1517 Blogcast

It seems to me that our greatest task is not that of seeking skills and methods whereby we can inject power into the gospel, but simply to beware lest we obscure the power that the gospel is.

Christ is not an idea. He isn’t a concept. He isn’t a religious notion or sentiment. He isn’t a product. He is the Savior, flesh and blood,

Jesus is the anti-Cain: a giver, not a taker.

The German Bible made Sola Scriptura a reality for all believers.

Luther's September Testament not only shaped the reformers’ theology but also was as big an influence on the German language as Shakespeare was for …

This is an excerpt from  “The Pastoral Prophet: Meditations on the Book of Jeremiah” written by Steve Kruschel (1517 Publishing, 2019).

It’s the notion of mercy that leads us to the atonement, and it is the atonement that provides a foundational basis for the justification of sinners.

The one who embodies the dove, that is, the Holy Spirit will be mounted upon the staff of Calvary.

Increasingly, to forgive is seen as winking at evil, as shrugging one’s moral shoulders, and as being complicit.

The power of the Word of God is the power of God himself, for he is always faithful to his Word.

A group of unassuming apostles was given a graphic illustration of how the Lord would use them to turn the world right-side-up through the …

Being the baptized just may be the last, great resistance.

Good, we tend to think, is the absence of evil. But this reversal of the formula can only have disastrous consequences.

When you see the Ichthus you see what Christians have seen for thousands of years: a picture that confesses, communicates, and teaches us the love of God in Christ Jesus his Son, our Savior.

Don't lose hope. Don't avoid church on Sunday morning.

The legal record of debt for our sin was canceled because Jesus satisfied the legal demands for us by his life, death, and resurrection.

Walking in the light entails not so much a spotless moral record, but rather an honest appraisal of who we are.

If you are going to lose your life for the gospel’s sake, you must begin by hearing it. 

Our value and our values, our life, our everything is from Jesus Christ given to us as a gift. 

 God is consistently rooting us in reality—both what is seen and unseen—because that is where he is.

How does Hezekiah respond when the enemy came knocking on his door?

When we confess that we believe in God and his saving work for us in Jesus, we also confess a reality about ourselves as sinful people and about God …

We bring nothing with us that contributes to the preaching or the hearing of God’s promise to us.

God’s goodness spoke a promise of peace and mercy to the bewildered, a promise that rings out to this day.

Our challenge today is to inspire trust and curiosity so this generation will openly ask the question, who speaks the words of truth?

At the heart of The Idiot is Dostoevsky's confession of faith and the confession of all Christians.

Faith is like a horse with blinders because it only beholds God’s promise. It is obsessed with what God has already said.

Gregory is a bridge between the patristic age and the medieval.

Cyril’s fervor for pure explication of the gospel was present throughout his career.

We cannot overstate that no person outside the Bible has been as influential to Christian theology as Augustine.

Origen is wrong about stuff, but he had the foresight to say that if he was wrong, he was open to correction.

You will not be disappointed in this Champion of the Incarnation.

Finding the balance between indifferentism and obsessiveness has never been easy, and it’s especially difficult in our environment.

Sometimes I think we should be more tempted to laugh at the gospel than we are, not in derision but in sheer surprise and awe.

The law drops us dead at the feet of Jesus so that Jesus can raise us from the dead.

 Perfect obedience. Perfect atonement. All the perfection we need, Jesus attained.

To return to Marx then, with the Bible, we can say that man is not simply a material being but a being of address.

This week, we are grateful to publish a series of sermons from our beloved late Chaplain, Ron Hodel. This is the fifth installment of that series.

This week, we are grateful to publish a series of sermons from our beloved late Chaplain, Ron Hodel. This is the fourth installment of that series.

God has a plan for this world that he put into place from eternity, a plan that is carried out in Jesus Christ and promises unimaginably great blessings for believers.

This week, we are grateful to publish a series of sermons from our beloved late Chaplain, Ron Hodel. This is the second installment of that series.

This week, we are grateful to publish a series of sermons from our beloved late Chaplain, Ron Hodel. This is the first installment of that series.

Our only hope in life and death is that God loves sinners, who fail and forget constantly, with a love that is just as constant.

That on Pentecost God’s Spirit should function through a dozen seeming inebriates should be no surprise when this same God saves through the ignominy …

The relationship between faith and prayer or belief and worship is mutual. Faith produces prayer and prayer expresses faith.

In the face of abject evil, these two faithfully cling to the words and truths of he alone who is Good, Jehovah God.

The list of things our kids need to know when they leave the house is much simpler than we might believe.

If you want something empty, the tomb is the way to go. The point of the manger is that Jesus was in it. The point of the cross is that Jesus was on it.

I trust that because of the gospel, God will continue to mend what I, in my sin, continue to break.

1517 would not exist without the leadership, friendship, and faithfulness of Pastor Ron Hodel.

Jesus does not put us on trial and make us pay for our own sin, but he, himself, is put on trial in our place.

The point Luther made, again and again, was that distance between God and sinners is collapsed when the crucified Christ himself comes to sinners …

Armed with great analogies, airtight logic, and razor sharp wit, Lewis keeps you spellbound from one chapter to another as you find yourself going “further up and further in.”

Darkness is not your only friend. Jesus loves you, and he will be with you.

God’s gifts, in turn, conform our minds to the mind of Christ, and catechize our imagination in the image of God’s Son.

God thus excludes our boasting out of his abundant mercy.

But make no mistake, sinners are in fact being pursued by a most hideous beast called sin, death, and the devil, unleashed and striking continuously.

Nothing stands against you. Only Christ stands now, and he is for you, more for you than you could ever know, for you like nothing else that has ever …

The God who abundantly restores is still in the business of total restoration, even today. Even now the God of heaven restores dead sinners to life. 

Every part of Jesus’ encounter with Mary Magdalene in John 20 was incredibly intentional and personal for God to systematically redeem what was lost.

Almost a year after entering the monastery, on May 2nd, Cantate Sunday, in the year 1507, Luther celebrated his first Mass.

This is an excerpt from “A Shepherd’s Letter” written by Bo Giertz and translated by Bror Erickson (1517 Publishing, 2022).

Baptism is not the moment God judges our true, inner hearts. He already knows all about that, and it isn’t good.

This book is not in your hands so that we can simply commiserate with each other’s difficulties. It is meant to pierce your sin-darkened night with …

While so much remains the same week after week, the past years have taught me how much changes. And I kind of like it.

To help us navigate the psalms, probe their depths, and untangle their mysteries, we need wise guides

God has found a way to be God even for the likes of us. He has found a way to save sinners.

Today, Maundy Thursday, we receive the feast of Christ’s true body and blood for us, for the forgiveness of our sins. All of them.

Christ has come to make every last aspect of your life the object of his eternal, never-ending, always transitive grace.

The Savior wasn’t always forthright with his intentions behind using and relaying certain parabolic narratives. This he did not because he relished …

Easter must be seen in light of the cross. It must never overshadow Good Friday. They are a packaged deal!

Great things are contained in these seemingly unimportant words: "Behold, your king." Such boundless gifts are brought by this poor and despised …

Scott Hall may not have been a theologian or a preacher but for me, at that moment he might as well have been.

It is good to remember that this true story, is also beautiful.

False holiness is always a possession and achievement of the individual in isolation from the good of others. And so it isn’t holiness at all.

What grace is this? It’s grace from Christ, who often seizes us when we least expect it, even through the hands of His enemies.

The promise here is that God is present with us in our troubles, issuing commands to save us before we ask. God does not ignore our suffering and cries.

When you are stripped down to nothing, desperate, lowly, you will again know what she knows: the crumbs are enough, Jesus is enough, for you.

We cannot love first. Therefore God comes, takes hold of the heart, and says: "Learn to know me."

Sometimes it’s important to go far away to learn of holy places back home.

God is often hidden in history, even as we make it now, but He is always manifest where He has promised to be.

Lent means that we do not have to look to ourselves but can look to our neighbor in love as Christ has loved us.

You can die now, you can let go, and because that is true, you can begin to live!

For Luther, those who refuse Christ as a curse want their sin removed not in Christ but in themselves.

When we own up to our sin, our Father is not scandalized, and his response is not to reconsider his calling us.

Confession is not another ecclesiastical bludgeon but is instead a gift. There we can tell the truth about ourselves, knowing that Christ has only mercy for us in response.

God is mercy. He was mercy then. He’s mercy now. God showed them His glory, if only a reflection, in the face of Moses.

This is the patient love of God. He is stubborn about the salvation of sinners. He will not be rushed even if his name is mocked, and the trustworthiness of his promises are called into question.

Christ powerless on the Cross is where the false definitions of glory theologies are exposed and everything is turned upside down.

The firestorm of the Reformation which turned Europe upside-down was not Luther’s doing. It was the Word, and the Spirit working through it.

Luther’s confessions and writings during that time demonstrated the diagnosis of the problem he faced had always been the same.

God saves us through people. He saves us through means. He puts a voice on the gospel.

