1. What we discover in O’Connor’s stories and Martin Luther’s theology is that God’s grace is elusive because the human heart is resistant to it.
  2. Predestination, Jim knew, is no longer a frightening doctrine of mystery when you understand that God makes his choice about you in the simple word of God, given from one sinner to another.
  3. This is an excerpt from “The Alien and the Proper: Luther's Two-Fold Righteousness in Controversy, Ministry, and Citizenship,” edited by Robert Kolb (1517 Publishing, 2023). Now available for purchase.
  4. That great truth of creedal Christianity – that God is man in Christ – is not set forth for our speculative enjoyment.
  5. The lesson of Malachi reveals God’s love for his people. When the people ask for proof of God’s love, he reminds them of their election.
  6. Help comes for those who cannot help themselves. When we bottom-out and come to the end of ourselves, that is where hope springs.
  7. If a key part of the Reformation was placing God’s Word back into the hands of the people in a clear, understandable way, then John of Ragusa can be called a “Prometheus” in his own right.
  8. When the Reformers read the Bible (especially when studied in the original languages), they found a God who was gracious and merciful for the sake of Christ.
  9. Through water, blood, and word, the Spirit never stops pointing us to Christ, and even more, giving us Christ.
  10. Even though All Saints is a day for remembering the dead, it is not a day of mourning.