When Religion Becomes Obsolete, Christ Does Not

By Russ Lackey | Mark Mattes

01/20/26

19mins

When Religion Becomes Obsolete, Christ Does Not

American religion did not become optional because the gospel failed. It became optional because religion slowly redefined itself around usefulness.

Bradley Gray

01/19/26

Behold the Lamb

The Passover wasn’t just Israel’s story; it’s ours.

Psalm 12, Part 2: The Saint Fails, The Word Purifies

Steven Paulson

01/16/26

Psalm 12, Part 2: The Saint Fails, The Word Purifies

God makes us pure saints by planting us back in the earth we imagined we needed to escape.

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Chad Bird

04/15/19

The Gospel According to Noah

When Lamech named his newborn son Noah—which means “rest”—he said, “This one shall give us comfort from our work and from the toil of our hands arising from the ground which the Lord has cursed”

John W. Hoyum

04/11/19

Church Membership and the Gospel

Being a member of a church connects people to the whole reason the church has for existing: that we might obtain justifying faith in Jesus Christ through Word and Sacrament.

Martin Luther

04/09/19

The Truly Good Shepherd

You have heard that after his sufferings and death Christ our Lord arose from the dead and entered upon, and was enthroned in, an immortal existence.

Mark Mattes

04/09/19

A Q&A with Mark Mattes on Law and Gospel in Action: Foundations, Ethics and Church

The Gospel restores us to our true humanity, embeds us in the body of Christ, feeds us with Christ’s own body, and offers us a community.

Donavon Riley

04/02/19

Your Jesus Has Made You Well

When we preach Jesus crucified for the sin of the world, Jesus crucified to put away God’s harsh judgment, that good news creates faith

Jacob Corzine

03/31/19

The Law and the Already Terrified Conscience

Where contrition is evident, the conscience has already been prodded, piqued, finally terrified. More Law only serves to confirm the lie this person is already at risk of believing: that the last work of the conscience is also God’s last word. But God’s last word is the word of absolution, not the confirmation of the conscience’s testimony, but now its contradiction.

Dan van Voorhis

03/27/19

Always Preach the Law, if Necessary Use Words

In our own lives, we might find that the Law is not an alien word, whether we call it our conscience or our values, our Holy Writ, or our municipality’s laws and regulations

Donavon Riley

03/26/19

Come to Me...and I Will Give You Rest

No matter what happens, whether failure, pain, or discouragement, Jesus says, “Come to me... and I will give you rest"

Donavon Riley

03/19/19

The War for Our Freedom

The lack of Gospel or abundance of Gospel and Christ’s gifts, more than anything else, determines whether we’ll be overrun by sin, death, and hell

Chad Bird

03/14/19

So You Don't Like Your Pastor

Pastors are built from the same stuff as everyone else. That’s good, and that’s bad.

Dan van Voorhis

03/13/19

I Confess: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and the Gospel

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy works for me, not because it substitutes a temporal and flimsy antidote to my problems but because it points me to the God who has adopted and baptized me

Daniel Emery Price

03/08/19

You Can't Baptize Hedonism

“There is no obedience that does not have its eyes on either God or neighbor. An obedience that is motivated by what we will get out of it is no obedience at all.”

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