Only in Christ has God taken upon himself the worst that could ever happen between God and man: he has allowed himself to be rejected.

Maybe it was because I read this book to put myself to sleep. But maybe the lack of any Christian references was part of my sadness.

The problem with sin is that we fail to honor God who wants to take our hearts captive and fill us with his goodness.

I finally watched the film “Encanto” with my kids. I had heard many people say the subtext of this movie was deeper than most. So, we snuggled up on the couch and watched it to see what everyone was talking about.

The language of faith speaks promise and persecution, hope and trial, victory and pain. The language of the world may well speak the former, but rarely the latter.

An immense amount of ink has been spilled contesting and interpreting Bonhoeffer's significance as a figure of Christian history and a theologian of …

The world we inhabit is wrong in so many ways, and a holistic approach to this “wrongness” traces its cause both to sin itself and to the effects of …

Rest doesn’t come cheap. Perhaps there’s no scarcer commodity in our time. Plenty sell it, but there’s no warranty, and it seldom lasts.

When we read a good story, we sojourn with the characters and authors upon the trail of longing. Such is the pilgrim’s path.

The sword of the spirit in Holy Scripture does indeed show us our sin, but thanks be to God, it also shows us our Savior.

Our hope is God's mercy. It's like a well that never dries up. His mercies were there before he created us. They are present for us today.

If we think God’s power, love and beauty are reserved merely for the glories of Transfiguration, then we have not understood the Father; we have not understood divine revelation.

Here, robed in Word and Sacrament, is your King, infant though He be, come out of eternity into time to bring you out of time and into eternity.

Our children are not our own, but even more, our children are born in need. They are sinful, from conception and from birth.

I write this as someone who’s genuinely concerned that American congregants are getting bamboozled by preachers who are giving them less than what they need Sunday after Sunday.

At its heart, this is what Deacon King Kong is all about: the paradox of Jesus carving his victory out of the last thing we expect, not our triumphs but our defeats.

Our only claim to fame is that we have been claimed by a God who is consistently drawn to losers!

You are not in debt to sin. You don’t owe it anything. There’s no reason for you to serve it.

Meeting the crown prince is one thing; meeting God in the flesh, as the Light of the Gentiles and the Savior of the world is another.

The church’s song goes on and on, singing and ringing down to us today.

Kelsi Klembara and Daniel Emery Price have a conversation with Scott Keith about the incarnation and why it matters. They are then joined by Blake Flattley to discuss the hymns of Christmas and the new Christmas EP …

Let us ponder the Son, the precious Son of God, given as a ransom and sacrifice for us, that we too might be called children of God.

Gideon’s “foolish” weaponry of clay jars and shofars will give way to the Messiah’s “foolish” ways of doing things, for his weapons will be humility, …

Isaiah speaks to our time. He speaks to our rejoicing now and an anticipated joy-filled future. Christ’s coming, Christmas, brings them both.

Because of Christ, we find safety and healing in the light. Because of Christ, we do not have to be afraid of the truth that his light reveals.

We don’t have to worry about deserving, earning, or reciprocating his gifts. Our Lord doesn’t give us what we deserve. We are given what he deserves, what Jesus has won for us.

Moses was sent to keep the house in order, but this Child is sent to bring the house home, and you are part of that house, the household of God.

He also took our own history and suffered all the agony and pain of our own lives. 

This is an excerpt from Chapter 27 in “Pastor Craft: Essays and Sermons” written by John T. Pless (1517 Publishing, 2021).

The thought of losing even one of those for whom his Son died pains God beyond belief, and the angels rejoice when even one of his children repents.

So what, if anything, makes us different from those who are waiting on the grassy knoll in Dallas, TX? Can we be any more sure of our belief in the …

Jesus is both the image bearer and the image giver. In Jesus’ incarnation we are redeemed and re-imaged.

Christ, who is without sin, became sin. How did he do that? He had an incarnate body, which he did not spare

“The days are coming,” and God said it. God, who kept his promise that Christ would come at Christmas.

There is no other transitionary event in human history that warrants three full months of focused attention and persistent acknowledgment than the …

If Jesus is indeed the same yesterday, today, and forever, everything his enfleshment brings is already assured: life, salvation, and forgiveness.

In this meal, we have communion with him and with all of those who have and who will partake in it.

In the Lord’s Thanksgiving Supper, we are not served turkey, green bean casserole, and cornbread. We are served Christ.

The Word of Yahweh is not a trifling thing that can be visited only when it’s convenient. It’s a book of life, for all of life, that imparts life to those who believe in it and the God of it. 

Forgiveness of sins does not come in bits and pieces. There are no levels of forgiveness.

The Reformation was yet another era of history when God’s people were faced with the question that Jesus asked his disciples: “Who do you say that I am?”

We won’t use the right words, but the Holy Spirit is interceding with and for us, as we pray.

Reading, understanding, and studying Scripture is a life-long process of contemplation in conversation with others.

A Sermon on Psalm 130:3–6.

Our experience with good fathers – even when they are not our own – can point us to God the Father.

Jesus meets us in our life of lies, in our falsehoods, in the untruth of our being, and in the company, we create to cover up our nakedness.

Grace and mercy are a powerful act of the Almighty God. God alone can grant forgiveness and restoration, salvation from the sorrow of this world.

What do Habakkuk and Israel have? Nothing but the word of God. Nothing but the promise of God. Nothing but God himself.

In contrast to the human courts of our land, the Divine court never makes errors nor excuses

The same Spirit who gives us his overabundant life has also given us doctrine. Scripture and Spirit cannot be put in opposition to each other.

The tragedy of the incidental Christ I was raised with is that he was really no Savior at all.

One could reason that God might, at least, give the church a little worldly power.

Erasmus sought to find meaning behind the words of Scripture in order to make an ultimate claim. Luther, on the other hand, found the Gospel to be …

While the insights in each chapter are uniquely personal to the individual writers, the overarching theme is one of the sufficiency of Christ.

Forty-five seconds is about how long I have as a pastor leading a Sunday morning service to sit at the feet of the cross and receive Jesus’ body and blood given to me by the hands of another at the Lord’s Table.

When we — sinful, reprehensible we — become the enforcers of justice, we never bring about true justice. We either go too far or not far enough.

Jesus came from the heights of heaven above to the depths of earth below to rescue and redeem his long-lost love.

Luther understood when the Word of God came it did not offer sinners a choice.

Christ has taken our failures and defeats and exchanges that yoke for his own.

Even if not a turning point, 1518 is a point of no return for Luther.

 The Son of God is still God the Son in the Incarnation.

The way to salvation does not consist in works invented by men, but that which leads to God is believing and trusting in Him.

Martha’s pain is not met by a to-do list. Jesus’ reply is not that she should try harder or change her behavior

Bo Giertz attained infamy in Sweden for a humble adherence to unpopular, orthodox practice and doctrine.

Our Lord is not only the King of creation but the King of creativity.

God and Jeremiah may have been looking at the same person, but they were seeing very different things.

 Grace does not emancipate us from any requirement of obedience. Rather, grace allows Jesus to be obedient on our behalf that the righteous demands …

There are plenty of reasons why you do not already do whatever you want out of fear of the law, and you will find these reasons persist and remain long after the gospel has its way with you.

The goal of language in the mouth of a Christian isn’t to hold power for ourselves but to give it.

Except for the Augsburg Confession, Melanchthon’s Loci communes of 1521 were the most important of his writings.

We shouldn't be surprised that God chose to work through two seemingly opposite people, however, because God always chooses to work in the ways we …

For Luther, Erasmus’ Christ-less, Spirit-less theological conclusions demonstrated that behind his supposed humanistic optimism lay a profound …

God’s word is creative in both the imaginative sense and the constructive sense. It brings things into existence and displays new ideas, images, and concepts we did not previously perceive.

The essence of sin is man substituting himself for God, while the essence of salvation is God substituting himself for man.

Despite his trust in empiricism, throughout his life, Locke never entirely let go of the inspired Scriptures—or perhaps more accurately, the Scriptures never let go of him.

The night has passed and the day broken. In response to the morning dawn, birds sing, beasts arouse themselves and all humanity arises.

For all mankind, the answer is terrifically simple and remains the same: God wants to turn us towards the cross and then turn us back to our neighbors.

It turns out that when Elijah battled depression, God sent someone to just be with him. To comfort him.

Although God is always closer to us than the nose on our face, he has not taken the wraps off and given any sinful and mortal human being a …

Calvary is our mountain of pardon. It is the place which reveals most definitively God’s plan to redeem and reconcile sinners to himself.

This spiritual giant of the Middle Ages is worth considering on this anniversary of his death.

He picks the unexpected and the unlikely, and goes to the unforeseen places, stacking the odds against himself, in order that age after age might stand in open-mouthed wonder at his sovereignty in and over all things.

What God created, God will grow. We don’t add a few stitches onto his creation.

The grace of God does not save us at the beginning only in order to keep ourselves in his good graces by our good enough readiness.

