This is an excerpt from Chapter 6 in Sinner Saint: A Surprising Primer to the Christian Life (1517 Publishing, 2025). Sinner Saint is available today from 1517 Publishing.
On its journey from Byzantium to Constantinople to Istanbul, this special place helps us understand the broader arc of Christian history, which goes on until Christ's return.
We needn’t fear statistics and studies as palm readings into a certain future. God is God, and his Spirit is alive through his Word.

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Christian freedom and Christian love go together in a most wonderful way.
For since it was not enough that the Lord of heaven and earth hung on our every word, the Word came down from heaven and hung upon the cross.
The Devil cultivates fear of God and promotes motivation and zeal for outward works and earthly virtue out of pure eternal self-concern.
The following excerpt comes from Chapter 7, “When Love Repents Us,” in Chad Bird’s new book, Night Driving: Notes from a Prodigal Soul.
The devil tempts us to hope in things that we can do.
Whether we realize it or not, all these online, self-editing actions are nothing more than our admission that we believe that we are so deeply flawed that no one will love us just as we are.
God’s justification of us does not happen secretly in our spirits. God justifies you and me in His absolving Word
In Christ we are freed to be for our neighbor without fear of sin and damnation falling upon us.
We’re by nature counters. So long as we can add, subtract, multiply and divide something, anything, we have some measure of control and comparison.
So bondage meets freedom, and God becomes our Master through Christ.
Luther contends that even our best spiritual, theological, and moral efforts are insufficient to save us.
Rather than presenting Christ’s words as a rule or a threat, Luther reveals it to be the promise of God.