Romans - Paul's Magnum Opus

The letter to the Romans is the Apostle Paul’s magnum opus, or great work.  Here Paul gives a complete and thorough doctrinal basis for the gospel message and for how that should be applied in a person’s life after believing in faith.  Many people witness the gospel from Romans by citing several verses that make statements.  This practice is known as the Romans Road.  In this episode we will present the Romans Road through a series of five-questions.  Luke portrays Jesus in his gospel as teaching by asking questions.   

Creators & Guests

Host

Andrew

Andrew is a master storyteller. Having flown multiengine, bomber planes; practiced law; and earned a seminary degree, he draws upon a deep bank of experience and knowledge. Yeah, he is one of those guys who knows Greek. But coming out of a working-class home, he speaks plainly and clearly. His podcasts are thought-provoking and entertaining. His passion for God’s Word comes out in every episode.

Producer

Tom Kjeldgaard

Follower of Christ, Maker, Business Consultant, Husband, Father

What is Biblical Reflections?

Join host Andrew as he walks us through sections of scripture allowing us to reflect on what God is telling us. Yeah, he is one of those guys who knows Greek. But coming out of a working-class home, he speaks plainly and clearly. His podcasts are thought-provoking and entertaining. His passion for God’s Word comes out in every episode.

Andrew: 00:06

Greetings. Here we are in our series, the gospel of basic truth. We're looking at places in scripture where we can find the gospel message other than John 3 16, and today, we're going back to the book of Romans. We briefly talked about the book of Romans when we were in our 3rd episode and talked about the apostle Paul. Today we're gonna spend some more time, and so as we look at the Book of Romans, some things to remind ourselves.

Andrew: 00:41

So Paul wrote to churches that he planted and he wrote to, 2 of his associates, Timothy and Titus. Now Paul's, letters to the churches, typically all follow a a particular format. There are 4 parts in Paul's letters. There's a greeting at the beginning, and at the end there's a goodbye, a closure, you know, some words of encouragement to people he knows and vice versa. And then in the middle, the middle 2 parts are always teaching.

Andrew: 01:13

The first part, and it's always the largest part, Paul is teaching and it's some theological issue. The second part of the teaching is always application. Now that we have the teaching done in the theology, Paul then says, and now here is how it should play out, here is how it should work out in your life. Now Paul, in writing to these churches, and these are churches that he had planted, there are issues, and so each of the letters addresses a particular issue. As we talked about in Galatians, Paul is dealing with a church who is being tempted to leave the gospel and go on to other things, and so he's he sets out the gospel in in pretty salty language to them.

Andrew: 01:58

The Corinthian letters, Paul is dealing with a very wealthy church, it's kind of like Orange County, California. You've got everybody's got their own business, you know, every guy's driving a Beamer, he's got a Rolex, and every every wife is was a cheerleader when she was in high school. It was that kind of church, and there, Paul is dealing with, and this will shock you, of course, they had a lot of sexual immorality there, and they had charismatic chaos in their worship service. They were all saved people, but they were just kind of forgetting themselves, and so Paul is trying to remind them. So just a couple of examples.

Andrew: 02:37

Every letter deals with an issue specific to that church, there's theological teaching and then application. Romans is different though. Paul did not plant the church in Rome. Now it's clear when we get to chapter 16, which is the closing, that he knows several of the people there, but he did not plant this church, and it doesn't really appear that he's necessarily aware of any issues, but he writes this letter. I think what it's telling, and let me start with a kind of a trick question, who was the book of Romans written to?

Andrew: 03:16

Now it's easy to say it was written to the Romans, but, again, no, that that's not right. It was written to the church in Rome. Now as we look at the chapter 16, the last chapter, it's clear when he was greeting many of the people in the church in his closing statement there, he knows many of them, these were Jews, you know, Priscilla and Aquila, just people that he'd known from other places. There's a series of a list of names that he greets and historians tell us, oh, those are all classic slave names. Turns out many of the people in this church were actually slaves in the Imperial household of Caesar, and 1 of the names mentioned is actually, someone who was, is known in history who was a a freeman.

Andrew: 04:06

He had a slave who'd been freed by Tiberias Caesar prior Caesar. So Paul is writing to the church in Rome and, yeah, there may have been some Roman citizens in that church, but, by and large, it was a pretty international church with, again, a lot of slaves and, and a lot of Jews. Now why why does he write in Greek? So he's writing to the church in Rome. Now Rome is the capital city of really what was probably the largest empire in human history.

