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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This is the basic argument of To Gaze upon God: that we who now see as if behind a veil will one day enjoy the unveiled splendor of God himself, who will dwell with us forever.
One Christ rules over all of it. He is the constant, the root that nourishes every estate and every vocation.
Just as trick-or-treaters arrive at doorsteps as beggars, we come to the Lord’s table with nothing to offer but our sin and need for forgiveness.
More certain than death or taxes and more certain than “anything else in all creation” is the fact that God loves you.
Mary looms large in our theology, our liturgy, our confessions and creeds.
God’s creatures on four legs are some of the greatest storytellers of the Scriptures.
In his resurrection, God says "Yes" to Christ, and all those in him.
Jesus has instituted his living-breathing disciples, his shepherds in his church, to declare the full forgiveness of sins.
He will never leave you nor forsake you. Your faith is not fragile glass.
Despite the best efforts of that council to silence Jesus of Nazareth and his message, it wasn't enough. Jesus was alive.
Press on, church. Yours is the victory through Jesus Christ your Lord.
It is the story of a God who is not distant, not indifferent, not doing anything in half-measures, but who is here, now.