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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These three: to judge, to avenge, and to glory, have been taken from us, and no person should share in them.
It was reported that Hus died singing, “Christ, son of the living God, have mercy on me.”
Our righteousness and the righteousness of our neighbor have nothing to do with what we eat or do not eat.
When the church has gone astray, it has been the responsible (not slavish) approach to history that has helped correct the course.
Naturally each individual forgets the beam in his own eye and perceives only the mote in his neighbor’s. One will not bear with the faults of the other; each requires perfection of his fellow.
They cannot know that I am already a father, but, this side of eternity, I won’t ever meet my child because of a miscarriage.
We tell the little story of the Gospel because our great stories ultimately reflect Christ.
Today’s advice for the anxious and worried would have likely horrified Luther.
We might assume that all ways are equal to raising a child in wisdom, but they are not.
While most of his letters were written as semi-private counsel and consolation, some, like the “Letter to the Christians of Miltenburg” were written openly for public consumption.
For Luther, Jesus does something much better for those who grieve than simply identify with them: He brings suffering and evil to an end in His own death.
If man can save himself, what need is there for the cross or the Gospel?