Andrew: 04:41

There's a million people. Now it's true that in most of the western part of the Empire they spoke Greek, in the eastern part of the Empire they typically spoke Aramaic in the marketplace, but in Rome, you know, when did Rome do as the Romans? You would think he would have written to them in Latin, but he doesn't, he writes to them in Greek. You know, it's kind of like what if somebody was to write to a church here, your church here in America from another country, and they wrote it in Spanish. Yes, many people could read that letter, but most of us probably could not.

Andrew: 05:19

So isn't it curious that he's writing to the church in Rome and that he doesn't write in the language that they would normally speak. He writes again in Koineo Greek. Friends, I believe that Paul was not just writing to the church in Rome, I think he was looking far beyond that church. He he knew that he was writing this for time and eternity. Paul knew that when he wrote this letter that we'd be reading it 2000 years ago today as I'm speaking, and it is his great work, as they say in Latin, his magnus opus.

Andrew: 06:05

Now, in Romans, the first half of the first chapter is the greeting, and so as we get into the theological teaching, he's teaching about salvation, and then that finishes in 11, and then 12 through 15, we have the application. Let's stop for a minute and talk about salvation. Salvation really comes in 3 parts or 3 steps: the first step we say you are being saved from the penalty of sin. The next step we say you are being saved from the power of sin, and the third step is you are being saved from the presence of sin. Now the big theological words here are justification, sanctification, and glorification.

Andrew: 06:55

Alright. Those are the big words. Put those aside. The first step in salvation is kind of what we would think. You acknowledge that you are a sinner, that Jesus is God come in the flesh who died on the cross to pay the penalty for your sin, and you accept that gift in faith, And at that moment, it's a moment in time you are saved from the penalty of sin, which is separation from God and, ultimately, eternal punishment.

Andrew: 07:27

What happens after you're saved though? Well, you're still living in the flesh, and you're still gonna sin, and we know that because John tells us that in John 1:9. So everybody sins. So after you're saved that moment in time, the rest of your life, you are in that struggle trying to live the Christian life, trying to separate yourself from that power of sin. Now, it's never a straight upward path, you have good days and bad days, but we call that process sanctification.

Andrew: 08:01

Now finally, if when you die or if the Lord comes in the rapture, someday you will be in heaven with Christ as he rules and reigns on the throne and sin will not be present at all and you will be glorified along with Christ. So that is salvation. It's really 3 parts. Now it's not like you can only get 1 part and not the others. The book of Ephesians is very clear.

Andrew: 08:26

God chose us before the beginning of the world for all 3 of these things. So you get 1, you get them all. Now here in Romans, bringing them back, the first part of the book of Romans, we're dealing with that justification. How do you get saved? And then as and so and that's through about chapter 8.

Andrew: 08:51

And then from there until the end of 11, he talks about sanctification. So that's kind of how the book is laid out. Today, we're gonna talk actually about what's called the Romans Road. Now many of you may know what that is. I'll tell you, I, my wife and I are what we call 4 presenters.

Andrew: 09:12

I don't know, maybe I've said this before, but I read these reports and studies that say that most people come to the Lord before their age of 30, and in fact surveys, at least in modern times, only 4% of Christians come to salvation after the age of 30. My wife and I had been married 10 years when we got saved, so we're 4 percenters. I do though remember as a child someone speaking to my mother and this person had a Bible and they were All I remember was something about the Romans Road. Now I was a child, the person was not speaking to me. I really wasn't following it at all.

Andrew: 09:57

I got to university, and there were godly people there. Unfortunately, they they tended to be kind of what I call bad breath evangelism, you know. Are you saved? I don't know what you're talking about. And I can remember some people trying to explain the Romans Road, but, again, you know, I guess I did not have ears to hear.

Andrew: 10:22

Now as we go however many, you know, 50 years later, here we are. Romans Road is very interesting. So far in all the episodes I have, you know, focused on a person or some or somebody and and looked at maybe, you know, just a couple of verses to say, okay, here's the gospel. The Romans Road actually sets the gospel out, but it kind of jumps all around the book of Romans, and so you're gonna have to put all these verses together and you get the gospel. Many, many missionaries, evangelists, pastors, lay people, they memorize these verses and so they use that as a witnessing tool.

