Our Response - The Romans Road
The people were searching for Jesus more so to be feed again, just as they were the day before. Perhaps appearing to be spiritual they asked Jesus in John’s gospel 6:28, “…..What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?” The response from Jesus was simple, yet profound and probably very strange for this community of Jewish people who heard all their lives, “thou shalt do and thou shalt not do…..,”
These Hebrews learned early in life strict adherence to the Mosaic Law which included the moral law; the ten commandments. So when Jesus response was, “….This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent,” that must have sent shock waves through all of Jerusalem. Jesus was bringing in the new kingdom, which was an old kingdom but one missed by the people. Instead of an eye for an eye, it’s love your enemies and do good to them. A rich young man came to Jesus and ask a very similar question.
The Rich Young Ruler must have thought he was a shoe-in for God's kingdom, but instead he walked away sad. His first misconception, one Jesus immediately set him straight on was, "...no on is good but God." This is perhaps the most common mistake from most of the world. Most believe if they could just be good enough or just do that one something. This Rich Young Ruler may not have realized he broke the first commandment; love the LORD thy God with all your heart; and love thy neighbor as thyself. Giving up all that he had to thy neighbor and following Jesus would have demonstrated works of faith and his love for God more than his love for wealth.
Did you see the what must "we do," from the people and what shall "I do," from the rich young ruler? The "I's" of our Father, Adam. Jesus response couldn't have been more simple and straight forward; simply "believe!" In the books of Romans, Galatians and Hebrews, the authors spend a great deal of time emphasizing the difference between 'works of the flesh' or 'law keeping' verses 'works of faith' and the 'promised works of the Spirit.' God calls the first, which is self effort an "evil heart of unbelief." (Hebrews 3:12). The chosen people of God were given the law by Moses, but it didn’t provide atonement; ceremonial sacrifices did. The purpose of the law served as a check and balance, a guardianship, and a way to show our need for a Savior. I was heard someone say, "if God had not instituted the law, there would not have been a virgin for Christ birth."
So God has responsed to our mess, and now it's our turn to respond appropriately and accurately to God's call that says, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me," - Revelation 3:20. Our part is really easy, but it's also the road less traveled by most. Excuse me for using I, but I believe the reason is two-fold; (1) Fear of God due to a misunderstanding of who God is and what He's really like, and (2) The "I's" of pride, both of which are rooted in the Adam-ic nature which ultimately originates from Satan's strategy of lies and deception. Everything we need in order to pull down these misconceptions of God and to agree with what God says to Who We Became, is found in His love letter and instruction manual He left for us to read. Funny thing, even to this day, the bible is still the number one sold book in the world and the less read. "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths. Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear (reverence) the Lord and depart from evil. It will be health to your flesh, And strength to your bones." (Proverbs 3:5-8)
Our Response to God's Response is pretty much laid out for us in the book of Romans written by the Apostle Paul and said to be by most theologians, "the masterpiece of all the bible." In David Jeremiah's Study Bible on page 1542 under his commentary section for Romans 1:17, he writes: "....Salvaton only works by faith, which is itself a gift from God. Rightly understood, the truths in Romans can revive right thinking and result in right living." The heart of the matter is found in Romans 10:8 which says, “....The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach):..." Embedded in the word itself is faith to believe God. You don't have to search for it, it's near you and in you, it's a gift from God.
So let's go deeper into Our appropriate Response to God's Response and His call to receive an abundance of grace; peace and rest for our weary souls, because "...where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." - (Romans 5:20-21.)
There's more to this scripture; "...faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God," than I realized prior. We often refer to this scripture as one that tells us the more we hear the word, the more faith we get. I'm not sure that's what this scripture is saying. James epistle writes about, "...faith without works is dead?" I now believe faith is demonstrated and perhaps thereby grows as we use it. I don't need a lot of faith; (Jesus said all I need is faith the size of a mustard seed to move a mountain); What I need is a lot of truth to castdown all the lies I've been hearing all my life, and it's the truth that makes me free. “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:31-32).
The more I meditate and study the word of God, the richer I become in spirit and in truth. The more I know about truth, the more chains are broken and the more I know of my true identity. The more truth I know, the more I comprehend the priceless gift given by God, which in turn causes me through the power of the Holy Spirit within, to walk worthy of this calling. Let me clarify, except for God sculpting humanity from the earth, God spoke everything into existence through the Word. Consequently, we, as His creations, inherit the power to speak and hear words. Begin to tell a child they're stupid long enough and that child will begin to believe it. What might be more accurate is the more of God's word I study, which also involves the hearing of God's word and both give me more assurance of the unchanging word of God and Word of God." The apostle Peter, the one who denied Christ three times tells us in his second epistle to "...add to your faith....knowledge,..." The apostle Paul prayed for the church of Ephesus that "...the Father of Glory, may give (them) the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowldege of Him."
