THE ROMANS ROAD

Romans 3:10 None of us are right with God… we aren’t right because we’ve sinned

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Romans 3.23 Sin is disobedience, and disobedience gets punished.

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Romans 6.23a God tells us the punishment for our sin is death.
He says it is the wage (what we earn) for our sin.

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Romans 6.23b God has to punish us because we have sinned (we’ve broken the rules).
But He also offers us the Gift of eternal life.
This might seem like a conflict for God.
On one hand He is a good judge and must punish sin.
On the other hand He is love and wants to forgive our sin
and remove our penalty.
How does God resolve this? Jesus!

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Romans 5:8 We earned the penalty, but Jesus died so He could pay our penalty.
Speeding Ticket Illustration: It is like if someone paid a speeding ticket
for you.
You were guilty, but they paid it and the law was satisfied.
That’s what Jesus did for us. We owed the penalty of death, and Jesus
died for us.
His death will satisfy our penalty, but remember this is a gift, so we have to receive it.

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Romans 10.9-10 You make Jesus your Lord, you give Him complete and total control of your life.
And you believe… so much that it affects your actions.
Chair illustration: I believe that chair will hold me up but my
belief does no good until I sit in the chair.
Our belief in Jesus does no good until we put it in action.

Paul wrote this to Christians and in Romans 6 he was telling them what it looks like to make Jesus our Lord.

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Romans 6.1-2 When we make Jesus Lord of our life,
we give him our old life and we don’t go back to it.
When you come to the point when you truly believe that Jesus is the Son of God and you want to surrender to Him as the Lord of your life, God gave us a beautiful way to do that.

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Romans 6.3 We are baptized into Jesus’ death. In baptism our death becomes Jesus death…
Remember the penalty for sin is death.
When we are baptized we are baptized INTO Jesus’ death, we exchange our penalty for His reward.

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Romans 6.4 This newness of life is NOT because I decided to live a good life.
It’s not because I decided to stop doing bad things and start doing good things…
It’s because of the Blood of Jesus Christ. It’s because He died for me!
(You can share a story like Acts 8.26-39 to show this process in action)

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Romans 12.1-2 This shows the transformation that takes place… we aren’t just converting to some religion…
we are becoming actual followers of Jesus… that means that we need to learn everything we can about Him and what He expects from us.

Outline of The Roman Road Method

Look for a jump in spot

Opening Question: Has there ever been a time when you made a personal
decision for Jesus?

Ask for Permission: Can I talk to you about why that’s important?

Ask them: Do you have a bible handy? If they don’t, say: I brought one, I’ll use it.

Romans 3.10 > “There is no one righteous, not even one";
We aren’t right with God… none of us are.
And why aren’t we right with God, because we’ve ALL sinned.

Romans 3.23 > "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God"
Sin is disobedience isn’t it… and disobedience usually brings punishment doesn’t it?
God tells us what the punishment will be…

Romans 6.23a > "For the wages of sin is death"

Wages are what we earn aren’t they?
The bible says we earn death.

Does that mean we die physically?
Yes, but it also means a spiritual death.

See, death always means separation.
Physical death is separation of the soul from the body.
Spiritual death is separation of man from God.
Eternal death… that is eternally separated from God.

We have disobeyed God. Our sin Spiritually Separates us from Him because God is Holy.
Our sin earns us Spiritual Death…
And if we die while separated from God we will be
Eternally Separated from God.

It looks pretty bad… we’ve earned hell because we’ve sinned…
but thankfully God didn’t leave us there.

Romans 6.23b > "but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord".
God offers us what we do not deserve… eternal life.
Now this might seem like a conflict, because we’ve earned Eternal Death.
See, on one hand God is Just, He is a good Judge
and must punish sin
But on the other hand God is love and
wants to forgive us of our sin.
So how does God resolve this conflict?

Romans 5:8 > "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this:
While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
We’ve sinned right? And the wages of sin is??? Death.
What did Jesus do for us? He died for us.
We earned the penalty, but Jesus paid it for us.
God loves us very much doesn’t He?

(((Illustration of being pulled over by police for speeding and someone else paying your fine.)))
(after presenting the illustration you would ask:)
Who broke the law? Who deserved to pay the fine?
But who ended up paying? Did he deserve to pay?
Here’s the question then… Was the Law satisfied?
That’s what Jesus did for us on the cross! He offers to pay our penalty!

