Romans Road Presentations Are Misleading (The Book of Romans Isn’t the Problem)

The “Romans Road” is a common method of trying to explain salvation in Christ. Yet as it is typically presented, it is a chief example of the shallow, misleading evangelism which counterfeits and opposes the authentic Gospel of Christ.

The website GotQuestions.org says the following: “The Romans Road to salvation is a way of explaining the good news of salvation using verses from the book of Romans. The Romans Road is a simple yet powerful method of explaining why we need salvation, how God provided salvation, how we can receive salvation, and what are the results of salvation.”

The typical Romans Road brings people through a list of verses from the Book of Romans. There will typically be “a sinner’s prayer” for one to repeat at the end thereof. After the prayer is repeated, the person who prayed the prayer will typically be persuaded to be assured of their salvation.

Though the group of verses used on a Romans road presentation may not always be the same, the one thing consistently wrong with Romans Road presentations is a cheapening and trivialization of the Gospel which presents salvation in Christ as boiling down down to a simplistic formula culminating in a “repeat after me” sinner’s prayer based on assent to a handful of points. Key concepts of the authentic Gospel such as man’s deep enmity with God’s authority, the proper claim of Christ to reign over each individual, and man’s need to practically identify with Christ in His death to sin and resurrection unto the Father are also usually glossed over in a Romans Road presentation. Yet the Bible, especially the Book of Romans as a complete epistle, deals very carefully and thoroughly with these truths.

A Romans Road presentation will often begin with Romans 3:23: “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.”

Romans 3:23 is typically communicated as man being under God’s condemnation over a technicality- instead of the way man’s sin is actually presented when the Book of Romans is actually read through. In its context within Romans, Romans 3:23 is a statement that neither Jew nor Gentile is above God’s appointed means of redemption in Jesus Christ; and that none can successfully work around this appointed means of redemption nor provide an acceptable replacement. When portrayed as man being condemned on a technicality, salvation in Christ will also be portrayed as man being saved upon a technicality. When people are given the impression that their problem with God is based upon a technicality, Jesus will be seen as a quick fix to man’s sin problem. Imagine a dying person being given the impression that they are dying because of a problem which can be fixed by taking one pill. This is what the quotation of “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” in the context of the Romans Road is communicating to people. Man’s dire condition before God and impending doom are actually spoken of in expansive and intricate detail before the actual Book of Romans ever even arrives at Romans 3:23. You have to actually read the Book of Romans up to that point (as well as beyond that point) to see the necessary picture.

The next stop in a Romans Road presentation might be Romans 5:8: “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

That is an amazing, glorious truth. Yet lifted from its Biblical context, and placed within the context of the Romans Road presentation, it is presented as a solution to man’s already implied technical problem before God. This misdirection cheapens the redemption which Christ purchased on the cross. It makes His death seem to have man’s safety from God’s wrath as its primary goal. This misdirection is enhanced through the deceitful implication that Christ died to strip the force of God’s law from being binding upon those who say the prayer at the end of the presentation. There is also great risk in casting pearls before swine when the atoning death of Christ is presented as the solution of a mere technical problem which mankind has with God and/or when the true conditions of anyone partaking in His atonement are not set forth well.

The next stop in a Romans Road presentation is often Romans 6:23: “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

The gift of God, His grace in Jesus Christ, has provided freedom from sin’s power for us; and it demands we obey and walk in that freedom in order to not be servants of sin anymore which live in spiritual death on the road to the second death (the lake of fire). The verses preceding Romans 6:23 prove that it is not speaking of some transaction wherein one just assents to a few points and/or says a prayer so that their sins supposedly go away and they get delivered from God’s condemnation. Those who would have an interest in the atonement of Christ must die to their own carnality and suffer to pursue the proper values of heaven by walking in the light of the instructions of God’s written Word. The unreasonable and inexcusable treason involved in not doing this is getting at why God’s wrath is actually against sinners and why hell is proper for them. The authentic Gospel calls for the commitment of sinners to carnality, along with the idols resulting from such commitment, to be cast down and for the true God to be glorified as the Almighty Eternal Creator that He is. Christ didn’t die to remove man’s inherent obligation to God’s authority and throne. That means He didn’t die to free us from the moral obligations of God’s law. The concept that He did is really just repackaged Satanism.

A Romans Road presentation will then often culminate in Romans 10:9 or Romans 10:13; or maybe Romans 10:9-13: “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath 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. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

The shallow, deceitful evangelists who think they can relieve man of his obligations before his Maker also typically love to quote from Acts 16:31: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.” They say “look, it’s so simple and easy.” As with Romans 6:23 and Romans 10:9-13, they conveniently gloss over that phrase “the Lord.” The Philippian jailer, whom the words “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house” were directly spoken to, evidently became a disciple of the Biblical Jesus and commanded his household in the ways of the Lord. That is an essential aspect of walking in the faith of Abraham- whom the Book of Romans gives as the model of faith for Christians in Romans chapter 4 (and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Romans Road presentation which made a stop to ever even mention this).

Genesis 18:17-19: “And the Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do; Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment; that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.”

Genesis 26:4-5 (God is speaking to Abraham’s son Isaac here): “And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.” By the way: We’ve seen in several other studies why this doesn’t mean we ought to support modern Israel. Since modern Israel is opposed to Jesus Christ, who is the promised Seed of Abraham, we are actually required to not bless it lest we justify the wicked.

Believing in Jesus Christ as Lord means to believe the entire testimony of Him which culminates in His resurrection glory- which also implies His rightful reign over all and coming return to assume that rightful reign over the earth. Believing in Jesus from the heart unto righteousness then means being subject to Him here and now, being governed by His Word in whatever it commands for us, and esteeming Him as preeminent in all things.

Colossians 1:17-18: “And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.”

Confessing Jesus then evidently means doing what it takes to properly receive His reign and recognize His preeminence in all things- even unto affliction, tribulation, and/or death.

Believing in and confessing Jesus is not a reference to praying the prayer at the end of an inadequate gospel presentation such as the Romans Road presentation.