Jesus didn’t enter the water because he was sinful; he entered the water because John was sinful, as are we all.
To not speak of hell is also to forget or ignore the great benefits of Christ and his saving work.
Christ’s saving work is finished, but his love is not locked away in the past.

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Is there a significant difference between changing your mind and doing penance? Absolutely.
You cannot sever the saint from the sinner. Christians remain both simultaneously.
Luther’s final thoughts were not meant to bum you out or lead you to despair.
The wrong god means love remains frail, fickle, or a fiction. The right God means love is the most reliable thing in all the world.
There is no one — not now, not ever — who cannot be included in the family of God through the efficacy of Christ’s saving power.
What do we do with Katie Luther? What kind of historical character can we paint her to be?
There is a “re” involved with baptism, but unlike the Anabaptists, it’s not a “re-do,” but a “re-turn" or a “re-member.”
"When God has his say, have confidence that his Word and sacraments bestow precisely what he says."
It's a new year, and you are still the same you: a sinner who is simultaneously perfect in every way because Christ declares it to be so.
Longstanding tradition must be bolstered by something outside of ourselves that also lies outside of the traditions of men.
The world rushes forward, lighting up screens and decking out storefronts in a mad sprint toward the next thing, but Advent pulls us back.
This is an excerpt from Broken Bonds: A Novel of the Reformation by Amy Mantravadi (1517 Publishing, 2024), pgs. 24-27