If the gospel were to grip this congregation, if we were to be the kind of people who ooze

gospel because we live on gospel, we eat gospel, we get through our days with gospel,

we handle our disappointing children with gospel, we handle our disappointing marriages

with gospel, we handle our frustrating jobs with gospel, the gospel is the way we live

everything out then the world would see the gospel.

How might the gospel transform us if we feed on it every day?

John Piper turns to Romans 116 and 17 to explore the gospel's transforming power in this

episode of Light and Truth.

This sermon was originally preached at Bethlehem Baptist Church on August 16, 1998.

What I want to focus on with you is what I see in verses 16 and 17, namely that the gospel

is the power of God for salvation to everyone who is believing.

The gospel saves believers.

Believers need to be saved from the wrath of God, from the righteous judgment of God.

That we made plain, I hope, last week.

I read it again this morning, by the way, if you're with me in reading 2 Timothy in our

through the Bible plan, 2 Timothy 418, Paul is about to die, he's in Rome, he's just barely

escaped by the skin of his teeth, his first hearing and he says, God save me from the lion's

mouth and he will deliver me from every evil deed and save me for his heavenly kingdom.

There it is.

Salvation is being rescued from the wrath of God and welcomed into heaven.

So it's still future for believers.

We'll talk a lot about the present dimensions of salvation, but I want to stress what

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