God can handle grief, rage, and cries for justice. God can handle the victim who cannot yet forgive. God can handle the prayer that comes out jagged and wounded. The good news is that God is holy and merciful enough to handle all our prayers.
But while scholars are right to focus on the bond between Martin and Hans, the evidence of Martin’s own words suggests their relationship may not have been as troubled as some suppose. For Hans Luther was not a cartoon villain but a normal human being attempting to make his way in the world and raise his children to the best of his ability.
Jesus offers something infinitely better. He tells us to put down our gavel—not because sin isn't real, but because the only Judge who has the right to condemn is the very One who was condemned for us.

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We need to remember that we belong to God by Grace Alone. It’s not by our best works. Not by the sweat of our brow, it’s not even by our best attempts to repent.
Jesus will strengthen and encourage us because he is true life, and life has defeated death.
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 and salvation.
Jesus longs to prove to us that death has lost its separating power over the Christian. He longs that we experience the faithfulness of God in the unifying power of the gospel here on earth as well as in heaven.
We step into the voting booth with one foot on the outside. We are Americans, to be sure, but we are much more. We are citizens of the kingdom of God, over which the King of kings reigns supreme. Our time here is temporary. We are resident aliens in a land destined for a fiery destruction. Our allegiance is to Christ.
Imperatives are good for many things. Luther said the Law is good, but precisely because it is good, it has become poison and death to the bad. The Law does not give life but evaluates it, and we encounter day in and day out its negative evaluation of us.
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.
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.
Sin is driven by disordered love, and it is love in this sense that leads to all the pain and suffering in the world.
We vote because we are citizens, and it is our duty. We serve our neighbors in love because it is our Christian calling.
There is not a soul who crosses the threshold of the sanctuary who is excluded from the message of the gospel of forgiveness.