Andrew: 11:09

Again, it was presented, the 2 times when I was younger in a way that I wasn't following it. Obviously, once I was very young. I was doing some research on this and I found something, a really great resource on the Internet, and it was written by a lady named Mary Fairchild, and she sets this out, it's just a web page, and and it just gives her name and it says updated August 9, 2021. What Mary did is just fascinating. Now remember I said there's different types of teaching and and traditionally there's always been 3 ways to teach or what the smart kids say, teaching modalities.

Andrew: 11:57

Remember Matthew shows Jesus teaching formally or the didactic method where you just get up and lecture, which is what I think people were doing when the first couple times I heard the Roman road, and maybe that's why I didn't get it. The second form of teaching we we see Jesus using in the book of Mark, and this is kinetic or experiential teaching, and this is kind of how you learn to ride a bike, play an instrument, you know, and that's how you learn there. And then finally in Luke, the the third type of teaching was what they call dialectics, and it's a series of questions and answers. Alright. Mary, Fairchild takes the Romans Road and she puts it into 5 questions, and I went through that and I said, ah, this is genius.

Andrew: 12:51

So that's what we're gonna do today. I think it is much easier to understand the Romans Road when you go through these questions. Now before we do that, I'm going to tell you another little side story, or let me ask you a question first. Have you ever tried to give the gospel by asking questions? K.

Andrew: 13:11

Well, we're gonna do that today, in these 5 questions, but it reminded me of a time, my brother-in-law, John. John and I were 2 completely 180 degree different people. Okay. John is an easygoing kind of guy, or he was, he's gone to be with the Lord now, and you know, and I'm a type AA kind of guy. John was a conscientious objector.

Andrew: 13:37

I ended the military at 17. Ended up going to a military academy. John did all the recreational drugs, and and I I don't even know what they look like. Okay. So very different kind of people.

Andrew: 13:49

I wanna tell you, John and I became very, very close, and, I guess, opposites attract. Anyway, somebody had given John some books in the left behind series, so written several years ago, and it deals with the rapture and what happens if the rapture comes and you're left behind. So John was reading those, I don't know how many he wrote, but he became convicted like, oh my gosh, I'm gonna you know, what's gonna happen to me? Because he realized whatever he needed, he didn't have. So we were at a Labor Day birthday party, picnic, out by the pool, you know, real Southern California, and, after dinner and a presents and a cake, and it's getting dusk, everybody's going in, and so I'm supposed to and my wife and sister-in-law are telling me, you gotta talk to John.

Andrew: 14:42

So okay. I don't know that my heart was in it that day, but, you know, when you're called to do something, you do it. Right? So what am I gonna say to John? So the 2 of us are sitting out there, and so I say, John, are you going to be left behind?

Andrew: 15:01

And he's like, what? And I said, are you gonna be left so I started with a question, and that actually started in, honestly, folks, I don't think anything I said after that God called him. I was just there putting my hand out when the fruit fell off the tree, but I thought it was interesting that I could engage him in a conversation by starting it out with a question. So just that as, gee, this technique works. So I am going to give you these 5 questions, and I'm gonna say each 1 5 times, then I'm gonna go back through and we're gonna read the Bible verses from Romans to explain each 1 of these things.

Andrew: 15:44

And I'll say it again at the end. But if you get done listening to this and you go, gee, that's kind of interesting, and you would like a written outline of this, just contact the radio, station and I'll make sure that, they can they can send you an email with with the document that that sets out the outline of this. Alright. So as Mary Fairchild presents it, here we go. Question number 1.

Andrew: 16:09

So if you got your pen and paper, 'Who needs salvation?' Who needs salvation? Number 2: Why do we need salvation? Why do we need salvation? Question number 3: How does God provide or give us salvation? How does God provide this salvation?

Andrew: 16:40

Question 4, okay, how do we receive or accept salvation? How do we receive or accept salvation? And finally, the last question is, what are the results of salvation? What are the results of salvation? Alright.

Andrew: 16:59

Let's go back to the first question. So as Mary Fairchild presented it, she gives the question, who needs salvation? You know, if you are talking to a particular person, I would change this question a little bit and say, hey, do you need salvation or do you think you need salvation? I would make it real personal for a person. So that's the question, who needs salvation?