So when it comes to our death that we have earned we have 2 options:
We pay our own penalty
OR
Jesus pays our penalty.

Now Romans 6.23 said this was a Gift… and if someone wants to give you a gift, what do you have to do for it to do you any good? You must accept it.

If we want to accept Jesus’ Dying for us we have to receive it…we’re told how in

Romans 10.9-10 > That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart
that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and
are saved.

Do you know what Lord means? Owner, controller, or master. Ex. A landlord.
So if you make Jesus Lord, you give him control of your life.

It also says we need to believe in our heart that God raised Jesus from the dead.
Now this just isn’t saying: I believe… it’s really believing…so much that it affects your actions.
(((Chair Illustration.))) I think it can hold me up, but my belief does no good until I do what? Sit on it.
The same is true with Jesus… until I put my trust in him and
commit my life to him, my belief does no good.

There’s a difference between saying you believe and committing yourself to action,
isn’t there?
Paul was writing Romans to Christians, and he told them what it looks like to have Jesus as Lord in

Romans 6.1-2 > What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?

Paul was reminding them that when we make Jesus Lord of our life, we give him our old life and we don’t go back to it.
Now when you come to the point when you truly believe that Jesus is the Son of God and you want to make Him the Lord of your life, God gave us a beautiful way to do that.

Romans 6.3 > Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

We’ve ALL sinned, right? The wages is death, right?
And Jesus died for us, right?

Now vs. 3 says we are baptized into his what? His death.
Paul is saying: In baptism our death becomes Jesus’ death…

Romans 6.4 continues > "We were therefore buried with him through baptism into

death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life."
This newness of life is NOT because I decided to live a
good life.
It’s not because I decided to stop doing bad things and start doing good things…
It’s because of the Blood of Jesus Christ. It’s because He died for me!

*** At this point you would Make the Ask: Does this make sense to you?
When you are ready to continue use a story to back up what you have showed them…
Romans shows us how to become Christians… let’s look at a story where that happened.
The story starts in Acts 8.26… let me tell it to you
(tell of Philip, who was a follower of Jesus and the eunuch from Ethiopia who was parked along the side of a road in his chariot searching out the scripture and having a difficult time understanding it.)

--- Acts 8.35 > Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.

We don’t know what all he told the eunuch, but I would imagine it was very much like what we’ve talked about today.
Whatever he said, the eunuch was so convinced that he wanted to make Jesus Lord…

Acts 8.36 > As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water. Why shouldn’t I be baptized?”

The Bible doesn’t say that Philip preached baptism. It says he preached Jesus… but when we preach Jesus we have to talk about the things Jesus told us to do.
So Philip responds…

Acts 8.37 > “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” The eunuch answered,
“I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”

You may need to EXPLAIN why this is found in the footnotes… it is simply because it appears in later manuscripts. Here Philip was saying… just getting baptized isn’t going to save you, unless you truly believe in Jesus.

Acts 8.38-39 > And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him. When they came up
out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the
eunuch did not see him again, but went on his way rejoicing.

The eunuch was initially not a Christian, but he was searching for the truth…
and when he heard the truth, he responded to it, and he became a Christian.

You’ve presented the gospel, now it’s time to Make the Ask… to push for a
decision… to Draw the Net…
Do you understand what I’ve shared? Does it make sense?
Answer any questions until they say it makes sense… then ask…
Is there any reason why you couldn’t become a Christian today if you chose to?
What would keep you from making the same decision that eunuch made today?

If they are ready:

Take the person by the hand and lead them in a confession of faith-
‘I believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of the Living God
and I accept Him as my Lord and personal Savior’
Affirm that commitment- ‘You really meant that, didn’t you? I’m proud of you!’
Pray- thanking the Lord for their decision – or lead them in a prayer –
then ask when would you like to be baptized?

Before you are done make sure to:

Encourage them to share their new found faith with someone right away.
And encourage them to get in a Study group or a Life Group.
See, the final verse in our Romans Road is:

Romans 12.1-2 > Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

This shows the transformation that takes place… remember we are making Jesus our
Lord… we aren’t just converting to some religion… we are becoming actual followers
of Jesus… that means that we need to learn everything we can about Him and what He
expects from us.