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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Erasmus laid out his argument for a theology of grace and free will in much the same way modern Protestants have done since the Enlightenment.
As long as the church teaches the gospel, it will suffer persecution.
Luther's response to Erasmus was not meant to be a polite contribution to an academic duel.
Here is the foundational cure for the evils of racism in human society, faith in Christ as definitive for racial identification.
Luther’s allies and opponents also would not allow him to put off responding to Erasmus indefinitely. They badgered him constantly to write a response.
Faith is a living, bold trust in God’s grace, so certain of God’s favor that it would risk death a thousand times trusting in it.
Through the often abominable and lamentable and occasional commendable season, there is one who remains unmoved by it all.
God’s love is axiomatic; it just is. It’s a truism without a logical explanation.
Christ strikes a blow first against the presumption of those who would storm their way into heaven by their good works.
While baptism is a “once and for all” event that should not be repeated in the Christian’s life, the effects of baptism continue throughout the life of the believer.
We can not give our Heavenly Father anything that will make him love us more or less. He gives and we receive.
Take away the communal aspect, take away the communal gathering around Christ’s body and blood, and the Christian will begin to suffer a malnutrition of faith.