Roman Road
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Here’s a question for you, what exactly are mothers, or should I say, what makes a good mother? There are lots of descriptions we might give, but I think we can all agree that good mothers are teachers and disciplinarians. They are nurses, doctors, psychologists, and counselors. And mothers are also developers of personalities, and shapers of attitudes. Mothers do all of this while having a soft voices that can say, “I love you” with an affection that is a direct link to God himself. Mothers are all of these things, and more.
We usually think of God’s love in terms of a father, especially since Jesus taught us to pray “Our father.” However, there are also numerous passages in the Bible where God’s love is compared to the love of a mother. So we give thanks for those mothers who show us God’s love and encourage us in our walk with God.
SLIDE 1 I don’t usually do this, but I want to give an advertisement for my upcoming sermon series. January and February I preached on the Beatitudes from Matthew 5. The Beatitudes are found at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount. Starting next Sunday I am going to start preaching on the rest of that sermon. So we’ll spend a couple of months looking at chapter 5, 6, and 7 of Matthew’s gospel. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus tells us what it means to live in his kingdom. The religious leaders of Jesus’ day had misunderstood what it meant to live for God. In his sermon Jesus corrects many of their misconceptions. I’m looking forward to this series and pray that you will be encouraged from it.
SLIDE 2 This morning I want to take us down the Roman Road. If you’re not familiar with the phrase the Roman Road it is a way of explaining the gospel to an unbeliever. There are lots of formats that can be used to share the gospel, this is just one way based on verses from Paul’s letter to the Romans. I want to share this for a couple of reasons. First, we don’t always know what to say to those unfamiliar with the gospel. These verses show us what to say. You don’t have to memorize anything. You don’t even have to read anything. You just need the list of verses. You turn to a verse, have the person you’re talking to read it out loud, and then ask them what the verse says to them allowing God’s Spirit to challenge them. Then you move on to the next verse.
The second reason I want to share this is there are some who call themselves Christians but don’t really understand the gospel. I’ve talked to and read about people who grew up attending church and believed themselves to be saved only to come to an understanding of the gospel as adults and realize they didn’t really know what they were talking about. My mother grew up attending church every time the door was open. She was in the youth choir and then as an adult continued singing in the choir and even teaching a children’s Sunday school class. But she wasn’t saved till she was thirty on Mother’s Day and the difference in her life was dramatic. So it never hurts to refresh the meaning of the gospel.
1. Our Condition
SLIDE 3 So I want you to follow along with me as we go through Paul’s epistle to the Romans. If you brought your Bible you can turn to chapter 3. If you didn’t bring your Bible I strongly encourage you to follow along in the pew Bible in front of you.
We’ll start down the Roman Road by looking at 2 verses in chapter 3. The first verses we’ll look at describe our condition.
As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one.” (Romans 3:10)
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23)
We don’t tend to use words like righteous and sin in everyday conversation so they may need some explanation. Righteous simply means being right with God. Sin means falling short of God’s perfection. These verses tell us that we are sinners and therefore we are not right before God.
Most people don’t think of themselves as sinners. People tend to think of a sinner as someone who is morally depraved, dangerous and violent, or just plain disgusting. They figure they are not that bad. But nobody in their right mind thinks they’re perfect. And if you’re not perfect in every action, word, and thought then the Bible describes you as a sinner. Jesus said, “Be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect.”
Has anyone here ever told a lie before. Has anyone here ever taken something that didn’t belong to them. Has anyone here ever had evil thoughts about someone. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus equates that to murder. I don’t think there’s anyone in here that hasn’t done those things. Therefore, everyone of us is a lying, thieving, murder. I’ve only listed three of the Ten Commandments and we’ve broken all three of them. There’s a good chance we’ve broken the other seven as well.
No one is perfect. Everyone is flawed. Everyone is a sinner.
SLIDE 4 Turn to Romans 6:23 and see what it says about the consequences of sin.
