Grace is owing to Jesus, not owing to us.

You end every one of your prayers, I hope.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Precisely because the only reason we can expect to be graced as we say grace is because of Jesus, not us.

We don't deserve it.

That's why it can be called grace.

I think sometimes we forget, at least functionally, that the very definition of grace is that

we don't deserve it. And yet that's what makes it such good news. I'm Dan Kroover. In this episode

of Light and Truth, John Piper turns to Romans 1-5 to show how grace always comes to us through Jesus.

This message was originally delivered at Bethlehem Baptist Church on May 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, 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 five.

Romans chapter one, verse one, 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.

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