Road Trips can be fun and exciting, they can also be scary
and exhausting. The determining factor of the success and enjoyment of a road
trip really comes down to who you are with and what road you are on. Just
yesterday I was riding home from a retreat with my friend Craig who enjoys
driving through Amish country. Sure, we could have arrived home sooner on the
highway, but it was enjoyable to take our time driving through the country and
seeing the horse and buggies riding along. Not only was the scenery nicer, but
we had extra time to talk about life and faith. It was good to slow down and
enjoy the ride.
The last couple of weeks we have been talking about sign
posts along the Romans Road to Salvation. It’s really a series asking the
question “in this Road Trip called LIFE, what road are you on and who are you
riding with?”
Righteousness
In week 1, we saw that there is Good News that reveals the
righteousness of God and the hope of salvation. In order for the Good News to
be good, we had to deal with the bad news first. In revealing the righteousness
of God, it also displays the sinfulness of man. It’s as if brilliant street
lights were turned on suddenly and we saw that we are riding in a hearse on the
road to a cemetery. In brilliance of God’s
holiness, we see that we are all dead in our sins and we cannot do anything
about it.
Redemption
In week 2, we see that the light shines, not only to reveal
our sin, but show what the righteous God was willing to do for us. We are
introduced to the person of Jesus Christ, who is perfect, and the only one to
fulfill what God expects of us. He demonstrated the love of God in the most
extravagant way, by dying for our sins, while we were still sinning. He offers
a free gift of salvation, to be made right with God, through His own suffering.
Fork In The Road
Inevitably, while you are on a road trip, you will find
yourself at a fork in the road. Ahead are two roads and you have to choose
which way you are going to go. Robert Frost talked about “two roads diverged in
a yellow wood and I chose the one less traveled by and that has made all the
difference.”
As we passed the signpost of Righteousness that reveals God’s
holiness and our sinfulness, then the signpost of Redemption, which is God’s
provision of love in Christ Jesus, we come to a fork in the road with two more
signs: death and life.
The road to death has no requirements, it simply says, “ignore
the sign posts and keep doing whatever you want.” It’s a wide and well-traveled
road, a very familiar road with all the trappings of humanism, hedonism, and
materialism. It boasts the comforts we are accustomed to, as we were born on
that road.
Yet the other road, Life, is narrower and less familiar. It
has been traveled by Jesus who calls out, “come and follow me.” The
requirements to travel the road are found in Romans 10:9-10:
9If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and
believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10For
with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses
and is saved.
The two requirements are belief and confession.
“Believe in your
heart”
Belief means to trust or to be faithful to someone or
something, to have faith. “In your heart” simply means with the real you, the
whole you, as the heart is a symbol of your will. To believe in your heart is
to make a willful decision to lay your burden down and receive the free gift
Jesus offers. This type of belief is something you are fully convinced of that
produces a response called confession.
“Confess with your
mouth”
Confession is like a pledge. You remember standing up in
class, putting your hand on your heart and reciting the Pledge of Allegiance?
Those who truly believe in the resurrected Lord are willing to stand up and
openly confess that Jesus is Lord! It’s a pledge, a promise and an
acknowledgement that you are surrendering control of your life and giving it to
Jesus. That you want Him to lead, guide and direct your life.
In these two verses, Paul outlines for us the two
requirements to travel the road of Life. He is summarizing a lot of teaching
into a few verses, but the essence is very profound. Notice the requirements
are not something you have to do, some difficult action, or some large sum of
money. It is a belief that results in confession. This is the essence of
Christianity, which is a creedal faith.
Creeds have been passed down from the early church as a way
to summarize the core of what it means to believe in our hearts. One of the
earliest Creeds was preserved by Paul in the book of Colossians:
He (Jesus) is the image of the invisible
God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in
heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or
rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he
is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head
of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that
in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was
pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether
on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. (Colossians
1:15–20)
The emphasis of belief is on the person and work of Jesus
Christ, it is believing in who He is and what He has done. It’s not believing
in what I have accomplished or could do, but on His finished work. We cannot
earn our salvation, so it is important to note that having faith in Jesus is
not a work, but a byproduct of belief (Romans 3:28; 4:5).
Belief comes to us from the Word of Christ:
“So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”
Romans 10:17
Faith that brings salvation is a result of God’s Word being
heard, understood and believed as true. It brings to life a new work in us that
confesses who God is and what He has done.
Another early Creed is called the Apostle’s Creed:
I believe in God, the
Father Almighty,
Maker of heaven and earth.
And in Jesus Christ,
his only Son, our Lord;
Who was conceived by the Holy
Spirit,
Born of the virgin Mary;
Suffered under Pontius
Pilate,
was crucified, dead and
buried;
He descended into Hades;
The third day he rose from
the dead;
He ascended into heaven;
and sits at the right hand of
God the Father Almighty;
From thence he shall come to
judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy
Spirit;
the holy universal Church;
the communion of saints;
the forgiveness of sins;
the resurrection of the body;
and the life everlasting. Amen.
Confessing Christ, becoming a Christian, is a weighty thing.
By truly believing in your heart and confessing with your mouth, you are saying
more than just words. You are identifying with and becoming one with Christ.
Union with Christ means He is what defines you and you reject anything that is
not Him. Matt Chandler said this about the creed:
“When the early church recited the Apostles’ Creed, it was
simultaneously their greatest act of rebellion and their greatest act of
allegiance,” Chandler said. “When the church gathered, they didn’t stand in an
air conditioned room, protected by rule of law. When they stood, across the
centuries, not knowing who would come in, being watched at who’s reciting this,
they rejected the popular narratives of their day.”
To Pledge Allegiance to Jesus is to
say no to this world and its views, and yes to Christ and heaven’s values. Choosing Jesus is saying no to materialism
(thinking stuff will satisfy), hedonism (I just want to have a good time,
pleasure will satisfy), humanism (emphasizes the human value over any idea of
the divine), pluralism (that everybody can have their own truth), and other
views such as these.
Your Choice
Standing at the fork in the road,
you have to decide one thing: is Jesus who He says He is?
If yes, then you will believe
that he has risen from the grave and that he is Lord. Have you decided to
believe in your heart and confess with your mouth? When did you decide that?
How are you confessing Jesus today?
If that is something you haven’t
done but would like to, tell Jesus about it.
For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Romans
10:13
When you call out to God in
prayer and acknowledge your sin, your need for a Savior, believing what Jesus
has done for you (dying on the cross and resurrecting from the dead) and pledging
to follow Jesus you can be assured that you are saved, it’s right there in God’s
Word!
To be saved means your sins are
forgiven, that Jesus paid your debt, offers you His righteousness, adopted by
God, and a future with Jesus that starts now and lasts forever!
I hope you believe this! I want
you to know the hope that is only found in Jesus Christ! In order to make the
most of this of this road trip called life, the determining factors are who are
you with and what road are you on? When you place your trust in Jesus, He will
be with you on the road of life. Sometimes it will be hard, but He knows the
way and your destination is secured.