For the wages of sin is death. . . . (Romans 6:23a)
The wages or result of sin is death. The deadliest killer in this world isn’t heart disease or cancer or AIDS or war, it’s sin. Sin is the epidemic that no one can avoid and sin sickness is always terminal. There are no exceptions. Sin always leads to death and we are all sinners.
2. God’s Solution
SLIDE 5 If we stopped there with only the first part of the verse the Roman Road would be a dead end – literally. But Romans 6:23 immediately takes a life-saving turn.
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23)
Even though we have sinned, broken God’s commands, and deserve his punishment God offers us eternal life. We find out how in Romans 5. SLIDE 6
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)
That’s it – God loves us. In fact, God loves us so much he allowed his only Son to die for our sins. God doesn’t love us because we’re good – we’ve already seen that we’re all sinners. He doesn’t do it because we deserve it. What we deserve is death. God does it simply because he loves us. More than a mother could ever love her child God loves us.
3. Our Response
SLIDE 7 Jesus offers Salvation as a free gift, but it does no good unless you choose to accept the gift. A response is required. What are our responses? First, there is faith.
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 5:1)
This is where the rubber hits the road. This is where so many people have difficulty. It’s often difficult to realize that we’re sinners and therefore deserve God’s punishment. Once we do it can be difficult to understand why God would still love us. But harder still is understanding our response. Summed up in one word it’s faith. We are made right with God – justified – through our faith in Jesus who died for our sins.
The difficult part of this response is where we place our faith. People have all kinds of fuzzy definitions for the word faith. For some, it is a vague kind of positive thinking. “My faith will get me through.” The question is, faith in what?
Too many place faith in themselves. If you ask them if they’ll go to heaven when they die they’re sure they will. If you ask them why they’ll tell you it’s because they’ve tried to live a good life. Who is that putting faith in? It’s putting faith in ourselves. But we’ve already seen that faith in ourselves is misguided. We’ve already admitted that we’re lying, thieving, murders. There is nothing we can do for ourselves. There is nothing we can do to earn or deserve our forgiveness and salvation. Our only hope is Jesus. Our faith therefore, is not in what we might do, but in what Jesus has done for us.
So what does it mean to have faith in Jesus? Many will say they believe in God. They may even say they believe Jesus is the Son of God. That’s great, but the Bible tells us that even demons believe those things. However, they have not placed their faith in Jesus. Placing your faith in Jesus is not only believing that he died for your sins but trusting that you’re sins are forgiven and that you’ll be going to heaven because of that. It has nothing to do with whatever good things you’ve managed to do, it’s all about what Jesus has done for you.
Our first response is faith. SLIDE 8 Our second response is repentance. Repentance is turning away from sin. It was sin that separated from God therefore we must turn away from sin and to God.
SLIDE 9 Turn to Romans 10. Our third response is confession. To confess is to admit publicly. What are we confessing?
9If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. (Romans 10:9-10)
13For, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Romans 10:13)
Confession lets others know what has been happening inside our minds and hearts. Confession is a public commitment.
If you’ve ever been to a wedding you’ve heard the minister say something like, “Will you take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife?” What would you think if the Groom answered, “That’s none of your business. This is a private thing between me and her.” That would never do. Vows are public. You want everyone there to know.
Confession is to salvation what vows are to a wedding. When you take Christ as Savior, you can’t keep it a secret. With your heart you believe and with your mouth you confess.
SLIDE 10 Our fourth response is baptism. Romans 6 gives a wonderful description of baptism and why it’s important.
3Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. 5For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. (Romans 6:3-5)
In baptism we identify with the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. Baptism is a picture of the salvation story. Going under the water represents the death of our old life, and just as Jesus was raised from the dead we come up out of the water to live a new life. Baptism marks the line of demarcation between our old life and our new life in Jesus. Jesus commanded that we be baptized.
SLIDE 11 Baptism is not the end though, it is a beginning. We are not just believers in Christ, we are his followers. Therefore, our fifth response is to live for Jesus.
1Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God – this is your true and proper worship. 2Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will. (Romans 12:1-2)
Our life of faith involves offering ourselves to God in obedience as well as the renewal of our minds as we read, study, and meditate on his word – the Bible. We do this daily so that our connection with God will remain fresh and new all through our lives.
4. God’s Promise
SLIDE 12 Turn to Romans 8. The final stop on the Roman Road tells us about the promises of God for everyone who will accept his offer of salvation.
1Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. (Romans 8:1-2)
There is no condemnation left for you once you accept Jesus as your Savior. None of us follows Jesus perfectly. Even after he saves us we continue to miss the mark and fail him. However, you don’t need to wonder if you really belong to God, because it’s not up to you. We don’t put trust in ourselves, we place all our trust in him. We depend on him. And we know that God is for us. We know this because he already sent Jesus to die for us.
SLIDE 13 Let’s look at one last passage found at the end of chapter 8.
31What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all – how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died – more than that, who was raised to life – is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:31-39)
We no longer have to wonder if God is on our side. He is always on our side. The next time you feel anxious, hopeless, or defeated, remember that God is on your side. God is FOR you.
SLIDE 14 I want to challenge you in two ways this morning.
First, I want to challenge you to become an evangelist. Take these Roman Road notes home. Use them to plan your own way of presenting the gospel. If you didn’t get the verses down and you’d like a list of the verses you can ask me for them later. You don’t need to say everything I said this morning. Mark the scriptures in your Bible or write them on a piece of paper that you can carry with you. You never know when you'll have an opportunity to tell someone about Jesus.
Tina Blessit tells the story of her 9-year-old son, Austin, had his tonsils removed in the fall of 2005. Before the surgery the anesthesiologist came in to start an IV. He was wearing a cool surgical cap covered in colorful frogs which Austin loved. When the doctor started to leave, Austin called out, “Hey, wait.” When the doctor turned back around Austin asked, “Do you go to church?” “No,” the doctor admitted. “I know I probably should, but I don’t.” Austin then Austin asked, “Well, are you saved?” Chuckling nervously, the doctor said: “Nope. But after talking to you, maybe it's something I should consider.” Pleased with his response, Austin answered, “Well you should, ‘cause Jesus is great!”
When Austin's surgery was finished, the anesthesiologist came into the waiting room to talk to his family. He said the surgery had gone well and then added, “Mrs. Blessit, I don’t usually come down and talk to the parents after a surgery, but I just had to tell you what your son did.” The doctor explained that he’d just put the mask on Austin when he signaled that he needed to say something. When the doctor removed the mask, Austin blurted, “Wait a minute, we have to pray!” The doctor told him to go ahead, and Austin prayed:
Dear Lord, please let all the doctors and nurses have a good day. And Jesus, please let the doctor with the frog hat get saved and start going to church. Amen.
The doctor admitted that this prayer had touched him. “I was so sure he would pray that his surgery went well,” he explained. “He didn't even mention his surgery. He prayed for me! Mrs. Blessit, I had to come down and let you know what a great little guy you have.”
A few minutes later, a nurse came to take her to post-op. She had a big smile on her face as we walked to the elevator. “There's something you should know,” she said. “Some of the other nurses and I have been witnessing to and praying for that doctor for a long time. After your son’s surgery, he tracked a few of us down to tell us about Austin’s prayer. He said, ‘Well girls, you got me. If that little boy could pray for me when he was about to have surgery, then I think maybe I need his Jesus, too.’ ”
I challenge you to look for opportunities to be an evangelist. You never know when an opportunity to present the gospel may come your way, so keep you eyes open.
Second, I want to challenge you to consider what I’ve said personally. Have you accepted the gospel? I’m not asking if you go to church, read the Bible, or believe in Jesus. I’m asking if you have admitted your sins and placed your trust in Jesus who died for you. As I said earlier, I’ve heard of too many people who’ve gone to church and believe in God but have never placed their faith in Jesus. Have you?
Have you realized that you are a sinner who needs to be made right with God? Do you understand that God is offering you salvation freely through faith in Jesus Christ?