Dear Krista, Dear Krista, Your question is a good one, and it is one that has haunted my own academic career for more than twenty years. Here\u2019s your question: \u201chow one should react to those preaching the traditional Romans road\u2013 especially at Bible Camps or other distinct Christian functions? Moreover, should that teaching be discouraged?\u201d Put abstractly, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1736,1743,425],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-emerging-movement","category-kingdom-of-god","category-missional"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nYour question is a good one, and it is one that has haunted my own academic career for more than twenty years. Here\u2019s your question: \u201chow one should react to those preaching the traditional Romans road\u2013 especially at Bible Camps or other distinct Christian functions? Moreover, should that teaching be discouraged?\u201d Put abstractly, is the summons to salvation distinct from the summons to discipleship? Well, there\u2019s lots here, so let me give it a bit of a whirl. (This is sensitive enough that I\u2019ll be a little longer today than I\u2019d like to.)
\nThe first thing I would say is that the Romans Road is a theory of salvation \u2014 and the word \u201csalvation\u201d is important here. It is not a theory of kingdom or a theory of liberation, but a specific word \u2014 salvation \u2014 and how that word takes on a life of its own in Paul\u2019s letter to the Romans. There are more words than salvation and there are more books than Romans.
\nAs a \u201cplan\u201d \u2014 and as a plan built on Romans \u2014 the Romans Road is sound. It speaks truths about the meaning of salvation in Romans.
\nThe second thing is this, and it just might surprise you: as many evangelical Christians have problems with the Romans Road as non-Christians. And, now that the Romans Road is almost exclusively an evangelical thing, mainline, Roman Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox Christians also have problems with it. Why? Because it has taken on a \u201cgroupishness\u201d. It\u2019s the way evangelicals talk. Oddly enough, Romans is in all of our Bibles. If the Romans Road tells the truth (not the whole truth) of the gospel in Romans, then I say we ought to protect it.
\nThe third thing now: the Romans Road works for some. It is just as important to say it doesn\u2019t work for others. We have a big \u201cgolf bag full of metaphors\u201d and there is no reason to use the same club every day for every shot on every hole. And this leads me to another point.
\nFourth: I\u2019m not sure the entry door into a kingdom relationship with God through Jesus has to begin <\/em>with sin. Not all agree with me, but I want to ask you this: How often does Jesus begin <\/em>with sin? How many times does he \u201cevangelize\u201d (which he did often) by getting people to realize their sin and then asking them to accept him and then tell them they are forgiven? Now, if you are a good Bible reader \u2014 and I know you are \u2014 you will know that Jesus did emphasize \u201crepentance.\u201d In fact, Mark summarizes the message of Jesus with three words: kingdom, repent and believe. I\u2019m becoming more and more convinced that the best entry today is the word kingdom \u2014 a visionary word of what God is doing in this world through Jesus and in the power of the Spirit. Kingdom vision seemed to evoke response to Jesus.
\nFifth: I\u2019m persuaded also that sin-trust-forgiveness tends to \u201cobjectify\u201d things and can sometimes radically de-personalize things. What I mean is this: redemption is about \u201cfacing\u201d God \u2014 I turn my face to God whose face is on me \u2014 or being in radically open personal relationship with God. To do this, we have to turn from our self and our sin (repentance) and turn to God. But, for many, the sin-trust-forgiveness is about having a problem resolved and not enough about a personal relationship restored. It\u2019s all objective. The minute the gospel becomes totally objective, it loses its magic.
\nNow my final point: the biggest issue that I see with the Romans Road approach is that once the sin problem is resolved (sin almost always understood as guilt before an all-holy God, which is true but not true enough), salvation has been accomplished. Frankly, this isn\u2019t biblical: the sin problem of guilt, to be sure, has to be resolved, but sin is bigger than guilt (it is distorted relationship with God, self, others, and the world) and therefore the resolution (salvation) is bigger than forgiveness (it is resolved relationships with God, self, others, and the world \u2014 and it takes a lifetime). Only a kingdom vision makes the sin problem fully clear and only a kingdom vision makes the solution fully clear.
\nNow how about this Krista? Jesus called people to enter the kingdom. That\u2019s his style of evangelizing. He wanted recruits, kingdom workers, ministers for God\u2019s redemptive work in this world, and he was out and about summoning folks into that kingdom. When folks encountered him, they became aware of sin and Israel\u2019s problem \u2014 how little they cared about God, about themselves, about others, and about the world. And they also saw their need to turn around and their need to turn to Jesus and their need to follow him and their need to get united with themselves and the other followers of Jesus. They also would have perceived their need to embrace in grace all humans and look after this world as God made Eikons to do. That\u2019s how Jesus did it. Lots today get the needs and problems up front and they never get to the kingdom part. I suggest we learn more about evangelism from his summoning folks into the kingdom. I\u2019m still working on some of this, so I\u2019m keen on your thoughts.
\nTell me what you think kiddo.
\nBlessings,
\nScot<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"