The Romans Road

First Baptist Church

May 5, 2002

The Romans Road

Romans 3:23, 6:23, 10:9, 13

For the past two weeks we’ve been talking about evangelism, To think of your self as an evangelist can be pretty scary, but evangelism is simply, you and I ‘proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ.’ That’s the definition of evangelism. But the question that comes to mind, how do we use scripture to get the message across to others that salvation is available through Jesus?

Today, I want us to go down a very specific path, in fact it is called the Romans Road, because all the main scriptures we use will come from the book of Romans. Some of you may already be tuning out, thinking this stuff isn’t for me. But what if someone came to you and asked you to show them some scriptures that could help lead them to understand a plan of salvation. Where would you look?

You see, what if my father who will be 85 this year, came to Ashland and decided to my amazement that he wanted to hear me speak and after worship he asked you about your faith and how do you become a Christian. What would you say?

He might ask one of two people he got to know. He might ask Carl. Carl, he still talks about you. He was impressed with of all things. . . your physique. He also got to know Tom. What if he asked you? Or maybe he would say you guys are too young. And he went over to a contemporary, someone who’s retired. What would you say to my father? How would you explain to him a method or plan for salvation?

More than anything we help lead people to Christ because our walk and our talk are congruent. We proclaim we’re Christians and then we live a lifestyle that constantly seeks to honor and glorify God. It means when we make a mistake we admit it and apologize, as hard as that may be. It means that when someone does something good, we congratulate them, even though we wanted that position. It’s easy to say you’re a Christian, but it’s harder, much harder to be one.

However, when we say we’re a Christian, and then steal, cheat, are dishonest, lie, swear, and generally show morals and ethics that leave a lot to be desired. That does more to turn people away from Christ. You know the saying, "You may be the only Bible that person will ever read." So what are they reading?

Once you’ve established a relationship with a non-believer, and they show interest in the Bible, you may now have a chance to show them the Romans Road. You can even just talk about it casually and then when it comes time to show them, they have some familiarity with it.

Well, are you ready to get into the nitty-gritty of the Romans Road? I hope so. In your sermon notes, you have a pretty detailed sketch of a combination of the Romans Road and Bridge illustrations. All this takes is knowledge of a few scriptures. Hopefully, though, your knowledge of scripture is greater, thus making it easier to describe the plan of salvation.

The first scripture comes from Romans 3:23, "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."

You see God is holy and we are not, so in order for someone to become a Christian and experience a relationship with God, they firstly have to admit that this verse applies to them— that they are sinners separated from God.

The word "SIN" has become an obscure word that people don’t like to hear and don’t like to use. Sin literally means that someone has missed the mark. They’ve missed the mark of being holy like God. So, if you want to skip using the word sin, try saying they’ve done wrong things. We’ve all hurt people, sometimes accidentally and sometimes on purpose.

Before Debbie and I moved to Ashland, we bought new carpeting for our home. We looked at tons of carpet samples and finally settled on a light beige. As soon as it was put down we knew that it must be protected from stains at all costs, so the law was given! No one was to walk on the carpet with their shoes on. It was like our house was the Garden of Eden and the law was, "You may wear shoes and walk anywhere you want in this house... but not on the wall to wall carpet... for on the day that you leave a stain upon it, you shall surely die!" Well, it wasn’t too long before "the FALL" occurred. Stains began to appear here and there and we investigated, and I found that Debbie was the one who had fallen. No, just joking. There wasn’t just one stainer, there were two. We were guilty. We deserved to be "called on the carpet" because from time to time we ignored the law. The same has now occurred at the parsonage. Only now there are 4 guilty parties in the Deutsch family, and even a few of you have left some trails.