When you know you belong and are accepted, affirmed and perfectly loved by your daddy, no one can rattle you. Having a father who loves you unconditionally and affirms you, enables you to shake off what or who is coming against you and stand firm in your identity. "Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore...." (Ephesians 6:10-18). That's why scripture says in Romans 8:31 - "If God is for us, who can be against us?"
I believe if we keep the verse in context this scripture "....faith comes by hearing..., is saying when someone shares the gospel of Jesus Christ, embedded in the words shared to the hearer is the power and faith from God to believe.
God is good in all His ways, but He will eventually judge sin because He is also a just God, and the penalty for sin is death. By rejecting Jesus’ death on the cross as our death, we pay for our own sins during God’s judgment. After the church, which is Christ’s body of believers, is taken up to heaven, God’s next prophetic calendar of events will be the dispensation of His wrath—a seven-year tribulation, known in the Old Covenant as Jacob’s trouble, which primarily concerns the nation of Israel. However, regardless of whether you are Jew or Gentile, if you enter into that dispensation and have already heard the gospel during this dispensation of God’s grace, you will face trouble and hell will become your permanent residence. Why? (2 Thessalonians 2:10-12). Embedded in the message of the Word of God, presented and heard, is the faith to believe the gospel, but people refuse to believe it because they prefer darkness over light. "And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil." (John 3:19)
Before the born-again experience, we are without strength, ungodly, sinners, and enemies of God. God never expects us to do something He didn’t give us the power and ability to do. Embedded in the word of God is the faith of God to believe God. No one will stand before Him with an excuse. He knows what He put in us to know Him (Romans 1:19), and He knows what comes with hearing His word—faith! Everyone knows that the only way to revive a car battery is through an external power source that regenerates it back to life. However, many of us mistakenly believe that all we need to DO to achieve right standing with God is get some degreaser, soap, and water, along with some hand and elbow works of righteousness. We can perform all the righteous acts we can imagine, still none of our self-efforts and self-works will change us inwardly. We need a new nature. We must be born-again or we still remain dead to God, however good our deeds are. Scripture is clear on dead works and dead deeds. Everyone is lost from God, but God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to seek those who know they are lost, blind, lame, poor, sick, empty, broken, and dead in trespasses and sins.
"And whoever falls on this stone will be broken; but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder;” The way this scripture has been revealed to me is when we come to Jesus, the stone, we come because we realize our need for Him, and see our brokeness and desperation, but if the stone falls on those who reject Him, He will destroy them on judgement day. "For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" (Luke 19:10); (Matthew 21:44); (Matthew 16:26-26).
I once heard Dr David Jeremiah share on the subject of faith, "faith is not believing in faith, but believing in the object of our faith, not faith in faith," (paraphrased). In the book of James 2:18 scripture says, "...I will show you my faith by my works." We discussed this briefly earlier, but let me expound. I was talking to a guy once selling t-shirts with the word “Faith” on them and so I asked him what faith meant to him. His response was, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen,” as quoted directly from Hebrews 11:1. It sounds good, but vague and although a very powerful scripture, I’m not sure it defines faith, perhaps more so on how to appropriate it. I went on to share with him my version of Dr. Jeremiah's teaching on faith.
I began to explain to the young man, our faith is based on the object for what or whom we're believing in. I gave him an example of a broken chair compared to a new one, and a broken-down car compared to a new one. I then asked him which one he would have more confidence in. Naturally, we would feel safer and more secure sitting in a new chair or assured of reaching our destination and returning safely in a new car, rather than sitting in a broken chair or traveling in an old, unreliable vehicle. If you believe that the object will fulfill its promises, you will respond appropriately by taking action. You will either sit down or get into the car. This might sound a bit harsh to some, but I then told him that his faith is meaningless if it’s not based on what God says. In fact, according to God’s word, if you don’t believe what God says, you have an evil heart of unbelief.
If God said it, it's true! “God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?" - (Numbers 23:19). Faith is tangible. Faith is an object and the object is God and the word of God - both immutable. "But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him." (Hebrews 11:6). More times than I care to count, I have heard only the first part of this scripture presented "...without faith it's impossible to please God." It was usually presented during a message on how faith works or you don't have enough faith. I felt so condemned. Just to set the record straight or set it in truth, if you are born again, you have faith, because we are saved by grace, through faith; (Ephesians 2:8-9), and if you are not yet born again and are hearing the gospel, you're being feed faith, as scripture says, "...God has dealt to each one a measure of faith."(Romans 12:3).
In case you haven't notice, we've actually been traveling down the Romans Road already, but let's continue in Rome!
Almost everything we need to hear and believe in order to be saved, is found in this one book as stated earlier. I've heard many say they've lead someone to salvation by quoting the Romans Road. Here's a little summary of what this powerful book is about.
