What is the Roman Road to salvation?

Trusting in the Lord for guidance I will now examine the different epistles, that we may see how salvation is treated in each of them. In Romans 1 the apostle is not ashamed of the Gospel, because it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believes. The reason it is this is because righteousness on the part of God is revealed on behalf of man, and that in view of the revelation of wrath against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. God meets this state of sin in which all men are by nature, by the revelation of His righteousness on behalf of man, and by justifying the ungodly sinner who believes on Jesus. In chapter 10 Christ is said to be the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believes; but the righteousness which is of faith says, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thy heart that God has raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” Here the Lord becomes my salvation. I call upon Him, and find that He is rich unto all that call upon Him; “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” I take this to be the way we enter the kingdom, and in coming into the kingdom we are under His protection and influence, and find salvation. In chapter 5, “Having been justified by His blood we shall be saved from wrath through Him”; and, “Being reconciled we shall be saved by His life.” Before the wrath comes He will remove us from the scene where it will be inflicted, so that it will not hurt us. In chapter 13:11 it is said to be nearer than when we believed. Evidently this last passage contemplates it in its perfect character, which will be when we are glorified. What we see in Romans is that the Gospel is the power of it, it is realized in subjection to the Lord, and we are going on to the day when it will be perfected.

FROM the first moment that we are awakened by the Spirit of God, Christ is presented to us as our object. Thus when the jailor, wrought upon by the Holy Ghost through the instrumentality of what he may have heard, and the supernatural occurrences of that eventful night, came and fell down before Paul and Silas, and said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved they said, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house" (Acts 16:29-31). This is in accordance with the Lord's own words — "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up: that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life" (John 3:14-15). The reason is evident. When the sinner is made to feel his guilt, God appears to his soul in the character of a Judge — of a holy God, whose claims he has failed to meet, and under whose righteous judgment he has consequently fallen. His one need, therefore, is to find a way of escape, both from his state and the condemnation under which he is groaning; and since this is found alone in Christ, Christ is the first object to which his eyes are directed. Paul brings out this truth most fully in the Epistle to the Romans. He says, "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; being justified freely by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God has set forth a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; to declare [I say] at this time His righteousness: that He might be just, and the Justifier of him which believes in Jesus" (Rom. 3:23-26). Having thus Christ in all the efficacy of His atoning work presented to him, and believing, receiving God's testimony concerning Him — concerning what He is and what He has done — the sinner (now a believer) is justified, cleared from all his guilt — from everything that was against him — and he has "peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Rom. 5:1). He has much more besides; but now we only call attention to the fact that, looking believingly to the object held out before his soul in the time of his need, he is saved. Has he then done with Christ? Far be the thought! For it will be found, on examination of the Scriptures, that the object to which his eye was directed as a guilty sinner, is the object which is still kept before him after that, by the grace of God, he has been saved. Yea, the object to which the sinner turns to find relief from the heavy burden of his sins, is that which is to fill his gaze in all his pathway as a saint, and, indeed, throughout eternity.

In Rom. 10 we have God's principle of salvation — faith in contrast with works. Two kinds of righteousness are presented to us: "the righteousness which is of the law" in verse 5, and "the righteousness which is of faith" in verse 6. The first is what men love most, because it gives a place to human effort; the second, however, is what God sets forth in the Gospel of Christ, and it calls for no human effort at all, but instead magnifies what God and Christ have done. Does any soul long to be saved, crying out with the Jailer of Philippi: "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" (Acts 16:30). Here is God's answer to this tremendous question: "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord (R.V.), and shalt believe in thine heart that God has raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." To confess Jesus as Lord is to renounce once for all our own self-will, the root of our every sin. It was a great moment in the history of the writer of the epistle to the Romans when he first lay broken and humbled at the feet of Jesus, and contritely called upon Him as Lord. God demands this from us all as the first step towards eternal blessing. Why does the apostle add, as a second condition, if thou "shalt believe in thine heart that God raised Him from the dead"? "Some perhaps would have preferred him to say, "If thou shalt believe that Jesus died." But the apostle does not so express himself. The reason is very simple. Resurrection pre-supposes death. The two great cardinal truths of the Gospel are given to us in 1 Cor. 15:3-4 thus: "Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures … and He was raised again the third day according to the Scriptures." Incidentally it is added, "And He was buried," as if to emphasise the reality of the Saviour's death.

