The freest people in all the world are the most sacrificial, lay down your life, loving people,

and don't have to be in bondage to all the same junk that the world is in bondage to, to surround themselves with comforts and ease.

The free people are loving people.

John Piper describes a kind of freedom that runs counter to the world's way of thinking,

the kind in which love actually flourishes. I'm Dan Kruver. In this episode of Light and Truth, John Piper opens Romans 7 verses 1 to 6 and begins to unpack Christianity's vision of Christ-centered love.

This message was originally delivered at Bethlehem Baptist Church on February 11, 2001.

Let's pray together.

When we were in the flesh, Father, that is when we were just plain ordinary humans without the Holy Spirit, without grace, without faith.

Our sinful passions prostituted the holy law of God and made it an instrument to defeat its own demands.

And thus we showed ourselves to be exceedingly sinful.

Father, I pray that we would sense the weight of sin this morning,

that there's a reality in the world that is mammoth beyond human description.

It's the cause of all suffering in the universe.

It's the cause of all suffering in the universe. It's the cause of infinite wrath from you.

It's the cause of the creation of hell.

It's the ruination of marriages.

And it's called sin.

Lord, acquaint us with the weight of this malady in our lives.

Don't let us take lightly our condition.

Help us to feel the appropriate seriousness of our own rebelliousness and insubordination.

And grant I pray that seeing ourselves for who we are, the cross of Jesus Christ, the blood of Christ, the resurrection of Christ, the intercession for us by Christ in heaven, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit of Christ,

the Church of Christ, the Word of Christ would appear to us for what it really is of infinite value

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