If you have life at all, you have life because promises were made to a Jew and God is keeping

his promises made to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and through the prophets.

And you, as a Gentile, with no merit upon this Jewish covenant at all, are freely by faith

united to that stream of life.

Why is the gospel the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes to the Jew first?

That's the question John Piper explores from Romans 116 in this episode of Light and Truth.

This sermon was originally preached at Bethlehem Baptist Church on July 5, 1998.

The gospel is the power of God, unto salvation to everyone who believes, which is unbelievably

exhilarating news for those of us who come into this room carrying something that we feel

will keep us from getting it.

Wrong family, wrong moral track record, wrong tradition, wrong sexual preference, wrong ethnic

connections, wrong socio-economic level, wrong political affiliation, wrong, wrong, wrong,

and therefore no hope for me in this religious place.

And so the word lands with tremendous exhilaration on me, everyone who believes,

one thing only need keep you away from salvation, unbelief.

Nothing else needs to keep you away.

You can let it keep you away.

You can say he won't take somebody like that.

That's just you. That's not God.

Or maybe it's the devil doing a thing, but don't let it be.

Put the Word of God against it.

The Bible says the Word of God is like a sword, so here comes the Word saying, not you.

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