The Romans Road

Paul's epistle to Rome is a bit unusual among his other epistles. All the others were written to churches he visited, maybe even founded. Rome, on the other hand, was not. He was introducing himself to a place he hadn't yet visited, but planned to. In that intro to his self-introduction he writes,

I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that often I have planned to come to you (and have been prevented so far) so that I may obtain some fruit among you also, even as among the rest of the Gentiles. I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. So, for my part, I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, "But the righteous man shall live by faith." (Rom 1:13-17)

Paul says right up front that he was "a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God." (Rom 1:1) No equivocation. No grand calling. A servant of Christ with a message ("apostle"), the gospel. Whose? The gospel of God. It's interesting, then, that more than once Paul refers to "my gospel" (Rom 2:16; Rom 16:25; 2 Tim 2:8). Some would like you to think that's because Paul's gospel was different than, say, the gospel according to Christ. (Seriously, there are those that make that argument.) Not so. Paul's gospel was "the gospel of God" (Rom 1:1; Rom 15:16; 2 Cor 11:7; 1 Thess 2:2-9) and "the gospel of Christ" (Rom 15:19; 1 Cor 9:12; 2 Cor 2:12; 2 Cor 9:13; 2 Cor 10:14; Gal 1:7; Phil 1:27; 1 Thess 3:2). So Paul is there to give the gospel he owns, the gospel assigned to him by God, the gospel of which he was the steward. He was giving it to a group of people he had never met. So he had better lay it out plainly. And he does.

The Bad News

"None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one." (Rom 3:10-12)

All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (Rom 3:23)

The wages of sin is death. (Rom 6:23)

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. (Rom 1:18)

The bad news is really bad. (Without bad news, good news is not good.) The bad news is that we are all sinners, without the ability to redeem ourselves, having properly earned eternal death under the wrath of God.

The Solution

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Rom 5:8)

While we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. (Rom 5:6)

The solution is simple and straightforward, yet vast in its contemplation. God sent His Son to die for us, the ungodly. In the face of the demands of justice, God answered with the substitution of His sinless Son. This was "for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus." (Rom 3:26) Justice demanded death. The One who didn't owe it paid it. Justice was met and we could be justified.

The Response

To the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness. (Rom 4:5)

If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. (Rom 10:9)

"Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." (Rom 10:13)

Since God is not obligated to anyone to save them, there is a response necessary. It isn't harsh or difficult. It is the response of open faith. This faith is "confessed"--admitted to. That's it. A confidence in the death of Christ that saves.

The Good News

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. (Rom 8:1)

The good news, then, is that despite the certainty of eternal death, God provided a solution so that, at the point of our faith, we are no longer under condemnation. No, wait ... the good news is much bigger than that.

We know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Just as it is written, "For your sake we are being put to death all day long; we were considered as sheep to be slaughtered." But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom 8:28-39)

My friends, that is the fabled "Romans Road". And that is the Gospel! There could hardly be better news than that.