Paul's goal in his apostolic ministry is not just to get first-time professions of faith.

His goal is to get the obedience of faith, something that shows in marriages, something that shows in marriages something that shows in race relations

something that shows on the streets next Sunday something that shows downtown and in your schools

and in your homes and in the neighborhoods because it's obedience it it's outward, and it's coming from faith.

That's his goal.

And so he says, I'm going to come and preach the gospel.

It's really clarifying to hear Paul say his goal, his apostolic objective out loud. He wants obedience, but not the kind

you grit your teeth into, but the kind that grows out of faith. And that's why the gospel never

become something that we outgrow. I'm Dan Kroover. In this episode of Light and Truth,

John Piper turns to Romans 1, verses 8 to 15, to help us see why Christians need the gospel

every day. This message was originally delivered at Bethlehem Baptist Church on June 7, 1998.

Would you focus with me now on verse 14 for a few minutes?

I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. Or, like the King James

version, has it more literally, I am debtor. I'm going to use that translation because I think

the word debtor, which is where I want to hang about 10 minutes worth of my thinking, I think the word debtor, which is where I want to hang about 10 minutes worth of my thinking,

I think that word stirs up a lot of very, very important thinking for us.

I am debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to wise and to foolish. So my question, first of all,

is what's the debt? What does he have to pay to the barbarians? What does he have to pay to the Greeks,

the foolish, the wise, so that the accounts are settled.

And I think verse 15 gives the answer, you see the connection there, so, or thus,

since I am a debtor to them, so, from my part, I am eager to preach the gospel also to you who are in Rome.

So the debt seems to be the gospel.

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