intentioned pastors and college evangelists have applied Jesus’ words from Revelation 3:20 to the unconverted.
Theology is not to simply adopt the positions and presuppositions of philosophy, nor should it reject philosophy.
Every day, in everything we do and experience, we are busy hearing, seeing, and telling stories.
Far too many Christians read the Bible as if a dam has been built between the waters of the Old Testament and the New Testament.
Jesus and the New Testament—good. Yahweh and the Old Testament—not really so good. So goes the popular, but largely whispered, dichotomy.
Here, we read the mystery and majesty of the incarnation of the Son of God wrapped up into a single package
Because of the ascension, the manger has become the cosmos.
There is God. He existed before anything existed, for he has always existed and he will always exist. He created everything that exists outside of himself, and therefore he owns it all, including humankind.
We would rather be God ourselves. But, being God is always beyond our grasp.
Some of the last words our Lord spoke were addressed to a man who stood on the precipice of eternity.
Any and all failure is re-written to portray us as either victor or victim.