Green is the color for “ordinary time” in the liturgical church year. It's the regular time of year that always gets overshadowed by other seasons …

Erasmus laid out his argument for a theology of grace and free will in much the same way modern Protestants have done since the Enlightenment.

As long as the church teaches the gospel, it will suffer persecution.

For sinners who cannot seem to get out of their own way, Dane’s brings to bear the gospel of Christ’s heart, which aerates one’s spiritual lungs with undiluted grace.

Urchin at War is now available from 1517 Publishing.

Baptism is always valid because no unrighteousness or faithlessness on our part could nullify God’s faithfulness.

I am cognizant of the powerful lessons for life I owe to those nights in the air-raid shelter.

God will give you more than you can handle. But he doesn’t leave you alone. Not at all.

Luther's response to Erasmus was not meant to be a polite contribution to an academic duel.

The reason the mind is endlessly troubled about God predestining everything is the vague generalization. Generalizations are cold as ice, without the …

It isn’t that God struggles to believe our repeated cries of “wolf.” Rather, we struggle to believe God when he repeatedly comes to us with …

The Psalms aren’t the clandestine successes of a faithful soul, but are the journaled hopes of a desperate soul — of one teetering on the edge of …

We are not saved by the success of our refining process. We are saved precisely because our impurities, no matter what the percentage, ruin the …

Luther’s allies and opponents also would not allow him to put off responding to Erasmus indefinitely. They badgered him constantly to write a …

The Church is where God has instituted the office of the preacher of the gospel. And if you are let-down, the gospel is what you need to hear.

Ascertaining the what and how of the Church greatly factor into the very purpose of the Church, that is, they essentially answer the question why the Church?

This is an excerpt from the introduction of “Urchin at War: Volume 1” by Uwe Siemon-Netto (1517 Publishing, 2021).

Through the often abominable and lamentable and occasional commendable season, there is one who remains unmoved by it all.

The Christ Key: Unlocking the Centrality of Christ in the Old Testament by Chad Bird is now available to order

We do not have to endure the pain and suffering of this fallen existence forever, just for a little while.

When we read about Noah, we are reading backward to Adam and forward to Jesus.

Blessed are we, for we are filled by the cornucopia of Christ’s righteousness.

God’s love is axiomatic; it just is. It’s a truism without a logical explanation.

But Jesus didn’t see it that way. He saw his arrest not as the kingdom’s program being thwarted but as it being “fulfilled.”

The acquisition of salvation, the giving of salvation, and the keeping of salvation are entirely dependent upon the Savior himself.

Questions of our purpose and significance as a church abound with fewer and fewer people in the pews.

What Luther is doing in his Catechism is teaching how the gospel is an action of the whole Trinity, not just one of the persons.

The only one rightful heir of the kingdom of God, inherits from us, our cross, and descends into the kingdom of the damned.

Jesus did not come because we had our act together. He came because we couldn’t get our act together.

The giver of life, the source of joy, stands weeping together with the human family as they grieve under the curse of sin.

With Jesus, troubles and sorrows, problems and worries, heartbreak and mourning are gathered up like left-over crumbs from a feast marking the celebration of victory over the enemy's forces.

We can not give our Heavenly Father anything that will make him love us more or less. He gives and we receive.

The reformers were compelled to confess the true faith and challenge corrupt practices—this is what the Augsburg Confession is about.

God invites you to confess the skeletons in your closet so that he might bury them in the grave for good.

The story of Juneteenth is one of living between proclamation and emancipation, and the story of the Christian faith is one of living in that same tension.

Christian hope means always hope in God and hope in Christ simultaneously without distinction.

The only one truly blessed of God, who in himself is God’s incarnate makarios, surrounds himself with a multitude of the accursed, the non-makarios.

We continue to run the race, knowing the victory has been won and given to us through Christ Jesus.

It is not her sacrifices that define Jane's faith, but her belief in the one who sacrificed for her.

This is an edited excerpt from “The Pastoral Prophet: Meditations on the Book of Jeremiah” written by Steve Kruschel (1517 Publishing, 2019).

That a celestial phenomenon should be appropriated worldwide for iconic value or to illustrate a mythological legend makes perfect sense. One cannot …

Some of our 1517 staff members have shared what they are looking forward to reading in the coming months below. If you’re looking for titles to fill …

Jesus comes to you. He binds your wounds, and he pours out his body and his blood for the forgiveness of your sins.

This is an excerpt from “Hermeneutics in Romans: Paul’s Approach to Reading the Bible” written by Timo Laato (1517 Publishing, 2021). Now available …

Everyone is living as a naked sufferer who’s been duped into believing that the nakedness of suffering has to be covered up.

God daily broadsides us with his abundant power and glory as we observe nature around us. And yet, as glorious as this book of nature is, it is not enough.

The one true God has revealed himself as the answer to the longings of every human heart. The search has ended. He is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. …

If you and I were to examine our own lives, we’d likely have to admit that we are frequent disciples of Jeroboam’s “bootleg religion.”

God bestows faith that it should deal not with ordinary things, but with things no human being can master such as death, sin, the world, and Satan.

The law is good and holy but so often when we are “shoulding” on one another, we actually are just going to end up “burning” each other’s fields.

The Holy Spirit is sent, not to talk about himself, but to point us to Jesus.

Pentecost reminds us of not only what happened on that day described in Acts 2 but what is happening every day: the Spirit of God working in and through God’s people, according to his word.

You and I have a God who pardons all our wrongdoing by taking all of them onto himself. He doesn’t zap us into oblivion at the first sign of rebellion.

Sin, death, and Satan may have had more than a puncher's chance to beat us, but when God stepped into the ring, they should have admitted defeat and …

If the Risen Christ is ushering in a new kingdom and a new creation, then maybe we shouldn’t be surprised to see some earth-shaking and mind-blowing …

By his initiative alone, he remakes our hearts to love him and others unselfishly.

The whole point of Church is to be in a place that hands over the gifts and promises of Jesus Christ to dirty rotten sinners who are in desperate …

In Christ, we live beneath an open heaven having the definitive proof in the cross of Christ that God is outrageously for us, not against us.

We confess the ascension of Christ every Sunday in the words of the both the Apostles’ and the Nicene Creed.

Death may speak, and its voice may sound authoritative and decisive. Nonetheless, it is a mere whimper from the grave.

We all know what I think (maybe) Rachel knows: Celebrating ourselves isn’t enough. It won’t ever be enough.

This is an excerpt from the introduction of Ragged: Spiritual Disciplines for the Spiritually Exhausted written by Gretchen Ronnevik (1517 Publishing, 2021), 122-125. Now available for preorder.

Absolution is the word God speaks to cause his sin-dead creation to live.

God leads us to the refuge that’s more secure and safe than any man-made thing, more than anything we own, more than anything that owns us.

Those called out for their sins, who find themselves knee deep in their transgressions, always need grace. 

When we come to God with our faithful obedience to make a case for our just cause, we expect to hear his deliverance in the form of a "yes."

People are searching for connection, direction, and hope in a troubled world, and we can use their star-shaped questions to point them to the shape of the cross.

The result of this day’s proceedings, in Luther’s mind, was likely to be a painful death at the stake.

Despite our continual choice to accept the devil's offer, the Lord still provides for us so that we, "shall neither hunger nor thirst."

Forde’s work testifies to the liveliness and vitality of confessional Lutheranism, and its promise for the continuing need to preach Christ crucified in this, and every, age until the Lord’s return.

The Holy Spirit does what his name implies. He makes us holy. We believe in Jesus Christ, our Lord, and come to him only by the Holy Spirit who calls …

Jesus’s touch of this leper is the touchstone of the gospel itself. It’s a living parable of his entire ministry.

The cross is not some mystic metaphor for the change we must undergo before our self-realization, but the earth-shattering event that changed the course of eternity.

We will always need comfort until the reign of God, his kingdom, comes in full with Christ’s return, and our suffering and the sin that causes it is …

You have this Shepherd who knows your voice, your cry, your incessant baaing.

Jesus offers to the anxious soul the one thing it ironically wants: certainty of the good.

God loves you no matter what. Loves you no matter how many times you have screwed up. Loves you to death, he does.

Tomorrow Jesus will laugh his way out of the tomb, spit in the face of death, and kick the devil in the throat as he dances to the clapping glee of angelic masses. But today he just rests. It is the final Sabbath of God.

The cross offends so much that the only way for it to free you is to stop looking at it and have it preached.

Good Friday encompasses the silence of God, even as it focuses on our salvation in the cross of Christ.

I can look at all of my failings and foolishness because I know who Christ is for me. I rest in his wisdom and life not my own.

This is not a plea for us to be given the strength to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps. It is our helpless cry when boots – straps and all - …

All of my theological endeavoring will not squeeze one more ounce of grace from God.

God throws our worship and deeds back down upon us as gifts.

The true liberty that Christ gives to us through the gospel is not political. It is spiritual freedom. It is freedom from fear of God's judgment and …

If sin is only a matter of “doing,” then “undoing” and/or “redoing” would serve as the equivalent savior necessary to find redemption.

