Sunday, February 22, 2009

Is the Roman's Road the Way to Go?

It is said that everything that a Christian needs in order to accept salvation and learn what God requires is embodied in the book of Romans. Many people preach nothing "except Jesus Christ, and him crucified" and nothing else. (1 Corinthians 2:2, New English Translation) Is this really the way to go? Is our message exclusively "Jesus Christ, and him impaled"?-New World Translation

While the death of Jesus Christ was a major point of the teachings of Paul, John, James, and Peter in the Christian Scriptures, this was not the only thing they wrote about. Many times they wrote about Christian conduct, the Last Days, the apostasy, the importance of faith. Jude originally wanted to compose his letter to talk about "the salvation we hold in common" but realized that it was more important to speak on "put[ting] up a hard fight for the faith that was once for all time delivered to the holy ones." (Jude 3) The circumstances dictated his message.

Paul's example in the book of Acts is paramount. When making a speech in front of a pagan audience, he did not immediately start in on a "Roman's Road" direction, how to gain salvation, but he started on a point which they would understand. (Acts 17:22-29) He then went onto more of a "Roman Road"-ish topic.-Acts 17:30-31

The Bible is a big book. There are many points contained in the inspired Word that we do well to mediate on. "For all the things that were written aforetime were written for our instruction, that through our endurance and through the comfort from the Scriptures we might have hope." (Romans 15:4) Jehovah gave us the entire Bible. He didn't just give us the book of Romans nor did He just give us Matthew-Hebrews. The Bible contains priceless wisdom and teachings on many things.

"Jesus Christ, and him impaled" is a very, very important topic. Jesus Christ died for a number of reason, one being that it would help in the furtherance of Jehovah's purpose, namely, a heavenly kingdom. Due to his faithfulness, Jesus Christ is King of that heavenly kingdom. (Psalm 2:6; 110:1-2; Isaiah 9:6-7; Daniel 7:13-14; Revelation 12:5, 10) If he had not died, the purpose of the kingdom would not be able to be fulfilled. The preaching of that kingdom was the main concern of Christ's teaching.-Luke 4:43; 8:1

So, while a "Roman's Road"-ish message is important, Jesus died for our sins and "there is not another name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must get saved", that is not all that we talk about. It is "to be witnessed to at its own particular times." (Acts 4:12; 1 Timothy 2:6) Jesus Christ told us that we should preach the "good new of the kingdom" and, while the ransom sacrifice of Jesus Christ as an essential aspect of that message, it should not detract from the rest of that good news.-Matthew 24:14