Romans Road
WALKING THE ROMAN ROAD WITH PAUL
THEMES WE MUST UNDERSTAND AS WE JOURNEY ON THIS ROAD:
The righteousness of God is a continual attribute and is expressed within creation.
Sin and death are independent demonic powers who have seized the Law to use as a weapon against human beings who are captive to iniquity.
Christ is the new Adam who, by taking on human nature, has summarized all of human history since the fall, and has reversed that history which was toward destruction.
The Cross & Resurrection are are the first events of the age to come and they fulfill the promises made to Abraham.
Faith is the human response lit by the fire of of the Word by the Holy Spirit.
Jesus is the maker and ruler of all things and is therefore Lord.
God, through Christ, not only declares those He called righteous, but has made them so.
Imputation of this righteousness is a physical reality.
Baptism into Christ is the summary of each human life of the victory of the new Adam over the old Adam, and delivers those He has called from the powers of Sin & Death.
Christ died for the ungodly, not for the godly. Salvation, therefore, is now and always shall be far greater than we can imagine.
Being conformed into Christ is the reconciling work of God and is the sign of the new forever community awaiting the return of the Lord. Paul calls this process the “obedience of faith”.
Sin is not a collection of mistakes or missteps along the journey of life. Since Adam, Sin is what we are. It is the nature of mankind and is only resolved when each one He calls to himself becomes a new creature with a new and holy second nature.
CLEAR AND SPECIFIC STEPS WE MUST UNDERSTAND FOR SALVATION:
3:10 “As it is written, There is none righteous, no not one.”
3:23 “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.”
5:12 “Wherefore, by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for all that have sinned.”
6:23 “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
5:8-9 “But God commended his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.”
10:9-10 “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”
10:13 “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Paul taught us in Ephesians that we are saved by grace through faith. He also teaches us clearly in Romans 1:17 that once saved by faith, we are then to live by faith. To send that message he quotes Habbakuk 2:4 so as to connect the Old Testament writings to his new teaching and was calling out strongly to the Jews he tried so hard to convert. This faith was and still is in the one crucified, Jesus Christ.
Here is the new and different message Paul seeks to convey in Romans on the description of a Christian who lives by faith:
A real Christian is an oddity. He feels supreme love for one whom he has never seen and talks in a familiar way to someone he cannot see, expects to go to heaven on the virtue of another, empties himself in order to become full, admits he is wrong so he can be declared right, humbles himself downward in order to rise up, is strongest when he is weakest, richest when he is poor, and happiest in joy when he finds himself in the worst situation. He dies so he can live, forsakes in order to have, gives away so he can keep, sees the invisible, hears the inaudible, and knows where true knowledge can be found. To live by faith means embracing a lifestyle that contradicts most of life.