Ultimately, there is only one Lord of the Universe, and he does not share power. If Jesus is Lord, Caesar is not.

Being able to tell the difference between truth and lies is at the core of repentance.

The petition not to be led into temptation is found in just the right place within the seven petitions.

Though envy whispers to us that peace can only be found by “keeping up,” Jesus whispers to us a better word: “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest."

When you walk into church on Sunday, you may not notice, but there are wounded soldiers sitting in every single pew.

If Jesus is better than Moses, then everything changes. If Jesus is better than Moses, then the ultimate becomes the penultimate.

Jesus lives to intercede. So we needn’t bring him our feigned righteousness or our faux rehabilitation.

Repentance means being cut down by the law’s declaration of judgment. It’s not an activity we do to prepare for grace, but a point of despair worked by God himself.

If we want to see evidence of our Father’s answer to the Fifth Petition, we need only to look at the cross and the empty tomb.

Our ears are opened by the Spirit through the word. Then, faith in Christ is present in us.

In Defense of Christian Ritual from 1517 Publishing is now available for purchase.

There is joy in Lent, but it is the kind of joy that comes in being made whole.

It’s not the disciples’ faith that invented the resurrection but the resurrection that gave birth to the disciples’ faith.

In schools and on barstools and in delis and where two or three gather, your Savior turns you loose to encounter those who are delightful and …

Even though the horn of plenty on our table is there as the fruit of our labor, that is also a gift of God’s grace.

God preserves language so he might continue to communicate his love and grace to us, and that we might communicate his love and grace to others.

Apathy, melancholy, and disillusionment plague the footsteps of the up-and-coming generations more than ever, especially in the realm of religion, …

Nostalgia is a looter who impoverishes us of the truth that God is in our midst right now.

When it comes to the Book of Concord, there are really two types of people: those who read the contents and see a series of rap albums, and those who aren’t Flame.

Repentance comes on account of suffering, loss, failure, and death. It happens when the promise of forgiveness of sin given in Jesus’ death is proclaimed to us down-and-outers.

The “Word” isn’t a thing, it is a person, the Son of the Father, who with the Holy Spirit is one God.

The place where it is most difficult for us to accept God’s will is when suffering, calamities, and finally, death itself.

Yes, Adam and Eve both participated in sin. This was a joint effort of the two genders of mankind. They are both sinners. But the first sin wasn't letting the serpent in the garden.

The Bible is a book for the desperate. That is its target audience. Recognizing our desperation readies us to hear the consolation that only God’s …

The forgiveness of your sins and your reconciliation with God the Father courtesy of Christ’s cross and blood is gifted to you, for you.

We cannot scan any random passage of Scripture and automatically assume the words are unconditionally addressed to us. Often, very often, they are not.

The kingdom of God has a proper name, and his name is Jesus, Son of God, Son of Man.

Ash Wednesday, is meant to remind us we have a death problem. All living things made from the soil shall return to it.

Jesus Christ is our peace because he doesn't criticize us. He declares us freed from our perceptions to accept the truth about ourselves.

Jesus is coming again to renew all things. It may seem somewhat hidden right now, but make no mistake, hope abides.

This second word—the gospel—is not something more to be done, but something to be believed. Which is to say, it is received through faith.

The paradoxical Puritan doctrines of an inability to convert oneself and the command to work out one’s salvation with fear and trembling placed …

Our prayer confesses that God’s abode is beyond us, yet ever so near for the prayer presupposes that we are being heard, even in our sighs and whispers.

We can celebrate what others consider mundane and ordinary because it's miraculous. After all, it's God-given.

"A Lutheran Toolkit" is available for purchase today from 1517 Publishing

God’s plans and purposes for this world aren’t dependent upon us. They’re dependent upon him. This means our faith is liberated.

God is not what we experience him to be, what our emotions narrate him to be, or what our intuition thinks he might be. God is what and who he says he is.

Regardless of my experience, my talents, or even my mood, it’s these gifts of Christ that I have to give away. They are all I have, and they are everything.

Our anxiety about the future is a consequence of our old self’s attempts to achieve freedom for himself apart from Christ Jesus.

So, what do we pray? What do we say? In times of fear, in times of chaos, in unprecedented times, we pray and say the words that have been written on our hearts. 

Your forgiveness means you are in God’s favor, and no matter what tomorrow brings, God’s face is shining upon you, and he is gracious to you. Whether you live or you die, you belong to the Lord. 

And because Jesus on the cross was sin in its entirety, God cannot look at him. He turns his face away, causing Jesus to cry out in utmost agony, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”

From the womb to the tomb, from the cradle to the grave, Jesus’ name defines and describes who he is and what he is all about.

As a parent listens for the cry of a hurting child, our heavenly Father waits for our cry of weal and woe.

Out of great pain and suffering often comes goodness, beauty, and truth. John Donne, born on the 22th of January in 1573, is an excellent example of …

Has the modern world taken too strong a dose of the gospel as its inheritance from the Reformation?

When God cancels you, it is an occasion for all of the canceled who are in heaven and earth to rejoice in that one more is added to our number.  

From Professor Rosenbladt, I learned to see the grace of God in Christ crucified on every page of Scripture. From Professor Tolkien, I learned to see …

Freedom and reconciliation were significant themes for both of the Martin Luthers.

In our transactional view of our faith - “If I don’t… then God won’t.” “I need to, so God can” - we are seriously underestimating who we are dealing with.

The law is for this world, not for determining your ultimate destination beyond life.

Good works do not give us a righteousness that exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees. Rather, good works result from righteousness given by the …

This year, I’m more excited for Epiphany than I am for Christmas.

Perhaps this past year has prompted the recognition that God is not the tame projection of our highest hopes and dreams. Instead, he is the one who uses even his foes to make a point.

The church does well to remind the world that God is unmasked, indeed, that God has unmasked himself in the person of Jesus.

The setting for Luke 2 is the first century analog to my backyard. The stage is dressed with rust and decay, guilt and shame, sin and death.

Fred Rogers did not teach children how to live through a pandemic, but he had many profound things to say about loving our neighbors and finding our identity in that calling.

Christmas-time is the bold proclamation that God was born to save sinners.

God's Word is the final word on you, and his claim on you as his people, his children, is the ultimate claim.

The story, poem, and hymn have an even deeper level which resonates with me this year.

The Holy Spirit also waits with us as he did with Simeon.

People do not seek the gospel because they want to, but because God’s Word drives them to it.

I hope this Christmastime affords ample opportunities for you to publish the Good News of Jesus Christ.

The way through loneliness will lie in the blessing of solitude and the care of God.

Sometimes the peace that passes understanding is pretty hard to understand.   

When all seems hopeless and lost, God is doing his great and gracious work, often hidden from our eyes.

Advent is not a call to prepare to engage in a transaction with God.

 The well-meaning advice “time heals all wounds” is offensively false when we confront the overwhelming evidence that the constants in our lives are death, taxes, and suffering.

His feast day on December 14 commemorates the day of his death in 1591, at the height of the Catholic renewal movement that followed the Reformation.

During Advent, leading up to Christmas, we tend to jump to the end of the story.

It turns out the family trait of not being able to wait runs deep and wide in the family of God. We do foolish things while we wait for promises to …

The proclamation of Christ's coming is for all people, at all times

On this day in the year 1093, Anselm was consecrated as the archbishop of Canterbury.

How do you handle the combination of waiting for things you want and trusting in promises for something with which you have no experience?

The Church is always in Advent, and every Christian constantly lives in Advent

If the proclamation of that Gospel of Christ through our work at 1517 is important to you, too, please support us financially today.

We are given, so we give thanks, and we give thanks by giving.

The closer we want to get to God, the more self-centered and shallow we will become trying to get there.

In reality faith and hope are barely discernible one from the other, yet there is a certain difference between them.

Life includes suffering that we will have to endure. Life will not go as planned nor as we would hope, but "God's love has been poured into our …

The following is an excerpt from “The Christian Life: Cross or Glory” written by Steven A. Hein (1517 Publishing, 2015).

Jesus overcame sin, death, and Satan on the cross. His bloody suffering and death marked this sinful world's defeat.

We are both “guilty of dust and sin” and totally exonerated as worthy guests in the eyes of Love.

Although theirs is an impressive show of faith, the display of God’s faithfulness to them is far greater. After all, faith is only as strong as the …

The following is an adaptation from Law and Gospel in Action written by Mark Mattes (1517 Publishing, 2019).

Unlike human marriage, which is marred by sin, Jesus never seeks to divorce us due to irreconcilable differences.

Paul says to let the word of Christ dwell in you richly (Col 3:16). Not poorly. Not meagerly. Not just enough. But richly. My prayer is that …

The gospel promise proclaims that we are each a precious child of God.

Now more than ever, it's good to take a closer look at the Christian confession about evil, pain, and suffering. 

Whoever your president is, you have a King. A king who elected you.

This new life is marked not by fear of death but hope in eternal life.