Andrew: 17:28

And there are a couple of sections of verses here in Romans that answers that question. So you would ask the question, see what the person has to say, and then say, well, okay. Let's see what scripture says about it. And now we're gonna go to Romans, and this is called the Romans road. So the first 1, is Romans 3:9 through 12, and I'll read that, all people, whether Jews or Gentiles I'm gonna stop there.

Andrew: 17:59

You know, in that world, there were 2 kinds of people. You were either Jewish or you weren't, and if you weren't, then you were a Gentile. All people, whether Jews or Gentiles, are under the power of sin. As the Scriptures say, what then? Are we Jews any better off?

Andrew: 18:17

No. Not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, and that is interchangeable words, Greeks and Gentiles, are under sin, As it is written, no 1 is righteous, no, no not 1, no 1 understands, no 1 seeks God, all have turned aside together and have become worthless, no 1 does good, not even 1. 1 more verse here to answer the question, who needs salvation, and that is Romans 3 23. Now this is a good memory verse, so this is 1 of the verses that I learned when I was involved with, the Navigator Ministry and, you had the bridge diagram.

Andrew: 19:02

So I actually was able to come to the Lord by studying the bridge diagram, and this is 1 of the verses that you would memorize. Here it is. Romans 3/23. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of god. Who needs salvation?

Andrew: 19:21

Everyone needs salvation according to these verses. So the Romans Road begins with the truth that everyone needs salvation because all people have sinned. Okay, what is sin? Breaking rules, breaking laws, doing something that God says we should not do, breaking our relationship with God. So all have sinned, nobody gets a free ride, every person is guilty before God, we all fall short of the mark.

Andrew: 19:55

Now if you if you get that far with a person, that's great, you can go on to the next question, but as you're going through this question, who needs salvation, and you're trying to make the point that the person you're talking to needs salvation, you're gonna want them to agree, like, okay, let's just take scripture at face value. Let's say this is true. Do you need salvation according to the Bible? And the person should say yes. Have you ever sinned?

Andrew: 20:29

Well, what's a sin? Well, have you ever had a guilty conscience for doing something? Yeah? Well, God's Law is written on your heart, so if you had a guilty conscience, you know in your heart you have sinned. So, if you are a sinner, do you need salvation?

Andrew: 20:45

Well, I guess according to Scripture. Alright, if you can get that far with a person you go on to the second question Alright, assuming that we all need salvation, why do we need salvation? And the next verse that you would ask them, they probably don't really know how to answer you, so you say, well, let's see what scripture says, so Romans 623, for the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Again, this is another memory verse. When I walked for a while with the Navs, the, they'd have different memory packs.

Andrew: 21:28

I think I memorized 5, so I think I memorized 60 of their verses. And this was 1, again, in the first pack when you when you go through the bridge diagram and the question of salvation. So why do we need salvation? Well, from step question 1, we know that we are sinners, and this says that because we sin, the consequence is death. Now it's physical death, spiritual death, separation, and enmity with God.

Andrew: 22:07

Okay? And if the Lord tarries and you die and you're not saved, you go into the temporary holding place which is called hell. This is bad, but then there's going to be a great white throne judgment at the end of time. Everybody's going to be resurrected, and then if you're unsaved, you're going to go into the lake of fire, and that's really, really bad. Okay.

Andrew: 22:31

That's like torment forever. Years ago, I knew a man, Dave. Dave was in his seventies. He was 1 of our small group leaders, he and his wife. Dave was a super friendly guy, and he was a salesman, and he could talk to anybody about anything, he could sell anybody, anything.

Andrew: 22:50

He was also quite a ladies' man, so he really outgoing guy. And he was a man that was always leading somebody to the Lord. It seemed like every year, every 18 months, he'd he'd have somebody new, and he would bring them to church, and he would be bringing it's just I don't know how he did it. He witnessed to somebody who was in their sixties seventies, and next thing you know, they accept Christ, and Dave would work with him for a year or so. And so we were teasing him 1 day at 1 of our meetings that, you know, he could, you know, he could witness to anybody about anything.

