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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What does it mean that holding to Jesus’ teaching will set us free? Which teaching? What will we be set free from?
Viewing the Bible as literature is an essential and natural way of engaging the text. But there are also ways in which this practice can get lost.
As much as Luther calls Christians to a sober belief in the devil, he also calls them to a firm and steadfast faith in Christ
Predestination is a promising teaching as Paul teaches it in Romans 8. It’s promising when Christ and his work for us are held firmly in hand.
The gospel fires up within us the gratitude, joy, and love to pull off what the law never could get us to do.
The unbeliever will search for relief from temptations in worldly prescriptions and pleasures. The believer searches for answers in the promises of the One who can bring true lasting peace in mind, body, and soul.
We’ve become experts at making deals with God.
This is an excerpt adapted from “Let the Bird Fly” written by Wade Johnston (1517 Publishing, 2019).
Only when we stand where God has located Himself for us do we find an imperishable promise.
Sometimes I think I've gone through the whole forgiveness process, but forgiveness for me often feels like I'm weeding my garden. I forgive and another offense pops up.
His word is what strengthens and changes our hearts. The Lord God will bring us victory.
There is no justification except by faith alone. The radical forgiveness itself puts the old to death and calls forth the new.