This is an excerpt from Unveiling Mercy: 365 Daily Devotions Based on Insights from Old Testament Hebrew written by Chad Bird (1517 Publishing, 2020). Used with permission.

This earth is not the place where your promise is to be found. Rejoice because the kingdom of God comes to you!

The parable of the wedding banquet in Matthew hinges on whether a guy is wearing the right costume for the party.

God uses the fifth commandment to protect us from selfishness, prevent us from only thinking about our needs, and to drive us to Christ and our neighbors.

This is an adaptation of the introduction from “In Defense of Martin Luther”written by John Warwick Montgomery (1517 Publishing, 2017). Used with permission.

It’s so easy to slip into thinking about forgiveness solely in terms of our authority over it.

Jesus will strengthen and encourage us because he is true life, and life has defeated death.

We now stand holy and blameless before our Heavenly Father as his own dear children, and we are set free to serve our neighbor in love.

Satan and the old Adam don't want Jesus to bear our crosses for us because that means we can't claim that we've done anything to merit God's mercy …

Christ crucified is at the heart of both our freedom from sin and death and our freedom to serve and love our neighbor.

Our freedom as Christians is not a form of independence. Our freedom in Christ comes from our dependence on him.

You who would be a law unto yourself, Christ is the gospel unto you, proclaiming you forgiven.

This is an excerpt from Adam Francisco’s conclusion in “The Freedom of the Christian” written by Martin Luther and translated and edited by Adam Francisco (1517 Publishing, 2020). Pgs. 57-59.

How we define holiness will affect our approach to God.

What is it that the 13th session actually has to say about the Eucharist, and how does it compare to what Luther and the reformers confessed about the Lord’s Supper?

Understanding that I am completely free in Christ allows me to read the injunction to “love my neighbor as myself” as a promise instead of a threat.

God redeemed his people’s bodies from slavery in Egypt and now was preparing their minds for freedom.

This is an excerpt from “The Freedom of the Christian” written by Martin Luther and translated and edited by Adam Francisco (1517 Publishing, 2020).

The only reason we're aware of our old self is in baptism, God created a new self for us.

The love God showed for us in the death of his Son continues in us because we remain his children as long as we are incorporated in the body of Jesus through faith.

Luther's signature insight on the sacraments was that God’s word of promise doesn’t just symbolize an absent reality but that it gives and bestows …

The freedom here is first to be as God has designed us to be, and then to do as we are. It has nothing to do with self-determination or voluntary …

When works include the false condition and confused notion that through them we will become righteous and saved, then they are already no good and completely damnable because they are not done freely.

The theme of guardianship permeates Christian observances of Michaelmas, unifying this wide variety of celebrations

That unremarkable trip to the zoo on September 28, 1931, was the last in a long line of experiences that brought C.S. Lewis (Jack) back to the faith.

This is an excerpt from “The Freedom of the Christian” written by Martin Luther and translated and edited by Adam Francisco (1517 Publishing, 2020).

We vote because we are citizens, and it is our duty. We serve our neighbors in love because it is our Christian calling

Solomon did not write Ecclesiastes to bum you out. He wrote it to set you free.

This is an excerpt from “The Freedom of the Christian” written by Martin Luther and translated and edited by Adam Francisco (1517 Publishing, 2020).

"Whom shall we fear?" We fear no one. We're not afraid of anything. Instead, we wait for the Lord with good courage. He will strengthen our hearts, as the psalmist writes (Ps 27:1).

Viewing the Bible as literature is an essential and natural way of engaging the text. But there are also ways in which this practice can get lost.

The scope of catechesis from the Reformation was broad and included not only instruction at church, but in the home and in schools. 

This is an excerpt from Crucifying Religion written by Donavon Riley (1517 Publishing, 2019).

As much as Luther calls Christians to a sober belief in the devil, he also calls them to a firm and steadfast faith in Christ.

Because our days are numbered, we need the beauty of the Lord to shine on us each day.

When Christ crucified for our sins is kept central, we can hear passages like this one in a new and promising way.

The gospel fires up within us the gratitude, joy, and love to pull off what the law never could get us to do.

Little do we know the ancient and everlasting healing powers of God’s beloved tender shoot.

This is an excerpt from “God’s Devil” written by John Warwick Montgomery (1517 Publishing, 2020).

We've all felt the pain of betrayal by a friend who abandoned us when we thought we could depend on them.

Cyprian of Carthage is one of the most notable Latin theologians of the first five centuries alongside Tertullian and Augustine.

The fact that baptism specifically unites me to Christ in his death means that I share in his sufferings in my identity, not in my activity.

In both Psalms, we hear the Messiah becoming sin for us, and thus he pleads on our behalf before the Father.

This is an excerpt from “With My Own Eyes” written by Bo Giertz and translated by Bror Erickson (1517 Publishing, 2017).

What does it take to be a Christian? Christ.

This is an excerpt from the book, “Paul and the Resurrection” written by Joshua Pagán (1517 Publishing, 2020).

I will continue to cling to the only hope I’ve ever truly had: that Jesus is my Lord and yours.

Look, sir; I’m not going to lock you up, despite the well-founded objections of the district attorney. I’m offering you the deal of your life.

Even as children of God, we have down days. That’s just a fact of being sinful and living in an evil world.

Galatians 5 isn’t a move beyond Christ to the Christian life. Galatians 5 is the Christian life in Christ.

Saying the words of the prayer together meant that if my voice became too weak or shaky, other voices would be around to support and continue the …

Albrecht Dürer is undoubtedly one of the greatest artists of the late Renaissance.

Suddenly, this word was. It was no longer a breath, or an idea, or a wish.

Faith Alone really wrestles with themes that Christians of all ages have to wrestle with.

Jesus is our confidence because he reveals truth from falsehood, right from wrong, and reality from appearance, so that we may rely on him for our …

He will plead guilty on our behalf, and suffer the death sentence in our place.

Who are we if neither vice nor virtue will make us whole?

His word is what strengthens and changes our hearts. The Lord God will bring us victory.

Faith Alone is a translation of Bo Giertz’s second novel, which was originally titled Tron Allena.

Your prayers are not what make you acceptable in his sight. You have already been made acceptable through the blood of Christ.

“Rembrandt goes so deep into the mysterious that he says things for which there are no words in any language.” 

These words not only rescue and defend; they also attack. They push back my sinful tendency to praise myself for relying on myself.

He is our gold. He is our pure garment. He is our healing. He is our sanity. He is our wholeness.

Both Hus and Luther arrived at the same conclusion: neither councils nor the pope had final authority in the church. Headship in the church belongs …

Apart from God's word, we will judge the right to be wrong and evil people as good.

It is one thing to pray against death’s slow and aggressive assault on God’s creation. It is another to trust in the one who has conquered the grave.

This change during a time of crisis is nothing new; it's an experience we can see throughout history.

In the quiet of your own uptown, where your own sins bear down on you and create a troubled conscience before the world, before others, and before God, your Lord reaches across the chasm of brokenness to take your hand.

The good news of Jesus Christ guides us into godly worship, not self-worship.

Who Am I? edited by Scott Ashmon (1517 Publishing, 2020) is now available for purchase

By basing our assurance on the promises of God, which we not only hope for in the future but live in now, the Christian can finally rest in the comfort that they are both saved and not responsible for their own …

When we look at the trees of Christian denominations, we can lose sight of the forest that is Christianity and become cynical and hopeless. But we can take heart.

There’s no hand wringing when he calls our name.

When experience and the promises of God collide, we will either succumb to thinking we were deceived or hold more tightly to the promises,

Fear of death drives us away from each other. It isolates and dehumanizes us.

The disciplines of history and archaeology have assisted in demonstrating the integrity and accuracy of the Bible.

In matters temporal, while they should strive to be good and dutiful citizens, ultimately a Christian is more of a pilgrim anxiously awaiting the …

Using common everyday events, Carnell sought to clarify that there are three standards of duty that we demand others to respect to protect our dignity.

Comfort is not a platitude; it is a promise. A promise from our God who left his place of glory and died a sinner’s death for poor sinners.

The following is an excerpt from Ken Sundet Jones’ chapter in “Who Am I?” written by Scott Ashmon (1517 Publishing, 2020).

He would not go back on his word, for his word is the word of the Father and the Spirit, and they all say “come.”

Scripture is clear in its main teachings and doctrines. People don’t need any special knowledge or training to understand sin, grace, forgiveness, and salvation.

We're not called to be obedient consumers. We're free in Christ to love and serve our neighbor according to his need.

The kingdom I seek is the lower-case realm ruled over by the almighty upper-case Me.

If all is right with you, then there is no need for God. No need for salvation. No need for help. No need for faith. 

When it comes to God’s Word, our help only obscures this power and grace.

Words fail me at a time like this.

Satan scatters, and God gathers. Satan divides and defeats us, and the Holy Spirit gathers us together to submit to the Lordship of Christ.

They gathered the remains of John and buried him. And then they went to tell Jesus.