Andrew: 23:32

Anyways, so we offered him a challenge. I reached into my pocket and I pulled out a penny, and I said, okay, Dave, here's a penny. Witness offer this penny. And he thinks for a minute and he goes, you know, you know where that penny came from? You earned that penny.

Andrew: 23:54

You know, you work 40 hours a week, and every 2 weeks, you get a paycheck. The money you get, like that penny, are the wages for your work. So that's what you earned. In the same way, when you sin the wages you earn are death. You earned this because you sinned.

Andrew: 24:23

The good news and now we go to the second part of Romans 6/23. But the free gift alright? Sin is what we earned, but this eternal life in Christ Jesus is a gift, and it's a free gift, and it comes from God. Did, and because we are sinners, our sin has earned us what we deserve, which is eternal condemnation, spiritual and physical death. But the good news is that we can have eternal life, all that paid off, all that penalty paid off and it's free, but it's in Christ Jesus.

Andrew: 25:15

Now hopefully at this question, as you go through the answers, people will understand wages, They'll understand what a gift is, and hopefully as as you go through the the question and you see what they say, you read the verses, and you talk about it a little bit, hopefully, those wheels will start turning. Oh, I deserve this. Yeah, and you can't escape it. Now, we go to the 3rd question. All right, we see that we need salvation from question 2, and question 3 then okay the logical question is how does God provide this salvation?

Andrew: 26:00

How does God provide this salvation? And see what they say So we have another memory verse here, Romans 5:8, but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. So how does God provide salvation? Through the death resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the god man, lived a sinless life, died on the cross, not to pay the penalty of his sins, but to pay the penalty of all of our sins.

Andrew: 26:36

Okay. His last words on the cross were it's finished and He uses a word which means paid in full, tetelestai. What's paid in full? The debt of our sin. It's paid in full.

Andrew: 26:53

So through the death and resurrection of God's own Son, our debt that we owed satisfied. Someone else paid our traffic ticket. Alright. So that makes sense hopefully to the person and they're following you, hopefully you get a bit more interest here. We all have sinned, okay, the wages of sin are death that's part 2 God provides salvation to us through the death of Jesus on the cross.

Andrew: 27:28

Now, number 4, how do we receive okay, you ask them, how do we receive salvation? You know, maybe a simpler word. How do we accept it? It's a gift. Now think of you're at a birthday party.

Andrew: 27:44

Everybody brings you gifts. Somebody you don't like comes in and says I brought a gift for you. I don't want it. God, I don't like you. I don't want your gift.

Andrew: 27:54

You You know, you don't have to take it. You can leave it on the table and everybody can go home, and this gift will still be sitting there. So God provides us this gift. How do we receive it? How do we accept that gift?

Andrew: 28:14

Got a couple verses here. The first, is Romans 109 and 10. 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. For with the heart 1 believes and is justified and with the mouth 1 confesses and is saved. I just wanna focus on verse 9 though.

Andrew: 28:38

If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, what does that mean? Well, in our day and age may not be clear, but certainly 2000 years ago, that statement would have been crystal clear to the people, in the Roman Empire. When Caesar Augustus became the first emperor, he very quickly realized that you know, nationalism was not a good thing. You know, he was a globalist and so and as I've said before, more and more people in the Roman Legions were foreigners, you know, you don't want citizens to get some idea and have weapons or something. So Very early on, Caesar Augustus realized he had to get personal loyalty from each person, and so he went to the Roman Senate and he asked that they they vote to make him a god.

Andrew: 29:39

Really, that's really what happened. And typically that's what the Roman emperors did. So now once you're a god, they would get a bust of of the emperor, you would set it up in the city, and there would be, a thing of fire, and there'd be some incense, and you had to go over, and loudly, in front of officials, take some of the incense, throw it in the fire, and say, Caesar is Lord. Alright. That is what they would say, and, of course, it would be in Latin.

Andrew: 30:13

Caesar is lord, and that meant Caesar was god. So in scripture when we we say, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, everybody would have understood you are confessing that Jesus is God, the 2nd person of the trinity, God the Son. Alright. So you confess with your mouth and you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead and you will be saved. Now there's a lot of commentators, and we could spend some time looking at 10, but the commentators point out there is kind of 2 parts to this.

Andrew: 30:51

Salvation comes through acknowledging to God who Christ is and believing in Him. So you gotta have both. What does it look like if you only have the first part? Yeah. I could talk to you and you could say, you know, I think you're right.

