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The Protestant theology of salvation depends heavily on the book of Romans; in fact, it has been said that Protestant theology would be meaningless without Romans, and Protestant evangelism hinges so much on Romans that someone composed an entire “way of salvation” composed totally of verses from Romans—the “Romans road.” It may be valuable, then, for us to take a closer look at this book and its teachings.

It has been said that Romans is the closest thing in the New Testament to a theological treatise. Not that Paul uses complex theological terminology, or presents arguments that a studious Christian layman cannot understand, but he does present us with a tightly woven argument concerning some of the core teachings of the Christian faith: righteousness and faith. Jude, for example, presents his arguments in blunt language and it is possible to skim over his book and still take in the main point. But one can miss a lot—perhaps even some of the most important statements—by doing the same thing in Romans. Here it may be valuable to carefully take our time and try to follow Paul’s arguments and see the relation between the various parts of the book (of course, this is important with any book, even the clearer ones, but especially so when the argument is harder to understand).

This presents one of the problems with the “Romans Road”—it consists of short phrases and sentences pulled out of a detailed argument (an argument where phrases may depend on other phrases for their meaning), pulled away from their context and sometimes even away from the sentence they were part of. For example, take the often-quoted Romans 3:23, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;”. This verse begins with the word For, indicating that is tied in with what comes before it, and it ends with a semicolon and is followed with the word Being, a pronoun probably referring back to the alls in verses 22 and 23, indicating that verse 23 is tied in with what comes after it. Take a look at the whole sentence, expressing a more complete thought:

But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: For 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 hath set forth to be 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 believeth in Jesus. (Romans 3:21-26)

This whole sentence, not just verse 23, speaks about salvation. One might even say that this virtually alone could make a good tract, expressing most of the ideas many Fundamentalist tracts convey. So why just yank one verse out here and express the rest of the thoughts with other verses pulled away from their contexts? Some versions of the “Road” even change verse 23’s semicolon to a period to make it stand alone without its context, ignoring the indication that the passage has more to say. Why would their authors do this, especially in light of the fact that the rest of the passage addresses just the topic they want to cover?

Whatever answer I can give for that question is, of course, just speculation. Brevity probably has something to do with it; tracts these days are written to be short and easy to read. Another reason is perhaps the fact that tract writers like to avoid “hard words,” and this passage, addressing the deep issues of salvation, uses some words that are not “street language.” But why they did it is not as important, perhaps, as the result of their pulling this verse out of context and putting it with other verses likewise taken out of context. Much of the content of this passage is actually, through other passages, included in the “Romans Road.” But notice specifically one phrase, the meaning of which tends not to be carried over into versions of the “Road”: “for the remission of sins that are past” (Romans 3:25). This verse is crucial to Paul’s argument here, because Paul is saying things that could possibly be taken to mean that the Christian can sin after conversion without endangering his salvation (in fact, Paul apparently felt the need to specifically address this issue in the beginning of chapter 6). This phrase makes it clear that Paul is not stating this; the Christian is justified freely, but he has to continue in the righteousness God freely gives him. This conveys the idea that the righteousness “which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe” (Romans 3:22) is a righteousness that not only removes the guilt of sin but also the rule of sin. Then in Romans 5, Paul makes it even more clear that there is more to justification than freedom from only the penalty of sin: “Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.” (Romans 5:9-10) Here he specifically separates justification from salvation from wrath.

This may also be the key to connecting the teachings of both Paul and James on Abraham’s justification into one harmonious whole. When Paul says that Abraham was not justified by works (Romans 4), he identifies this as happening in Genesis 15, when God promised that Abraham would have multitudes of descendants, and Abraham believed it. It was counted to him for righteousness, that is, he was justified by it. When James says that Abraham was justified by works, he identifies this as happening in Genesis 22, when Abraham offered Isaac upon the altar, many years after Abraham had already been justified, as described in chapter 15. Returning to Romans 3 and “the remission of sins that are past,” we can perhaps rephrase the story of Abraham’s justification: Abraham was, like all men, unable to justify himself by his good deeds, but he believed God, and because of this, God gave him righteousness. Now being righteous, and having his “sins that are past” forgiven, Abraham was responsible to order his life in a righteous way, and thus his “justness” was maintained as he did so; in James’s terms, he was “justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar” (James 2:21). Paul and James are not teaching contradictory beliefs; rather, they are presenting justification from two different perspectives.

This same teaching comes out in other passages in the Scriptures, including another one that the Romans Road has detached a single verse from:

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness. I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness. For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness. What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death. But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:12-23, emphasis mine)

This passage demonstrates the same timeline discussed above: we are unable to justify ourselves by our good deeds, but we can believe God, and because of this, God gives us righteousness. Now being righteous, and having our “sins that are past” forgiven, we are responsible to order our lives in a righteous way, and thus our “justness” will be maintained as we do so.

But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak. For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister. And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end: That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises. (Hebrews 6:9-12)