Philosophy teaches us about a good life in the creation, and the gospel predominates with its message of free forgiveness apart from the law and beyond the most sophisticated dreams of all human wisdom

Since Jesus has done everything we need for salvation, we can focus our works and efforts on serving our neighbor.

The following is an excerpt from Faithless to Fearless written by David Andersen (1517 Publishing, 2019).

Sin seeks to destroy us in body, soul, and mind. It sends fear flooding into our lives. 

To be a theologian of the cross is to have another’s will exerted on you to make you what you are.

We discover in the book that all of history is unfolding according to a plan, but the plan is hidden from our typical ways of seeing.

God doesn’t permit me to write you off regardless of who you are or what you may have done. Nor does he allow you to dismiss me because I might not fit your image of a vessel of God’s mercy.

The image of the cross stands as central to Luther’s comfort for those who endure persecution.

Justice and love are united in God, and we see this most clearly in Jesus on the cross. There, both God's hatred toward sin and compassion for the world come together.

We are meant to serve in love both our neighbor in need as well as the neighbor who doesn’t think they need us.

Our use–or disuse–of language reveals a deeper need than a bubbly carbonated soda. It highlights a gift given and a gift fallen, and it leaves us thirsting for a gift restored.

To understand the meaning of the Pentecost miracle for the life of a Christian, we must first learn to see it through the lens of the history that came before it. 

When Revelation’s words read against their original context, old meaning and new meaning are simultaneously brought to light as language and imagery …

We must also remember that our enemy is a creature of God. He is someone for whom Christ Jesus died. He is a sinner just like any other, no more or less selfish than us.

The biggest point Luther makes about the descent is not that Jesus triumphed over hell idle and unaffected, but that Jesus defeated hell by suffering hell away.

We know God has a plan to bring forgiveness and salvation and healing to people, but we can’t see how it’s all going to work out.

In the middle of the spring, on a run-of-the-mill Thursday, the ascension interrupts the mundane to herald the extraordinary: Christ is in charge and is present on earth as he is in heaven, guiding history for the sake …

In his last novel, Islands in the Stream, Hemingway shows us what we get when we look to nature for ultimate truth: death.

What we can learn from all these instances is that we are all born into this world with a pre-existing condition. It’s called mortality, and no earthly authority or expert can save us from it.

The only thing that biblical characters do to help their cause is to die.

Pastoral Prophet: Meditations on the Book of Jeremiah is now available for preorder from 1517 Publishing

The point is that the whole lot was wicked. And so were the Galatian Christians. And so are we.

Jesus has conquered, he who has an ear let him hear. There is nothing to run from, nothing to be ashamed of, nothing to fear because the Lamb of God has done it all.

Zipporah and Moses were bound by blood. More than that, God and Moses were bound by blood.

Bonhoeffer’s simple little book makes clear how privileged many of us are to enjoy the Communion of the Saints here on earth.

The Pastoral Prophet: Meditations on the Book of Jeremiah written by Steve Kruschel is available through 1517 Publishing. The following is an …

The Word was preached into your ears, the Holy Spirit worked through that word, and wormed His way from the sinful preacher's mouth to your wicked …

While faith forms the relationship with God and love the relationship with the neighbor, hope forms the Christian’s relationship with the future.

When we try to create meaning for our lives or transform Jesus into a mere example, the Holy Spirit comes to us, with a preacher in hand, ready to …

The Pastoral Prophet: Meditations on the Book of Jeremiah, written by Steve Kruschel, is available now for preorder and will be released by 1517 …

When a manager faces imminent termination by his wealthy master for mishandling his wealth, what will he do? Where can he turn? In this challenging parable, Jesus teaches us that our salvation lies outside of ourselves …

War is a plague, but sometimes it needs to be fought to protect from greater plagues.

God doesn't help those who help themselves. He saves those who can't do anything for themselves.

This love story goes on and on, from the beginning of time. Every retelling of this incredible story reveals a little more, exposing our inadequacy, producing more devotion, capturing unspoken emotion, inspiring us to a …

Elisabeth Cruciger is the first female Lutheran hymn writer. In fact, her hymn was included in the very first evangelical hymnal, published in 1524. With her life and her hymn, she becomes a witness, an example, and a …

This gospel is not like all other human acts of gift-giving. It doesn’t come with the expectation of a gift in return. His mercy is an unreturned gift.

"As we stare down another day, the struggles and joys that it will bring, take a deep breath. In spite of all the failures, floundering, and …

When God's Word went to the cross and made full payment for all our sinful, self-serving, self-seeking activities, and then rose from the dead, Jesus …

We may hear the voice of Jesus through recordings and digital media, but the Jesus who walks through locked doors has no problem coming to us through …

There is great value in reading fairy tales in a pandemic. There is freedom and joy to be found when we turn off the news, stop scrolling Facebook, …

In the upper room, Jesus revealed himself as the Lord of the dirty business of life.

Instead of remaining silent when we wonder if someone is struggling with suicidal thoughts, and rather than judging for ourselves whether or not suicide is an unforgivable sin, let's lean on God's Word.

In the midst of our grief and sorrow, there are times when words fail us. When they do, we know that God has given us words that will never fail us. He’s graciously given us his words of hope and comfort from the Psalms.

The parable of the two sons whom their father sent to work in the vineyard is not a well-known parable--or one about which we hear many sermons. What does it mean? And what does it tell us about life in the church? In …

If you want to stay out of jail, look to the law. If you want into heaven, look to the promise. If you want to earn a paycheck from your boss, work. If you want to receive salvation from your God, believe.

The gospel promise is that God in Christ knows exactly what your temptations are and still bids you find protection from them in him.

Luke presents Mary to us as a model of Christian faith and discipleship. On this Festival of the Annunciation, I invite you to consider this view of the Virgin Mary for your own life of devotion and faith in Christ.

God made us to live together, to live in harmony with each other, to serve and sacrifice for the health and well-being of each other. When we hurt …

When Luther's barber, Peter Beskendorf, asked him how to pray, Luther wrote him an open letter that has become a classic expression of the "when, how, and what" of prayer. It is as instructive today as when it was first …

Without the influence of a 19th-century minister named George MacDonald, we may never have had classics such as The Chronicles of Narnia, The Lord of the Rings, or even Alice in Wonderland. It was George MacDonald whom …

This petition is proof that the Christian life is not a practice in perfectionism. Rather, it is a life of dying and rising, lived under the cross of Christ, in the continual forgiveness of our sins.

The book, Paul and the Resurrection: Testing the Apostolic Testimony, by Josh Pagán, has just been released by 1517 Publishing. In this innovative, …

Despite the grave threat of martyrdom during his roughly thirty years of ministry, St. Patrick persevered and experienced enormous success.

The newest book from 1517 Publishing, Paul and the Resurrection: Testing the Apostolic Testimony, was released this week. In this article, we asked …

Only God's Word of Gospel can permanently help and heal the addicted.

Support 1517

When anything other than the gospel of Christ crucified for sinners becomes the center of the parables, we exchange the Gospel for the law.

The monsters we fight against and the monsters we become are drowned in the blood of the Lamb. Jesus' death, and the power of his resurrection, restore our humanity.

Ashes and dust do not need the services of spiritual EMTs; we need a Second Adam from whom we regain life itself.

On this day in 1984, Lutheran pastor, Martin Niemöller, a leader in the anti-Nazi Confessing Church, died. He left behind a controversial legacy. How …

When we pray, “Thy will be done,” we are praying a cosmic, grand and mighty prayer.

Support 1517

Into our world of sin, broken hearts, physical ailments, and psychological suffering, our Lord of grace descended.

The more we demand from Christ, the more of Himself He gives to us. When we demand a glass of grace, He gives us an ocean of Gospel

Where our sins are forgiven, there God in Christ is to be found.

We are praying here, not for God to establish some kind of earthly, political government, but rather, to draw us into his very active reign. 

Ash Wednesday confronts us with our true nature, our mortality, and marks us with the only escape from it: the cross of Christ.

The end of the pursuit isn't regeneration, but degeneration. We're fighting fire with bottles of gasoline.

Transfiguration and our Lenses of Glory.

Though not without his faults, Anselm of Canterbury is unquestionably one of the great theologians of the last millennium.

This article is the second installment in an eight-part series inspired by the Lenten themes of catechesis, prayer, and repentance found in the Lord’s Prayer as Luther taught it in his Small Catechism.

Transfiguration is like a farewell party for a dear friend drafted and going off to war. We celebrate all that has brought us there, we rejoice in our friend, and yet we know we are sending him off to great danger.

Ultimately the Christian life isn't about progress, it's about promise--the Pilgrim's Promise.

What a person quickly realizes when sin, death, and Satan attack in concrete reality is how inadequate and ill-equipped they are to fight them off.

How did we get love and romance associated with Valentine and his likely mid-February death?

This article begins an eight-part series inspired by the Lenten themes of catechesis, prayer, and repentance found in the Lord’s Prayer as Luther taught it in his Small Catechism.

