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Scripture, taught seriously.

Confessional Lutheran Bible study, taught live every Sunday at Our Saviour Lutheran Church in Baltimore and published here for anyone to read, download, and teach. Every study is free. Nothing is sold.

Sundays, 9:45 to 10:45 am Eastern

In person at 3301 The Alameda, Baltimore, or online from anywhere.

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The Blood of the Lamb: Seeing Christ in the Sacrifices of Israel. A lamb stands beside the altar of burnt offering before the Tabernacle.

Beginning September 13  ·  Three Sundays

Now studying

September 13, 20, and 27

The Blood of the Lamb

Seeing Christ in the sacrifices of Israel

At nearly every Divine Service we hear the words "shed for you for the forgiveness of sins," and we sing "Lamb of God, You take away the sin of the world." That vocabulary was not invented by the Church. God gave it to Israel at Sinai. Three sessions trace the grammar of sacrifice from the offerings of Leviticus, through the Day of Atonement and the torn curtain, to the holiness command that comes to rest on the baptized. The cross cannot be understood apart from the altar.

Series page and student guides

  1. I
    What It Cost to Come Near

    Five offerings, rising smoke, and a debt that would not stay paid.

    Leviticus 1–7 with Hebrews 10  ·  September 13

  2. II
    Behind the Veil

    One day a year, one man, one door, and the goat that walked away.

    Leviticus 16 with Hebrews 9  ·  September 20

  3. III
    Clean Hands, Unclean Hearts

    The rules that set a people apart, and the Lord who moved the line.

    Leviticus 11 and 19 with Mark 7  ·  September 27

Coming this fall

Reclaiming the Solas: shafts of golden light falling through a dark interior.
October 4 to November 1  ·  Five Sundays

Reclaiming the Solas

The grammar of the Gospel, confessed at Augsburg

The solas are not a checklist invented by the Reformers but the grammar of the Gospel itself, each answering a specific question about how sinners are reconciled to a holy God. Scripture, grace, faith, Christ, and the glory of God, read from the Bible and the Confessions in that order, and for a reason.
The Greater Exodus: the parted sea with a path of dry ground between two walls of water.
November 8, 15, and 22  ·  Three Sundays

The Greater Exodus

The Lamb, the sea, and the blood of the covenant

Three Exodus types followed into their New Testament fulfillment, as Paul himself directs in 1 Corinthians 10: the Passover lamb and Good Friday, the Red Sea and Baptism, Sinai and the better covenant.

 Every Sunday after Matins  ·  September

After Matins: The Book of Concord

Contrition, the Last Day, and the Mass

A year-long reading of the Lutheran Confessions, one locus a week, set beside the Psalm and reading appointed for Matins. September holds three things easily confused with one another: the diagnosis the Law makes, the kingdom only Christ's return will bring, and the worship that receives rather than offers.

Seventeen series and ninety class sessions are planned through Advent 2027. Full course catalogue Printable catalogue (PDF) Session calendar

The library

Bible studies

Course catalogue and student guides

All seventeen series planned from Lent 2026 through Advent 2027, with the sessions of each, and complete student guides for every series already taught. Each study places the text in its biblical and confessional context.

Seventeen series · Ninety sessions · Free to teach Lectionary primers

Prepared for the Divine Service

Two-page guides to the Sunday readings, the hymns and their histories, and the liturgical context of the day, for anyone who wants to arrive at worship knowing what is about to be given.

Forty Sundays and feasts Book of Concord

After Matins

Fifty-two weekly handouts pairing a single confessional text with the Psalm and reading appointed for Matins. Two sides of one page, meant to be read and argued over for half an hour.

May 2026 through April 2027 Consider Lutheranism

Why the Confessions still hold

Five essays for readers arriving from Rome, from Orthodoxy, or from nowhere in particular: the liturgy, the history, the Real Presence, the moral seriousness, and a certainty grounded in the finished work of Christ alone.

Five-part series After Optimism

DRIFT: Romans and the failure of systems

Confessional theology set in direct conversation with the thinkers young men are reading now. Foucault, Butler, Nietzsche, and Camus are taken seriously, followed to the point where each collapses, and answered from Romans.

Essay series in progress Alia

Questions from the room

Short topical guides written in answer to real questions raised in class: justification, the sacraments, vocation, timekeeping in the Roman world, the date of the Passover, and whatever else the congregation brought to the table.

Topical guides

Who makes this, and why it is free

Everything here is written for the adult Bible class at Our Saviour Lutheran Church in Baltimore, Maryland, and taught there first. The class is small. The material seemed too good for only ten people to see, so it is published here as it is produced.

The 1580 Book of Concord is the doctrinal norm. Luther, Walther, Lenski, and Franzmann are the exegetical foundation. Law and Gospel are distinguished, the means of grace are not reduced to symbols, and justification by grace through faith alone is not negotiated.

Pastors and teachers may print, distribute, assign, and adapt any of it without asking. More about the site and its three intended readers.

The Gospel does not belong to any single building. Neither does this library.

From the About page

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