I just want it to be understood that for quite some time now, the gospel and the plan of salvation have been watered down and reduced to "Accept Jesus. Period."

I am a guitar player, and the previous statement would be akin to someone asking me "Can you teach me how to play 'Flight of the Bumblebee' on the guitar?" and I responded by playing it one time, and saying "There, got it?" Of course they don't 'got it'. They didn't learn it. They only saw the end result.

When we tell people "Ask Jesus into your heart and you can live in Heaven when you die." we are telling the end result, and it doesn't work.

Another quick example, and I will move on. If you went to the doctor, and he came into the room and said "Here, take this. It will cure you", what would be your reaction? I know what mine would be. "Wait, what do I need a cure for?"

You cannot present a cure for something without first exposing the sickness. It will not be taken, and it won't work.

So, a list of scripture first. Some call this the "Roman's Road" but it will go into more depth than that. The gospel is simple, but in the quest for further simplicity, we have messed it up quite a bit.

Let's divide this road into three sections. I find that when I go on a long trip, if I divide the trip into 'checkpoints', it isn't as grueling a trip.

The Problem
Romans 3:10 - As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one:
Romans 3:23 - For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

The Provision
Romans 5:8 - But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
John 3:16 - For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Romans 6:23 - For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The Promise
Romans 10:9 - 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.
Romans 10:10 - For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
Romans 10:13 - For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Romans 10:17 - So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Ephesians 2:8 - For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Ephesians 2:9 - Not of works; lest any man should boast.


The first checkpoint in our journey is the problem. The problem is sin.

Sin sounds like an old-fashioned concept and word to those who don't know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Sadly, it is starting to carry that same feeling among believers as well. Nowadays, the word 'sin' is not "politically correct". (Not that we should be concerned with what is so-called politically correct, but that is another message. ). We should, however, be concerned and knowledgable about sin. I cannot stress enough the importance of understanding the problem so that the solution makes rational sense.

So, let's start with defining sin, biblically.

1John 3:4 - Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.

James 2:10 - For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.

So sin is the transgression of the law. And breaking one part of it makes us guilty of the whole thing. Wow, tough stuff.

What, you may ask, is the law? God's Law, wrapped up in a nice, neat package, is the 10 commandments. While there are actually over 600 points to God's Law, the 10 commandments will be plenty enough to touch on.

God's Law is the standard by which we are measured. Does this mean we have to keep the Law to be saved? Absolutely not. God's standard of perfection is so far out of our human reach, it is impossible for any human being to keep the law. Yet, the Bible declares that if we offend in even one point of the law, we are guilty of the whole thing. We seem to be stuck between a rock and a hard place.

We have all sinned and fallen short of God's glory. Look in Exodus chapter 20 for the 10 commandments. None of us can say that we have kept even a few of those since our birth. Remember, though, if you somehow convince yourself that you have kept more than you have broken that you have at some point broken one, and that is all it takes to be guilty of the whole thing.

The Law is there to show us our sickness, our Problem.

We are dying from this terminal, eternal illness. There is no conventional, man-made cure. No amount of 'spiritual exercise' can stave off its ultimate end. No amount of good things we do can remove the cancer of sin within us. And, if our physical bodies die, while we still suffer from this illness, we are forever separated from God in a lake of fire, in which we will continue to suffer as eternal flame burns away at our eternally diseased soul. Not a very happy result, to be sure.

But, as we mentioned above, there is a Provision, praise God!

Jesus Christ is the provision. God, manifest in the flesh, came to this earth for the sole purpose of becoming the 'be all, end all' sacrifice for mankind.

Out of God's Love came a Savior.

He died, so that we may have life. He suffered, so that we could escape the suffering we deserve. What He went through is enough to take up another message entirely, but suffice it to say no man has ever suffered as He did. And guess what? On an individual level, He suffered for you.

He made a way for us to be reconciled to Him. The blood He shed covers our sin.

With this sacrifice, God gave us a Promise.

How do we come to Him?

1) By faith. We must believe not only that He is who He says He is, but that He will do what He said He will do, and has done what He said He has done.

2) As we are. We cannot prepare ourselves to be accepted by God. We must come just as we are, or chances are, we will never come. You have likely heard it said many times "If you wait until you are ready, it will never happen." This is the case with salvation. There is no 'I just need to clean this up" or "I am just not ready" or "As soon as I....". These are weak excuses, and lies planted by our adversary. One of the devil's greatest strengths is making people say "not right now". The Bible says TODAY is the day of salvation. So you come, just as you are. That is the only way. Anything else is proclaiming that your own righteousness brought you to a point where you feel like He will save you. This is blasphemy, and it will keep making you put it off and put it off until it is eternally too late.

So, how can I be saved?

1) Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. This is trust. This is the kind of belief you put into a parachute that is strapped to your back after you have already left the plane. I am afraid most people's understanding of belief is that of the knowledge of what the parachute can do, and perhaps trying it on, but never willing to jump. It is a full trust in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus for the salvation of your soul.

2) Call upon the name of the Lord. This, I sincerely believe, is where repentance comes in. To call upon the Lord, you must face Him. To face Him, by default, you must turn from that which is in opposition to Him. And to repent literally means to turn away from. So, yes, there is repentance involved in salvation. It is not, however, a "work". It is a natural (or supernatural, in this case) by-product of turning to Him.

Trusting in Him makes you turn to Him to call upon Him. And when you call upon Him, He will come and reside within you, and change you, and make you a new creation.

So, one may ask, will I then be perfect? No. We still abide in this flesh, which will always be evil. However, our spirit is now alive, which was dead before. It is our spirit which fellowships with God, and it is our spirit which will live with Him for eternity. Our spirit is perfected, our flesh is not. When our spirit is made alive by the grace of God, and cleansed by the Blood of Christ (simultaneously), we are made perfect in His sight. Christ's righteousness is imputed to us. Our righteousness is still as filthy rags. It is Christ's righteousness given to us which makes us acceptable to God. As I said, our flesh will constantly be wicked and it will war against our spirit. It will be the Holy Spirit within us maintains and seals us, and the Holy Spirit helps us cultivate our relationship with God, and to resist the fleshly desires that we continue to deal with.

Our sin in the flesh will be paid for by the flesh, but the spirit is saved and protected. This being said, we have no license to live like the devil after we are saved. Remember, we will reap what we sow. Our flesh will pay the price, but our spirit has been saved. Salvation is not a license to sin. But, if and when we sin, we have an advocate with the Father.

We are to abide in Him, and He in us.

I hope this has helped, and will continue to be a help. I may periodically return and edit/add/change, but I needed to get this done.

If you have any questions, and do not wish to share the questions publicly, please feel free to PM me anytime.

Grantham