The implications were clear: Jesus’ death destroyed the things that distinguished people as educated or uneducated, rich or poor, free or enslaved, black or white, pious or godless.

The Scriptures are not a collection of platonic ideals laid out for us to strive after. Rather, they are God’s truth given to His beloved church.

His resurrection reveals that Jonah, and all of us, even the evilest people, are salvageable, even from suicide, in Jesus' death and resurrection.

The following is an excerpt from "Finding Christ in the Straw," written by Robert M. Hiller (1517 Publishing, 2020).

It would do us well to expand what we mean when we say catechesis and consequently broaden the reach of theological education into daily life.

This is our frontier religion: God is waiting to shower blessings upon us if only we will unlock those blessings with the right kind of works, and a sufficient quantity of the same.

God hides from us on purpose so he can be God for us without limits or measures in the way of faithful, loving-kindness.

David Anderson answers questions about his new book, Faithless to Fearless.

Notes: Faithless to Fearless

Your faith is not dependent on whether or not you suffer well.  Your faith is dependent on the fact that Christ did.

By submitting to John’s baptism, Jesus took the sins of the world upon his shoulders so that he could carry them to the cross and bury them in his …

It’s a delivery of historical facts that tells us who Jesus is and what he has done for us through his dying on the cross and his rising from the grave.

Baptism doesn't get us into a religious club that we join by a voluntary decision.

Pelagius maintained an orthodox appearance while rejecting original sin and the distinction between law and gospel. 

The following is an excerpt from Finding Christ in the Straw written by Robert M. Hiller (1517 Publishing, 2020).

We sing, and in so doing, we are blessed as we are instilled with the word of God in word and song.  

Faith is a certainty about something one has encountered, something factual, an experience— just as certain as any experience in the external world.

We confuse salvation and vocation in our quest to determine who is in control of our salvation.

Indeed, the law said, “You shall love the Lord your God,” but the law cannot give me such love, nor can it take my hand to grasp on to Christ. 

What then does this sequence of stories teach us? It teaches us a pertinent lesson about the Christian life.

A few weeks ago, I watched a video of fireworks going off in modern-day Nazareth on New Year’s Eve. The person filming was on the roof of his …

Here’s a radical statement: there’s nothing wrong with you. You’re a creature. You’re a baptized child of God. You’re exactly who you’re supposed to be, regardless of what you or anybody else may say. Whatever is in the …

America has bequeathed to the church a fixation on politics. It’s not merely that American Christians are politically active, but that …

The Word of God, the Eternal Logos, Jesus Christ himself is revealed to us by the power of the Holy Spirit. Little by little, we find that God hands …

 It is the words the pastor speaks that send the dead out alive.

The following is an excerpt from “Faithless to Fearless” written by David Anderson (1517 Publishing, 2019).

Looking back on the year, the narrative we’re fed is that we should be able to show how much we’ve grown, how much we’ve done, all the successes …

Christians are given a new name at baptism. We are given the Triune name of Father, Son, and Spirit.

The real power of his hymn comes from the fact that Bonhoeffer does not offer a rosy picture of life or any of the tropes so typical of cheap piety that tell us that everything is always right, that things happen for a …

It is that Christmas carol, the curious “We Three Kings” that we are looking at today in our examination of the origin and meaning of Christmas carols

We think that if we are good enough, brave enough, or at least if we try hard enough, we will be someone who can be both fully known and fully loved.

As Christians, we are not cold ascetics, depriving ourselves in the here and hereafter. We are given good things from our heavenly Father in heaven, …

Christmas is, therefore, the beginning of Christ’s earthly ministry, even while he awaits a number of years to gather his disciples and inaugurate his preaching of the kingdom.

It’s not just that he’s born and given, but that he’s born and given for us.

Should we really be surprised that it would happen this way, that the servant would suffer for our salvation and die for our forgiveness?

In some measure, if Luther had any success during his last two decades, it happened because of the woman who’d insisted on him as her bridegroom.

One gloomy, silent night, God stepped into our darkness. The Word had not only spoken but was now made flesh

Isaac Watts thought it was time for the church to have a new song. But he didn’t just come up with one new song; he composed a whole host of them. …

At Christmas, we hear the story of our salvation, but it’s not pretty.

How amazing is the scene from the night of Jesus’ birth we all know so well: angels singing lullabies with the sweet mother Mary, poor shepherds …

It often breaks our hearts to accept reality, but we can't save anybody. We can't save our brothers and sisters in Christ from unbelief, error, and a …

Many of us probably remember singing the song, “Father Abraham,” as children in Sunday School, but have we ever really thought about the words? …

Next week, December 20, marks the anniversary of the death of Katharine von Bora, whose husband was Martin Luther. Her importance goes beyond simply …

The following is an excerpt from “A Year of Grace: Collected Sermons of Advent through Pentecost” written by Bo Giertz and translated by Bror …

Hands in her lap. Eyes clenched shut. Black swells of emotion rushing from deep behind her eyes down to the pit of her stomach. Sketchy scenes replay …

The Advent hymn, “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel,” continues to captivate the English-speaking church 158 years after John Mason Neale translated five of its verses into English for the 1861 hymnal, “Hymns Ancient and Modern.”

What is the significance of God’s promise that Christ will be born of a virgin? Is it significant because of Mary’s example of purity or something else entirely?

Christ continues to go to surprising places, into enemy territories and darkened rooms to sing, “Merry Christmas,” to prisoners of shame, fear, and death.

When it comes to biographical material on Saint Augustine, in the last 50 years, no work has surpassed Peter Brown’s seminal biography, Augustine of Hippo. This biography is a formidable one, but well worth the time to …

Every year, while I prepare the sermon for Thanksgiving morning and plot out the day’s menu with my wife, I go back and read Robert Capon’s book, …

You don’t need to imagine it. You’ve seen it in countless sitcoms and movies. It’s Thanksgiving Day, and the family is gathered around the table. Maybe things have gone hilariously wrong; maybe they haven’t.

The real question we must ask about God’s will isn’t, “God, command us according to your will and we’ll do it,” but, “God, what are you willing to do for us who can’t do what you command?”

We might not appreciate that God chooses to save us by his word alone, but our discomfort doesn’t make the promise any less effective.

If you want to boil Schleiermacher down to some foundation upon which to build up his theology, think feelings.

An age-old debate amongst Christians is the number and use of the sacraments. Rome and the Eastern Orthodox hold that there are seven sacraments of …

When we ask ourselves, "My God, how did I get so lost," he answers, "I am the God who comes to seek and save the lost in the power of my resurrection.

Could it be that the root of not asking is not believing, either in the power, or worse, the graciousness of the Lord to address the issue that lies …

The following is an excerpt from “A Year of Grace Volume 2” written by Bo Giertz and translated by Bror Erickson (1517 Publishing, 2019).

In an earlier article, I did my best to confront the false idea that God’s will is something we must uncover to make daily decisions in the vocational sense, specifically when it comes to marriage.

We love those who enable us to see our love for ourselves reflected back at us.

Where Erasmus saw fear and collapse, Luther saw the never-ending comfort of Christ and his gospel.

As much as we may long for heaven, even death itself does not usher us into the final state of the new creation. So, in life and death, we must wait. And as the philosopher, Tom Petty, sings, “Waiting is the hardest …

We were lost. We didn’t know where we were going or which way to turn. We had been driving around in circles for hours with nothing to show for it. And now we weren’t sure how to find our way home - and losing hope by …

If we’re alive, we’ll suffer. It’s inevitable. We’re bed-ridden with the flu. Taxes are due. A boss abuses his authority. Our spouse lies to us. People kill and commit suicide. A flood destroys a city.

The dead may tell no tales, as the saying goes, but on All Saints’ Day, those dead in Christ preach the gospel.

As you read the New Testament and early church history, it is clear that believers in Christ where anticipating his return from the moment of his ascension to the Father. As persecution ravaged the church, Christians …

On a balmy June morning back in the 1960s, my older sister and I were participating in a traditional western South Dakota kid’s summer activity, …

Should we celebrate Halloween as Christians? This question came up during a recent discussion with fellow pastors, where I bemoaned the popularity of …

Humility kills pride. So “humble yourself before the Lord,” as James writes (Jas 4:10). Kill your pride before it kills the things you love. Subdue it before it gets you into the kind of trouble that may even kill you. …

“Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, ‘If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth …

“Just admit it; we know it was you!” “How long since your last confession?” “Do you solemnly swear that you will tell the truth, the whole truth, and …

Any conception that contends that Jesus only died for some sinners turns the gospel into an uncertain message for everyone.

When I hear my brother’s name, I will grieve a little. But I will also rejoice, for I know that he is with his Savior. 

So long as we entrust death to Jesus, new life is ours. He has lunch ready and he is waiting for us in the power of his resurrection.

The following is an excerpt from“Credo: I Believe,” edited by Caleb Keith and Kelsi Klembara (1517 Publishing, 2019). 