After a short introduction the Apostle Paul makes clear that every human being is a sinner and for reason of his evil deeds cannot expect anything else but the just, eternal judgment of God which is damnation (Rom. 1:18 – 3:20). But then God’s righteousness is shown who sent His own Son, Jesus Christ, that whosoever believes his redemption work on Calvary can be perfectly justified before God and get peace with God (Rom. 3:21 – 5:11).

The red line of atonement is very clearly marked in the Epistle to the Romans. The Apostle Paul declared that he was not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ; "for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believes: to the Jew first, and also to the Greek" (Rom. 1:16). The following Scriptures are clear. "The righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe" (Rom. 3:22). Christ "was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification. Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Rom. 4:25; 5:1).

It does not, I think, mean here that there is no difference in degrees of wickedness, or that God makes no distinction between men; for we read in Rev. 20 12, "The dead were judged … according to their works," and in Luke 12:47-48 we have the same thing; but that there is no difference in the sight of God between the Jew and the Gentile for the simple reason that "all have sinned," and "all" do "come short of the glory of God." See how this sentence cuts at the root of all human pride and self-righteousness. First of all God says "all have sinned." How easily, and with what indifference, do people use the language of Scripture! How common to hear people say, "Yes, of course we are all sinners," as if it was a matter of course, and it did not make much difference whether we were or not. But have you ever thought, dear reader, what God says is the consequence of being a sinner? He says, in Rom. 6:23, "The wages of sin is death." And what then? "After this the judgment." (Heb. 9:27.) And after the judgment? "The lake of fire." (Rev. 20:15.) And then? Eternity. But not only have all sinned but notice the expression, "all do come short of the glory of God;" not "have come short," but "do come short," is the correct way of reading it. What a standard God gives! God does not say, "You have come short of what you ought to be." Most would own that; but He says, "You have come short of my glory."

‘But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested’ (v.21). After the long parenthesis, which declares man’s guilt (1:18 to 3:20), God’s answer is proclaimed: a free salvation, founded on Christ’s propitiatory [3] work offered by God’s righteousness. It is ‘unto all’ (offered to all men), but is only ‘upon all them that believe’ (imputed only to believers). Those who believe are justified by means of faith through God’s grace. Salvation is not for Jews only, but available to all on the basis of a moral rule or principle that works constantly to produce the same results. [4]

Of old God brought His commandment very near to Israel that they might do it. He has brought His word even nearer to us in Christ. It is now not a word of what we ought to do, but of what Christ has done, and of what He Himself has done in raising Christ from the dead. On our part the word only demands that we believe with the heart that God has raised Him from the dead, and that we confess Him as Lord with our mouths. When heart and mouth thus go together there is of course reality. Real subjection to Jesus as Lord carries with it salvation.

He had used the order of mouth and heart as in the original words of Moses. And so in fact it is that the gospel goes forth and exhorts men. We hear the confession of the mouth and trust the belief of the heart accordingly. But it is plain that the inner reception of the word must precede and accompany the outer expression of it in order to a true and full work in a man. The apostle knew this better than any of us, and lets us hear it in his next words: "for with [the] heart faith is exercised unto righteousness, and with [the] mouth confession is made unto salvation." Thus the whole case is accurately stated, every objection anticipated and met. Without believing there can be no righteousness. We are justified by faith and in no other way. But if there be no confession of Christ the Lord with the mouth, we cannot speak of salvation; as our Lord said, "He that believes and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believes not [baptized even though he might have been] shall be damned."

What a contrast between “wages” and “gift” wages earned—death, the judgment of God in all its terror. Gift—what can you do with a gift? You cannot buy a gift, or else it would be a purchase. You cannot earn a gift or else it would be your due. All you can do with a gift is to receive it, and thank the donor. Our natural life is forfeited through sin, but life, eternal life, is God’s gift procured for us at the cost of the atoning sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ when He died on the cross of shame, meeting God’s righteous demand and setting Him free to offer this priceless gift.