1. Even as he was dying, the heart of God poured itself out for the sake of sinners.
  2. 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.
  3. The gospel's message is the scandalous announcement that Yahweh has stooped to our frame, to where we are.
  4. 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).
  5. The sign of the cross, according to the earliest centuries of Christians, is “the sign of the Lord,” and every baptized Christian was “marked” with it.
  6. Fullness, truth, reality – all this God gives us as his gift in Christ.
  7. As the writer to the Hebrews affirms, what makes the Christian gospel so much better is that we are no longer dealing with “types and shadows."
  8. Maybe, just maybe, our goal for 2023 should not be to live more but to die more.
  9. That great truth of creedal Christianity – that God is man in Christ – is not set forth for our speculative enjoyment.
  10. Despite our best efforts to avoid him, King Jesus remains very much unavoidable.
  11. To trust in the Lord, the Messiah, the Deliverer, is our salvation and our only hope. Yet he does not trust us to have this “trust” on our own or of our own will.
  12. Who would ever want all these screamers and haters? It turns out that Christ does.