Romans is written by the Apostle Paul to the church of Rome. Paul was commissioned by the risen Lord to preach the gospel to the Gentiles in all of the known world. This was of course during the time of the Roman Empire and Paul's greatest desire was to bring his beautiful feet of the gospel to Rome. It is said that this book read by Martin Luther, when finally understood, resulted in the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century. "Luther was ordained to the priesthood in 1507. He came to reject several teachings and practices of the Roman Catholic Church, in particular the view on indulgences....Luther taught that salvation and, consequently, eternal life are not earned by good deeds; rather, they are received only as the free gift of God's grace through the believer's faith in Jesus Christ;" - Martin Luther. As a result, Puritans migrated to America, seeking refuge from religious persecution by the Roman Catholic Church. They sought a place to worship God according to their newfound understanding of scripture. The Puritans played a pivotal role in the early history of North America, primarily settling in the New England region. Their fundamental belief was that salvation is achieved solely through grace, not through any merit derived from good works.
The book of Romans begins with God's courtroom and His case against mankind that rightly judges us to a guilty sentence punishable by death - condemnation. All are guilty. The immoral, the moral and the Jew stand guilty before God as violating His standards of living. But God in His abundant love, mercy and grace, provides for us the power unto salvation that enables us to escape this death sentence handed down to us by Adam. It is through this book that we learn; justified freely by God's grace through the redemption that can only be found in Christ Jesus. Here is a brief synopsis:
Having read the last three sections of this site, I hope we are beginning to grasp the essence of the gospel of peace, which is the gospel of Christ, and ultimately, the gospel of God. I have shared this truth numerous times before, but I would like to present it once more through Paul’s own words, as inspired by the Holy Spirit. This is undoubtedly the most suitable place to define the gospel based on the scriptures found in the Pauline epistle addressed to the Corinthian church.
We must agree when Jesus says; “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." (John 14:6).
Our goodness must be equal to that of Jesus’ sinless, perfect life during His earthly ministry, where He committed no sin in thoughts, deeds, heart, or words. As a little boy, He was obedient in every way, showing no selfishness or lying about eating cookies. As a teenager, He had no male hormones causing lustful desires for girls. During His ministry, when the guards struck Him, He didn’t harbor any evil heart seeking revenge. Instead, He cried out,"Father forgive for they know not what they're doing.
We must agree with the Triune God that we can’t be good enough on our own. We must confess our failure to meet God’s standard of living and recognize our need for a Savior, because we can not save ourselves. Water baptism can not save us. If we are emersed in water going down as a sinner, we will only come up as a wet sinner. Even praying the sinners prayer can not save us if it's not sincere from the heart and you can not be saved without the Holy Spirit present.
I once heard an elderly lady, dear to my heart, say, "I just want to earnnnn my way to heaven!" It was during this conversation that the Lord unveiled the true nature of her unbelief to me. I cringed! It's not the first time I’ve encountered individuals who profess their disbelief in God, dismissing Him as a mere figment of imagination or claiming "the man upstairs and I are cool;" and the one most often spoken, "I'm a good person; I'll get there;" but this time for a brief moment it was if I saw her heart from God's view, evil. What's so heart breaking is this is one who attends church regularly, but one who also periodically says, "....if there really is a God;"and one who hates to hear anything from the bible. "Dont quote me scriptures from the bible, I don't want to hear it!" That's an oxymoron. Scripture says "But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” (Matthew 12:36-37).
It's the case of who can jump across the grand canyon from one side to the other side where God is? You may jump a whole lot farther than me and have a lot of gold medals to prove it, but you still won't make it competely across to the other side. In the sight of God, we all fall short. What we need is a bridge to walk across. That bridge is Jesus.
Some versions of the Bible, like the New Living Translation (NLT), write "how to be made right with God" instead of the "righteousness of God". I know when we believe we are made right with God, no longer enemies, but I struggled with the phrase, "the righteousness of God", until finally I just ask God, "what does the righteousness of God mean and why not just say "right with God" instead righteousness of God, if that's what it means"? Immediately I heard the indwelling Holy Spirit say to me, "Romans 12:2!" WOE! As the prodigal child trying to find my way back home for some reason I was lead to memorize Romans 12:1-2; so I immediately knew the scripture without looking it up and new then it's meaning.
Verse 1 of chapter 12 in Romans tells all the world, in lieu of all God has done (chapters 3-11); through His mercies toward mankind, present yourself to Him to become alive to God; BORN-AGAIN thereby being made the righteousness of God; which then makes you the good of God, the acceptable of God, and the perfect will of God, in spirit and in truth in Christ Jesus. That's faith, that's God confidence; that's knowing our identity that enables us to always run to our heavenly Abba, Father rejoicing in Him, conversing with Him, crying and laughing with Him.
If you are one who was taught, you just have to be good enough, please contemplate, if becoming the righteousness of God is through self-efforts, or what scripture calls "works of righteousness, why did "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son (as the living sacrifice), that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life?"