1. This sermon was originally given at Luther Seminary chapel on May 20, 1986.
  2. We too are God’s baptized, beloved, blood-bought believers. And no one can ever take that away from us.
  3. Rightly distinguishing between law and gospel, as Paul helps us see in 2 Corinthians 3, is, quite literally, a matter of life and death.
  4. All of Scripture, every last syllable of it, is meant to drive us to "consider Jesus," the One who comes to "make us right" by gifting us his righteousness.
  5. 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.
  6. Jesus not only healed her daughter, but he also gave himself to her. Wherever she went from then on, he was with her.
  7. 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).
  8. God gives us the power and authority to proclaim the forgiveness of sins to burdened sinners who entrust us with their pain, guilt, and defeat.
  9. The law had to have its way with the expert to bring him around (and back) to Abraham's response.
  10. The nefarious thing about idolatry is that just about anything can become your idol: career, family, fame, wealth, status, spouse, you name it, any good thing can become a ‘god-thing” with ease. 
  11. Maybe, just maybe, our goal for 2023 should not be to live more but to die more.
  12. In Memory of My Friend, James Arne Nestingen