The Roman Road [The Short Road]

THE SHORT ROAD

The following is a common summation of the Gospel from the Epistle of Paul to the Romans. It is commonly referred to as The Roman Road. I want to reference The Roman Road to begin with, and then expound on it in the 2nd part of this post, THE LONG ROAD. I will refer to other parts of scripture for further clarification where it is appropriate.

I want to make it clear that Christianity deals with our sin before God. The highest teaching, the basis for the gospel and Christian teaching, is that God is perfect. He is supreme, and sovereign. There is no action, no thought, no idea that is not known by God. He is “a being than which no greater can be conceived” according to St. Anselm in his famous Proslogion God is all eternal and transcendent. He is all knowing; omniscient, present everywhere; omnipresent, all powerful; omnipotent, and perfectly loving; omni-benevolent. His judgments are perfect, and He is perfectly faithful and true to His word. When He says that something will come to pass, we can believe that it will.

As such, we must understand that God is not like us. He is Spirit. He is holy and perfect; and is certainly worthy of our praise and worship.

The gospel, however, is not God glorifying Himself before us, but God reaching out to us, to share himself with us. He desires that we know Him, and has designed us to long for things better than in our current situations. The true longings of our hearts are towards what God offers. But we fail to recognize that at the end of our yearnings, our passions, our desire to fill an empty heart, is a God waiting to fill it all in; to make sense of the world around us, and our purpose in life; to give us both love and truth; to make life worth living to its fullest. And so, we begin our trek along the Roman Road.

It all begins with an acknowledgement of our sin:

[ …for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God… ] Romans 3:23 ESV

Every human being is a sinner. Since God is perfect, and there is no darkness in Him at all, we all fall short of that perfect glory. I am a sinner. Of that, I am well aware. I have committed every type of sin. I have been complicit in the sins of others; in that I am just as guilty as though I had done the crime. I have lied, I have stolen from others, I have criticized and insulted, and offended others. I have lusted. I have cursed God. I have done all manner of sin that can be imagined. I am a sinner before God, and He knows every detail. I am guilty before Him.

[ This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. ] 1 John 1:4-6 ESV

Therefore, no one is righteous before God:

[ as it is written:

“None is righteous, no, not one; 11 no one understands; no one seeks for God. 12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” 13 “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.” 14 “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.” 15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16 in their paths are ruin and misery, 17 and the way of peace they have not known.” 18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” ] Romans 3:10-18 ESV

While humans may be very religious, there are none who actually seek after the light of God’s glory. In order for us to know about God, and to know God, we require God to reach out to us.

[ For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. ] Romans 6:23 ESV

Each one of us is guilty before a perfect God, and are deserving of death for our sin; and this is an eternal death, not simply an annihilation. But God has prepared a way out of that verdict, through Jesus Christ. The undeserved and unearned reward is eternal life.

[ …but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. ] Romans 5:8 ESV

There are four accounts of the life of Jesus in the New Testament. We call these accounts Gospels. Gospel simply means good news. Jesus’ life ends in a tragedy; his death by crucifixion. However, each account tells us that Jesus’ life did not end with the crucifixion. Jesus is the eternal Son of God. Death could not take him. He rose from the dead, and is alive to this day. But truly, Jesus died for us. He died so that we could be free from the blood guilt of our sin. There is so much more to this story, which we shall not get into here, but suffice to say, there is a plethora of doctrine tied up in the self-sacrifice of Jesus on the cross of Calvary. It begins very early in the story of human history as depicted in the Old Testament scriptures, and is the focal point of salvific Christian doctrine. God had a plan to save us from the very beginning. That is the message throughout all of scripture.

[ …because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. ] Romans 10:9 ESV

While the details behind the events that lead to our salvation are quite complex, the actual act, which gains us salvation is really quite simple. It’s simple, because it is available to all of us; no matter how well-learned, or how uneducated. It’s a simple acknowledgement of faith in Jesus. It’s simply stating out loud that Jesus is Lord; that He is the master. It is believing with this, that God raised him from the dead; that the event called the resurrection occurred in history; that there was a man named Jesus in history, and that he died on a cross, was buried, and rose from the dead three days later. That’s it. That’s all that is required.

There’s no ritual required, there’s no penance, or confession before a religious person required. There’s no money owed, no education required, no secret knowledge involved, no membership in an organization required, no particular place required to acknowledge it; else it wouldn’t be available to all.

[ For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” ] Romans 10:13

The gospel is universal. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord is saved. Everyone, everywhere, throughout all time and season. God is listening, and knows the thoughts of the heart. He hears you when you call to Him, and when you confess your sins and call on his name, He’s right there listening.

[ Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. ] Romans 5:1 ESV

We now have a new condition in our hearts; the reign of peace with God. It’s that simple. God keeps His promises, and we have peace in our hearts. We know we have salvation and will live beyond our last breath, in the Kingdom of God. We don’t know all the specifics, but consider: If God knows everything, He created the universe, and He has promised a paradise beyond the current time and place where we live, how great could that be? It is beyond our imagination; that’s all that we can say for certain.

[ There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. ] Romans 8:1ESV

Being IN Christ Jesus is the assurance that we are saved. Having initially confessed Jesus as Lord; we live on in grace; the condition of having had our sins wiped away as though we had never sinned in the first place. God no longer counts our sins against us because of who Jesus is, and what he has done for us. All of our past sins are covered, and all of our present and future sins are covered. We have the assurance of salvation through the love of Jesus. How is this so?

[ For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. ] Romans 8:38-39 ESV

There is nothing that can obstruct your access to the salvation that is in Jesus. This is so because God is sovereign. He reaches out to you, and he finds you. In fact, scripture says that God’s love for us is so perfect, that He is jealous for us and He pursues us with extreme prejudice. In my own life, I can attest this to be true. I became a Christian over 35 years ago when I was a teenager. As you can imagine, the fervor towards God at a young age is quite remarkable. I was a zealot. But as the years passed, that zealotry wears off. It’s a natural condition of our sin, and our desire to pursue pleasures in life. We eventually lose that fervor, only to gain it back when we have lived to pursue that pleasure and found it unfulfilling. Since that time in the Spring of 1981 when I first called upon the Lord to save me, I can’t remember a time when I felt that God was not pursuing me, even when I didn’t have a desire to follow him earnestly. He lurks everywhere, and depending on the attitude of our heart, it can be quite annoying; yet when we are in need; it is a blessed hope. God lurks so that we can call on him whenever we are in need, and whenever we desire to serve him in order to reach out to others. “He is there,” and as late Christian philosopher, Francis Schaeffer titled his 3rd book, “…and He Is Not Silent.”

So as a practical approach to God, if you are now at the point where you trust Jesus to be your Savior, you know that you are a sinner, and you want to find the truth; the way to salvation through Jesus; you can do just that at this very moment by saying a simple prayer to God in your own words. He hears you no matter where you are, and He listens when you speak. It is in His essence as the Creator of the universe, to be able to hear everyone who calls on Him, since He is not like us; limited by our physical natures.

So when you call on Him, acknowledge Him as Lord and ask Him to forgive you, to cleanse you, and to cover your sins. Acknowledge that you believe Jesus died for you, and that you need him to be your Savior. That’s it. That’s all there really is to it, because God is faithful and He keeps His promises. All of the scriptures we have listed above are God’s promises.

God Bless You.

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