We are invited to entrust everything to the one who accomplished what we could not: living and bleeding and dying and rising again, so that “whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). To put it another way, when it comes to the kingdom of God, there’s no room for DIY’ers. Best leave it to the professionals.
We live in the “already” but “not yet”. Peace is already ours but not yet. The resurrection is already ours but not yet. Justice is already ours but not yet. Until then be comforted by the fact that you are reconciled in Christ on account of his life, death, and resurrection.
Luther neither removed the Apocrypha from the Bible nor discouraged its use. Rather, he received and preserved the ancient distinction inherited from the fathers: the Apocrypha is valuable, edifying, and worthy of reading, but it is not Holy Scripture and therefore cannot serve as the foundation of Christian doctrine.

All Articles

If anyone could be accused of squandering riches, it would be Jesus. The Pharisees have seen Him squander the blessings of God on tax collectors and sinners. He did it then. He does it now, for you and me.
We don’t need to make forgiveness, life, and salvation a hard sell.
Jesus does not say to us, “Try really hard, and you will be better.”
Jesus will be working in our feeble misguided efforts to reach out to the world. He governs our words and our deeds, no matter how awkward they might seem.
Only true doctrine teaches people how to love God and others. Love is the best test for our theology, for true love and true doctrine go together.
We walk to the cross by the faith that God bestows on us, not by our own power, reason, or might.
We would expect Jesus to be delighted people have responded to the master’s invitation. Instead, Jesus asks these people to reconsider whether they should be following Him or not.
After the glory of our flesh has gone the way of wilted grass and faded flowers, and we’ve long forgotten all our efforts at self-justification, the word of the Lord remains.
The distinction between Christ-for-you and Christ-in-you can present a misleading dichotomy.
As we do in daily life, so we have done in our reading of the Bible: we have placed ourselves at the center, and Christ at the periphery.
The question that this text poses for us today is “What does it mean to believe in the resurrection?”
Luke does not tell us who asked it. But it’s a good question. “Lord, will those who are saved be few?”