Romans 3:10, 23; 6:23; 5:8; 10:13
By: Alexander Rico
Before we begin our study here of the Roman Road as found in the book of Romans. I think it best that I first elaborate on how this name for these following scriptures came about. See, around the time of the Roman Empire, it was once believed that all roads led into Rome; however, this concept is not the same because we know that there are not other roadways, which lead to Christ. Nope, there is only one. “I am the way, the truth, and the life no one comes to the father except through Me.” (John 14:6, NKJV) Through this study, I pray that you would come to find this true. With these things said, let us begin our walk down this road.
“As it is written: ‘There is none righteous, no not one;’” (Romans 3:10, NKJV)
What exactly does God mean when He uses the word “righteous”? Well, according to the Berlitz Dictionary the word righteous is defined as, “morally good and pure.” Webster’s Dictionary better defines it as, “acting in a just, upright manner, doing what is right; virtuous.” The word in the Greek for righteous (used here in 3:10) is dikaiso, which in the Greek means, “innocent, holy, right, or just.” But who is righteous? I mean, when I look at my life I see that I have made many terrible mistakes one right after the other. I am in no way innocent or holy. Therefore, who is? Well, we find that answer in the book of Psalm, “The Lord is righteous in all His ways, gracious in all His works.” (145:17, NKJV) Earlier in the book of Leviticus we read, God stating, that He is holy. Now, if you would recall from what we learned according to the Greek definition of the word righteous, “holy” was apart of it wasn’t it? God is holy, God is righteous. See, unlike us God has not given into the sins and temptations we have here on earth the book of James makes this clear when James states that God cannot be tempted by evil. How can I make such a radical clam? Well, scriptures tell us these things. Allow me to list but a few that point this out to be the truth. First, we will see that God cannot lie, “in hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began.” (Titus 1:2, NKJV). Secondly, we will look at Jesus (God incarnate) who the Bible tells us knew no sin, “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God.” (1 Corinthians 5:21, NKJV).
From this we can easily see the Biblical definition of what righteousness is; it is what God is. Compared to God’s righteousness we can see why Isaiah writes, “But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousness are like filthy rags; we all fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.” (64:6, NKJV) Compared to God we are dirty, dirty individuals. Picture this along with me, God wearing this nice clean white outfit, and us standing there in His brightness with dirty, holey, torn up clothes with the stench to go along with it. Paul says in Romans 7:18, NKJV, “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find.” What Paul here is saying is that nothing good can be found in our flesh. We all know this because we are currently fighting that raging flesh daily. The urges the desires and wants of our flesh, and the desires and urges of the Spirit always at war with one another. It is through this that we come to realize our next step on this road.
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23, NKJV)
When each of us thinks of sin, what is the first thought that comes to mind? That time when we suddenly blurted out that bad word in line over at McDonalds or in a public place, or even at church? Maybe that time when we lied about something to avoid the consequences? Sure, those are all sins; however, how about simply doing the wrong thing when we know the right according to God? That right there according to the Bible is a sin. “Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin” (James 4:17, NKJV). Or how about plotting and planning? We are all notorious for plotting against someone aren’t we? Someone wrongs us and we begin to scheme and plan to get vengeance on them. The Bible says this, “He who plots to do evil will be called a schemer. The devising of the foolishness is sin, and the scoffer is an abomination to men.” (Proverbs 24:8-9, NKJV) Which of these two can we honestly say we haven’t done?
The second section of this verse refers to the glory of God. But, what exactly is this glory? Well, this glory referred to here is the worship, honor, admiration, and adoration that Matthew chapter 6 tells us are rightfully His. Earlier we saw that God is righteous and perfect in all His ways that is why when we see this we can understand why He deserves all the praise and glory and we do not. He is without a shadow of a doubt perfect. We now move deeper into this dark valley where we look upon ourselves in God’s mirror and see our imperfections, unrighteousness, and unworthiness.
“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23, NKJV)
For every action there is an equal or lesser reaction. A simple equation we all learned at some point or another in science class, right? Well, here we see it has a Biblical application. The verse here tells us that the wages for our sins is death. Since the fall of Adam and Eve there has always been a price that has to be paid for our sins. In the Old Testament they used to find a spotless, pure lamb to sacrifice to cover their sins (this meant death to that lamb). The punishment for our sins is death, we all are deserving of this death (noted at the end of Romans 1) as we all sin. Some of you may be saying right now, “Man, that is so unfair, unjust!” No, actually it is not. See, God is the just and righteous judge. He alone is able to judge our sins for what it is. It is evil. It does not matter how big or how small that sin is, sin is sin in God’s eyes and deserving of the same punishment. Now, of course we all die eventually; however, what this verse here is telling us is about our eternal destination. Are we headed for Heaven or are we headed for Hell? Are we headed for a closeness with God or are we headed for eternal separation from Him? This is the wage for us as sinners today.
But wait! (like those commercials) there is more! At the tail end of today’s verse we take a quick turn and see that God in His love throws to us a lifeline, a life saver (not the candy). How many of you have ever been on a boat trip before? I know I have a few times; and, on those boats you see a life ring onboard just in case someone falls over board they can throw it to them. This is the same illustration here; when we have totally fallen off of God’s ship, he throws to us a lifeline a way for us to be redeemed and pulls us out of the mess we were in and cleanses us. Because of His Son Jesus Christ, we are given the opportunity not to die eternally away from God. “For God so loved the world that gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16) We can have everlasting life by believing in Him.
