Helmut Thielicke had lived on the borderline between life and death enduring a life-threatening illness in his youth and confronting the perpetually present carnage of World War Two. He ministered to a skeptical generation that teetered on the borderline between faith and unbelief.
As Christians, we are given another future. It is not a posthuman epic, but a future given us in the resurrection of the One who is both God and man from the dead, our Lord Jesus Christ.
Behind the preacher stands Christ Jesus. Preachers listen to Jesus so that, in turn, they may preach Him, and their congregations may hear the voice of the Good Shepherd from the mouths of their pastors.
All Christian preaching is done in view of the eschatological horizon as we proclaim the Lord who will return as the Judge of all in glory who can no longer be contradicted or denied.
Those who have gone before us in the faith have no more need of absolution, for their baptisms have been brought to completion and they are eternally free from sin and done with death.
If we take the article of justification out of the center, very soon we will not know why we are evangelical Christians or should remain so.-Hans J. Iwand