Andrew: 31:12

I think I think Jesus I think he is the God man. He's God come in the flesh. I I think so, and I think he died on the cross. Friends, that's not enough. James, the brother of Jesus in his letter says, you believe in God?

Andrew: 31:31

Well so do the demons and they shudder excuse me, not belief. You acknowledge I I said that wrong. But the idea here is, in James, the demons acknowledge who Jesus was, we see that all through the Gospels, they knew who he was, but they didn't believe in him in faith. I know people who had been to even, you know, like a Billy Graham crusade, you know, you could all get caught up in the fervor and the preaching and and the music, and all these people walked down, and I know people who have walked forward at a Billy Graham concert. They they believed what Billy told them, but they they didn't believe in faith.

Andrew: 32:18

I mean, they accepted intellectually who Jesus was, but they didn't go to God and rely on that in faith. And that is what we're called to do. You wanna open up that gift? You can, but it's a question of, yes, I believe what I read in scripture about Jesus Christ, and I believe in faith. I I accept wholeheartedly for myself.

Andrew: 32:43

Even though I I can't see it, I believe it. The, second verse here on how do we receive salvation is Romans 10:13, for everyone who calls on the name of the lord will be saved. What does it mean to call on the name of the Lord? To call on the Lord means to pray in faith for salvation. Lord, I believe who you are and who Jesus is.

Andrew: 33:19

I believe he died, and I'm throwing myself in you. My hope is built on Jesus' blood and righteousness and nothing else. All right. So we've asked these questions. Who needs to be saved?

Andrew: 33:40

Everyone, because everyone's a sinner. Why do we need to be saved? Because the wages of sin is death, punishment. How does God provide that salvation to us? He provides it to us through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ who paid the penalty of our sins.

Andrew: 34:01

And number 4, how do we accept or receive that? We do it in faith. We believe the facts and we call on God in faith. Now the 5th question is what are the results of salvation? Romans 5:1, therefore since we have been justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Andrew: 34:29

Remember we had salvation is in 3 parts. The first part is what we say justification. You are saved from that penalty of sin. Those wages you earned are canceled. Okay.

Andrew: 34:44

And since we are justified by faith, we now have peace with God, forgiveness of sins, and life everlasting, and that's a package. It all comes together. Romans 8:1. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. You are saved.

Andrew: 35:10

You're justified, and and and 1 of the consequences of that justification is you're no longer condemned before God. So how does that work? When God looks at a saved person, he sees Christ. We are in Christ and so we we are not punished. There's no condemnation because God, when he looks at us, sees Christ.

Andrew: 35:45

1 more set of verses here and that's Romans 8 3839. Now, you know, the first 7 chapters of Romans is pretty bleak, you know. We're bad. We're bad. We're bad.

Andrew: 35:58

The consequences are bad. Doesn't matter if you're a Jew or a gentile, whatever it is, you're bad and the consequences are all the same, you're bad. But now as we get to okay. You're now justified, we get into chapter 8. This is a it's a beautiful chapter.

Andrew: 36:14

I know people who memorize the whole chapter. I'm going to read again 8:38:39: For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 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. Wow. That's a beautiful thing. Nothing is gonna separate us from the love of God when we are in Christ Jesus.

Andrew: 36:50

You know, I, I'm a writer, volunteer writer, with got questions dot org, and, every once in a while, I'll get a question and somebody will say, you know, I got saved, you know, when I was in college, and, you know, I was into all these bad things, and, you know, I backslid. I'm back to doing drugs again. Have I lost my salvation? Or someone will write and say, you know, I got saved in but there was 1 sin I never confessed, and that was this really, really bad sin. So am I really saved?

Andrew: 37:31

The idea here is that you can separate yourself from God. Maybe nothing else can separate you from God, but somehow you are more powerful than God, and even though you're in God's hand you are so powerful that you can jump out of God's hand. I'm being sarcastic now. How can you jump out of God's hand? Well, I could turn my back on God.

Andrew: 37:53

Well, if you've genuinely made a a confession of faith, yet we have our ups and downs. Now here's the part of Romans 83839 that I like, Nor anything else in creation will be able to separate us from the love of God. Are you a created being? Yes. That means you can't even separate yourself from God.