2 Peter 2:1-21 continues the thought that began in 2 Peter 1:16. In this passage, Peter assures his audience that the gospel of Jesus Christ is trustworthy, being amply supported by witnesses of his ministry, his death, …

I’ve got a confession to make. I’m not very good at praying. Sure, I pray regularly for my church, my family, and for those who are sick and in need. …

The temptation is always there to let our imaginations run wild. It’s easy for us to imagine all the ways things can go wrong. Fear about what has, and what does, and what might go wrong can cripple us. It can crush our …

Terror and even hatred of God are the only things with which divine hiddenness can leave us, since the only thing that can be known about this God is that he is free and sovereign over all things

Friends are a gift from God, but all gifts flow from God to his children because of his love for us on account of Christ.

He begins the letter with grace and peace (2 Pet 2:1) - gifts that had been given them by God through the righteousness of his Son, Jesus Christ, their Lord, and Master.

There are two kinds of people in this world: those who have fallen asleep in a history class, and those who lie about it. But in all seriousness, this is precisely how history is often viewed, isn’t it?

Everything vanishes so quick. Our body is gobbled up by the earth. Our memories are devoured by time. Time diminishes our physical gifts.

One of the most notable contributions of the Eastern Orthodox tradition to Christian theology is its strong emphasis on what they call theosis, or …

The following is an excerpt from“Where Two or Three Are Gathered” edited by Scott Keith (1517 Publishing, 2019).

Second Peter is a short, straightforward epistle. It begins, after the salutation, with an exhortation to piety, encouraging Christians to practice …

For a long time, well-intentioned pastors and college evangelists have applied Jesus’ words (dictated by John as a part of the seven letters to the …

Most people don’t pray they will be able to show mercy. They hope for good luck or strength to meet a challenge. They yearn for things to break their way today. Sometimes, when they’re panicked, they pray for God to …

Robert W. Jenson (1930–2017) is one of the most important, yet often overlooked and frequently misunderstood, theologians from the English-speaking …

The optimism of a Christian extends beyond the deathbed and has its origin in a historical event without historical boundaries.

As we conclude our walk through 1 Peter by looking at chapter five today, I’d like to begin at the end. As Peter sends his final greetings, he references his brothers-in-arms, first Silvanus, who wrote Peter’s words, …

In Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis makes a famous analogy comparing the universal church and church denominations to a large home with many different rooms:

“I hope no reader will suppose that “mere” Christianity is here …

We meet, and affection blossoms. We love each other. We change, and arguments erupt. We stab each other with words. The door slams shut; the lock is …

When we think about God, each of us has an image come to mind. We expect that God should look and act a certain way. But God’s words in Isaiah 53 …

There are many examples of friends serving one another in life. Some are extreme and extravagant, but most are ordinary. I’ve heard many stories that have inspired me to look for good friends with whom I can engage and …

There is some irony in the fact that St. Peter is writing to us about suffering for the sake of Jesus. After all, isn’t this the same man that had a less than stellar record when it came to his own response to …

In the past three years, Ligonier Ministries and LifeWay Research have worked together to survey the theological state of Christians in the U.S. …

Following the death of Martin Luther in 1546, the Lutheran Church entered a tumultuous period as an ecclesial game of back and forth was played in …

The Lord’s banquet room will not be empty. The wine will flow. The food will be served. Music will play. Conversations will be had. The Lord’s table will be crowded. He will make sure of that. 

The following is an excerpt adapted from “Let the Bird Fly” written by Wade Johnston (1517 Publishing, 2019).

If we’re perfectly honest with one another, 1 Peter 3 has some great but also uncomfortable content. Modern theology has no love of Peter’s words …

Human beings are storytellers. From the time we get up in the morning and take that first sip of coffee until the time we go to bed at night, our …

There is not much about being a Christian that is particularly groundbreaking: focus on Jesus-crucified for us sinners. Enjoy the benefits of his …

"Practice makes perfect.” I am sure you have heard this wisdom before. It’s good advice. You need to work at a particular craft to master it. You may …

Luke 12 repeatedly speaks about anxiety and fear, and even earlier in the gospel book, we are told another story about anxiety featuring the sisters, …

The most well-known sentence of Peter’s first letter to the dispersed, exiled Christians sojourning throughout the Roman empire is also the high point of the letter’s second chapter. 1 Peter 2:9 reads, “But you are a …

Righteousness is our commodity. It is what we buy and sell. It is what determines value. It is what we use to build our personal portfolio. It is how …

Life is what we make of it unless life is located in the One who calls himself, "Life." Then, life isn't what we make of it but what Jesus, God's Word who speaks all things into being, makes of it. When life is what we …

Ultimately it’s at the cross of Calvary, through the shed blood of Jesus Christ, the great Lion of Judah, that the stone table is broken, and everything sad does indeed finally come untrue.

What are the two things that should not be discussed in polite company?

If you answered “religion and politics,” you understand the essential rules …

So Peter closes out the section of his letter that has come to be referred to as “1 Peter, Chapter 1.” He writes to the Christians of Asia Minor and uses this portion of the letter to remind them of all that God has …

There is a message going around these days that many Christians are missing out on significant blessings of Christ because of insufficient awareness of the power of His indwelling presence. This message goes something …

It’s easy for us to get attached to things. An old suit that doesn’t fit anymore. A cabin we’ve inherited. A pew at church our family sat in for …

Like most good Christian girls growing up in the last few decades, the advice I received about marriage during my teens and early adult years is …

I am a zealous advocate for doing apologetics. While apologetics is defined as the defense of the Christian faith, the simplicity of this definition …

“Baptism…now saves you…” (1 Peter 3:21): this is the climax of 1 Peter, a letter by the apostle with the same first name written to congregations in Asia Minor. Peter’s goal was to strengthen the faith of believers in …

George Frideric Handel, the Saxon Lutheran living in England, locked himself into his London flat on this day, the 21st of August, in 1741. He would …

What would have happened to Peter, Paul, or any of us if there were no pain and death? On Sunday morning, instead of going to church, we would all …

I am quiet and relaxed. The temperature is just right. Breathing slowly and purposely, I focus on the black emptiness behind my eyelids. I listen to the hum of a fan spinning just a little too loudly above my head. No, …

On a recent episode of the Thinking Fellows, where I was a guest, Dr. Rosenbladt asked me what he rightfully considered to be one of the most vexing …

The phrase, “simultaneously justified and sinner,” or simul iustus et peccator (simul for short), is a statement or confession concerning the …

We pursue what matters most to us and sacrifice what’s necessary to reach that goal. Whether it’s time, money, or health, we must sacrifice something if we want to achieve our goals. But, there’s often an unaddressed …

Each verb is jarringly violent. The visceral lyrics and fiery enunciation pair with an oddly upbeat melody, artfully crafted to be relevant to the …

One of the items that often comes to the fore in any discussion on the authority of Scripture alone (sola scriptura) is the relationship between the …

In early 1945, Japanese Lieutenant Hiroo Onoda was deployed to Lubang Island about 100 miles south of Manila in the Philippines. He was leading one of several groups sent to the Pacific Theatre.

We're always in search of a spotlight. It's natural for us to crave attention.  Just watch a baby when everyone else in the room is pre-occupied -- especially if they're focused on another baby! When we see a light …

We recently explored ways Martin Luther comforted those experiencing sickness, depression, anxiety, and more through his Letters of Spiritual …

The following is an excerpt from “Let the Bird Fly” written by Wade Johnston (1517 Publishing, 2019).

Christmas in July is one of those made-up holidays that seems to be growing in popularity these days. Its origins date back to a 1933 girls camp in …

It was on this day, the 31st of July in 1970, that the Lockman Foundation first published the New American Standard Bible (NASB). While new …

Are we entitled to a good day and sweet dreams at night? No. The Bible doesn’t promise us we should feel good all the time. Experience also teaches …

“America exists to destroy Baptism.” I’m still captivated by this line from Steven Paulson at the Here We Still Stand Conference a couple years back. …

The following is a Question and Answer session with author and pastor Donavon Riley where we talk about his latest book, “Crucifying Religion: How …

She lounges in a beach chair and sips on a Corona as the sun shines from above and the grass brushes her toes from below. It’s a perfect summer day, …

Today is John Newton’s birthday. This week, I’m sure churches everywhere will sing his, “Amazing Grace,” and possibly hear the tale about the self-proclaimed wretched sinner saved by grace. While this story is most …

Human rights stand revealed as an idea that polarizes, encouraging uncritical support and also extreme reaction from both secularists and …

“Jesus answered...‘And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.’” (John 12:32).

I have heard this verse dozens of times in churches, often in conjunction with a church body announcing plans …

The smell of the lavender hits your nose as you remove the plant from its tiny plastic shell and rough up the compacted roots that have pullulated …

It was on this day, the 17th of July in 180 AD, that 12 African Christians were added to the list of the earliest church Martyrs. These Scillitan …

When pain bears down on us, how hard is it to keep going? We ask ourselves, “What did I do to deserve this torture?” “Why can’t my family and friends appreciate how much I hurt?” The pain and hurt haunt us and punish us …