“But God demonstrates His own love towards us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8, NKJV)
Why would, God send His only Son to be killed in our place if we were such horrible and terrible sinners? Well, one word can best describe the reason. Love. We show our love to those who are close to us by giving them flowers or getting them a gift or giving them a card, hugs and kisses. However, God totally blew away all those things when He gave His Son up for us (1 John 4:10). It was the ultimate gift of Love. We know that every single sin has a price, as well as, every gift we buy for someone we love here today, costs something, doesn’t it? In this case it cost a great price, the blood of Jesus Christ! This gift could not be earned. Why you ask? Well, when Christ was on the cross he screamed out, “It is finished!” In other words, nothing more could add or take away from what He had done there on that cross. Besides, if we were to work for it, we would have to be alive and working at the time that the gift had been given, and frankly none of us were. That is the beauty of this. Christ died while we were still sinners. He died knowing that day, “this one is for Johnny,” or that this one was gong to be for, “Frank.” He died knowing that we were still sinners. The Bible talks about this type of love, which God demonstrated for us. In John’s gospel chapter 15 verse 13 it says this, “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.” (John 15:13, NKJV) God considers us His friends…the maker of Heaven and of earth wants us to be His friends…and His children. He loves us enough to send His Son to take on our sins and to give us this free gift of eternal life. How do we obtain this free gift? “For whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” (Romans 10:13, NKJV)
This is not some offer that is simply laying there on a table collecting dust. It is not like there are several other options available to us today. Nope, this is the only means that we can obtain salvation and eternal life in Heaven. Do not misconstrue this entire idea and come to the conclusion that God wants to see you die and end up in Hell. No! That is not the truth! It hurts Him deeply that we continue to ignore His Son’s sacrifice and do evil and wicked things. He tells us in the book of Ezekiel chapter 18 verse 32, “’For I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies,’ says the Lord GOD. ‘Therefore turn and live!’” (NKJV) He wants us, and pleads for us to choose to accept the gift He has given to us through His Son. Maybe some of you right now are wanting to make the commitment, however, are stalled because you are not sure that He hears you. Listen to what the Lord says about this in Jeremiah 33:3, “’Call to me and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’” (NKJV) He has made it clear here, He will not ignore the cries of His children …. He does not just sit back and listen to us call to Him. He responds to our cries for help!
Although there is an offer and a gift given to us, we must act on it now while it is still available. Sure, it is not going to end today (unless the Lord comes back for His children) but, we need to call upon the Lord while there is still time to do so. Because, the scriptures tell us in Isaiah chapter 55 verse 6, “Seek the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near.” (NKJV) We need to search and seek Him while He may be found before time goes up and we all stand at the judgment seat of God; and, what not a better time than to do so now, while you are all thinking on what God has given to me to share with each of you. At this time, God is near, and He can be easily found. The last section of 2 Corinthians 6:2 states, “Behold now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” There is no greater time like there is now to make that commitment and decision to follow after Him.
If you would like to accept the gift of life that God gave to us through His one and only Son, Jesus Christ; then, please make that decision today to follow Him for the rest of your life it will not be one that you will regret. “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” (John 1:12-13, NKJV) Sure, I am not going to lie, the road ahead will be bumpy; however, it will be a great blessing that you nor anyone else could ever experience on this world. If you’d like to accept Christ today; then, by all means please join me in this simple prayer asking Jesus into your heart, mind, and soul.
“Lord Jesus, please forgive me of my sins. I thank-you for giving me the gift of life through your death on that cross. Thank-you that you loved me enough to even think of me as your child and still give me this gift of life despite my sinful life. I accept your sacrifice and give my entire life over to you. Thank-you. In your precious name I pray, amen.”
If you prayed that prayer along with me, I’d like to announce that today, the moment you accepted Christ into your life the Bible says, “[…] there is joy in the presence of God’s angels when even one sinner represents.” (Luke 15:10) Just like that, you are forgiven and are adopted into God’s family. Though, there are steps to continue in maintaining your relationship with the Lord. These being:
- Read the Bible- This is God’s love letter to you. It also provides us with a foundation for relationships with others, and tells us about attitudes, motivation and truth. It is important to know, and enlist the principles in the Bible into your life, they keep you on the right way and allow us to make sound judgments concerning people and doctrine.
- Pray- In any relationship communication is important, priority factor. God desires to communicate with each of us. Prayer is not just a forum for requests. God wants to hear our feelings, hurts, ambitions and joys. Through this he is able to change and refine those parts of us that need it.
- Fellowship- Get plugged into a church or local group that studies the bible. As we begin to share with others what we have learned from the Bible and prayer, we encourage others to grow and ourselves. Fellowship as God planned it is not a clique or special club designed for gossip. We must be careful to keep our conversations with others honest. It’s best described as a fire. One coal alone dies down quickly, but a mound of coals burn white hot, just as one Christian alone will struggle to stay ‘on fire’, while a group together keeps each other hot.
- Witness- “Go into the world and preach the good news to all creation.” (Mark 16:15). Jesus gave this as a command, not an option. God has chosen all Christians to be agents of His gospel. We are either missionaries or mission fields. That does not mean that everyone should travel to different countries, but it does mean that no matter where go we should be prepared in life and in word to be ambassadors for Christ. “Pray for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given to me so I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel.” (Ephesians 6:19)
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