Works cannot receive grace because grace would no longer then be grace.

It would be a business transaction, it would be a debt that God owes you and God never owes you anything,

period ever.

The only way to relate to God is by grace through faith.

Yes, God's work of salvation is all of grace and cannot be earned.

It's received by grace alone through faith alone.

That's John Piper's focus in Romans 1.5 in this episode of Light and Truth.

This sermon was originally preached at Bethlehem Baptist Church on March 10, 1998.

I invite you to open your Bibles, please, if you want to follow along to Romans chapter 1,

verses 1 to 5. This is not a Mother's Day sermon, but as I wrote it, thought about it, it could be,

in fact, as I worked on particular aspects of it, I thought that would be very easy to apply

to Motherhood, and so it may be that if the Lord gives me that kind of guidance at those moments,

I will indeed apply it to a particular aspect of Motherhood, but I am moving forward together

with you in our move through Romans.

And we're going to read the first five verses, and I'm going to focus on verse 5.

Romans chapter 1, verse 1, Paul, a bond servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle,

set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy

Scriptures.

Concerning his son, who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh,

who was declared son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead,

according to the spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith

...