What is the Romans Road to Salvation? You have asked a very important question. Let’s see what the Bible has to say.
Pastor Jack Hyles claims credit for designing the Roman’s Road evangelism method. It’s called the Roman’s Road because the Bible verses for this system are all from that Bible book. This method is widespread among evangelical Christians. There are several variations of how exactly the users explain the five steps, but the verses used for each step are the same:
*Step 1: All have sinned.
Romans 3:23:
“For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.“
*Step 2: The wages of sin is death.
Because we’ve sinned, we will all die physically and spiritually (remaining separated from God forever).
Romans 6:23:
“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
*Step 3:Jesus Christ died in our place, for our sins, and rose again.
God is satisfied with Jesus’ sacrifice for sin.
Romans 5:8:
“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
*Step 4: God offers salvation and eternal life to everyone who confesses Jesus Christ as Lord.
Romans 10:9-10:
“That if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved, for with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”
*Step 5: We are no longer condemned.
Because God is satisfied with Jesus’ sacrifice for our sins, we are no longer under God’s condemnation. We are at peace with Him.
Romans 5:1:
“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
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Note:The following strengths and objections are both necessarily abridged. Also, the author does not necessarily agree with every point in either category.
Strengths:
- It uses verses from one book of the Bible, making it easier to learn.
- It presents the basic facts of universal guilt and its consequences.
- It presents God’s love for the sinner in providing salvation as a gift through Jesus’ death and resurrection.
- It is concise.
- It is well-known in the evangelical Christian community.
- It presents the outcome of salvation: peace with God.
- The users of this method sometimes direct the hearer to prayer or other instruction the verses don’t address.
Criticisms (along with explanations if necessary):
- The primary purpose of Romans is not evangelistic. That is the purpose of the Gospel of John, and this method doesn’t use verses from that gospel. So, the points made present spiritual truths, but they may not teach that truth.
- The verses are not taken in context.
- The Roman’s Road is shallow and formulaic, so the hearer may accept the presentation but not understand all the issues. Therefore, a conversion may be in appearance only–to both the presenter and the accepter.
- The listener may take the requirement to confess with your mouth, so the hearer doesn’t understand that faith is the required response.
- Using a verse that mentions confessing Jesus as Lord means different things to different people. As the quoted Old Testament verse says, does it mean that Jesus is Yahweh? Or does it mean you have to make Jesus Lord in having control over someone’s life, or does it mean something else?
Conclusion:
- Pray before deciding how to present Jesus to unbelievers.
- Make sure you use verses in context.
- Depend on the Holy Spirit to guide you and the hearer.
- Ask the person to believe in Jesus without adding anything.