Andrew: 38:23

So that is the Romans Road. The idea here is you memorize these verses. Now I like Mary Fairchild using these questions, because you engage the person, and if you just talk at them, it might be like my first couple of experiences. I wasn't following it, but if you ask these 5 questions you can focus the person you're witnessing to and see where they are at. Now interesting, again, if you write to the radio station, I'll make sure that we can get a file and email and sent back to you that outlines what we've done today.

Andrew: 39:04

But Mary ends it in she wants to set this whole thing out again in what we'd say the, the formal teaching way. So she's given us the questions and all the verses and then restates it all. And so here's how she restates it. So after all those things are said, all those questions are asked and answered, she would have you say something like this to the person you're witnessing to. If you believe Romans Road leads to the path of truth, you can respond by receiving God's wonderful gift of salvation today.

Andrew: 39:43

Here's how to take your personal journey down Romans Road. And she gives 5 statements, which in many ways are a restatement of the questions, but you would say to the person you're witnessing to, admit you are a sinner. That's a confession. Understand that as a sinner, you deserve death. Believe Jesus Christ died on the cross to save you from sin and death.

Andrew: 40:16

So those are the facts. Yeah. Those those are the facts. You gotta believe that Jesus died on the cross to save you from sin and death because he was the perfect man who did not sin. Now repent by turning from your old life of sin to the new life in Christ.

Andrew: 40:36

And then, finally, now receive this gift through faith in Jesus Christ. Take that step in faith. This is like there's this invisible bridge. I'm back to the naz now, but is someone tells you, okay. You you can walk across this chasm.

Andrew: 41:02

There's a bridge here. You can't see it. Trust me. Have faith it's here. Well, what do you have to do?

Andrew: 41:10

Sooner or later, if you want to cross that and get to the other side you're going to have to take a step first 1 step and then another step and so all of your weight is on this invisible bridge and it holds you up. So you're taking that step in faith. I wanna go back to John. You know, I I started out by asking a question, so are you gonna be left behind? And then we stepped through the gospel, and he had some questions along the way, and so I was able I had some demonstrative things to show what kind of faith looked like, and there was some point it was this moment, and he got it, and he wanted it.

Andrew: 42:07

And I said, can you pray in faith? And he did. Friends, John was not a young guy. He'd lived a rough life, got himself cleaned up. He just broke down and and cried and cried.

Andrew: 42:27

So I said, John, you gotta go back into the house now and tell your wife, tell Linda, tell tell him what just happened. Oh, my gosh. This guy went in. He was still crying and then he was happy. He was so happy, and he said, we gotta go.

Andrew: 42:51

He knew exactly the church he wanted to go to. It was a Calvary Chapel Church, and this was like Saturday night. They drove all the way back to Orange County. It must have been 10:30 at night. He didn't go home.

Andrew: 43:08

He just wanted to drive to that church because tomorrow morning, he was gonna be there in person. Several months later, we got a call and, our sister and brother-in-law said, hey. We're getting baptized. So we ended up somewhere somewhere in Orange County, and this couple had a nice house. It was a big pool in the backyard, and there was all these people, and we watched.

Andrew: 43:38

John got he got dunked. He got baptized. John and I became very, very close after that. You know, he's not my brother-in-law. He is my brother in Christ.

Andrew: 43:54

Friends, you can do this. You can go through these questions. You could even have a piece of paper laying out there, and it's an easy way to do it. Let me pray, and, let's go forward. Gracious heavenly father, I thank you for Romans that that you caused a man to write this that it would be used for 2000 years.

Andrew: 44:21

I thank you that it's clear and that you have shown us how we can present the gospel here. Father, give people strength and confidence that this is a tool they can use. Lord, prepare their hearts and prepare the hearts of the people that they will get to witness to. Oh, lord, I thank you in Jesus name. Amen.

Tom: 44:50

Thank you for joining us on Biblical Reflections today. We hope you've enjoyed this episode as a part of our gospel truth series. If you have any questions or thoughts about the gospel or salvation, feel free to contact us through email at station atcogworksmedia or by visiting our website atcogworksmedia.org. Biblical Reflections is a proud production of Cogworks Media, where we strive to bring you life changing programs and stories from Christ followers around the world. We invite you to explore our website atcogworksmedia.org to discover new content added every month.

Tom: 45:25

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