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Roman Road … Key Points for the Gospel Message and Tool for Witnessing
© 2019,2021 by Greg Clements    Permission is granted to copy and distribute this document as long as no fee of any kind is charged and this copyright notice is included in the document. 

    Comments by Greg Clements (glc)    August 1, 2019 (added point 0. July 18, 2021)
(glc) The phrase “Roman Road” refers to a set of verses in the book of Romans that can be used to guide discussion with someone to explain the gospel to them.  I would suggest that you not go through this document with the person.  Instead, write down the verse references on a notecard and read the verses from your Bible.  I would suggest you primarily use the verses in Romans and only use the supporting verses if the person has a question.  I think it is important not to get bogged down with too many verses.  Seek to get to the last step in the Roman Road and ask the person to pray to Jesus, asking for forgiveness for sin and accepting Jesus forgiveness.  You may want to lead the prayer and have the person repeat after you but it is probably better if the person will pray, out loud, on their own.  This is just my opinion.

Bible quotes from the NET (NET) Bible. THE NET BIBLE, NEW ENGLISH TRANSLATION, COPYRIGHT © 1996 BY BIBLICAL STUDIES PRESS, L.L.C. This Bible is a free download from www.bible.org. The First edition without notes is free from https://netbible.com/download. The second edition with notes is $4.95 download as of 2018. The NET 2nd edition can be read online for no cost at https://netbible.org/bible/Romans+1 (starts at Romans Chapter 1).


(glc) We should do some preparation to share the gospel when opportunities arise.
Colossians 4:2-6 (NET) “2 Be devoted to prayer, keeping alert in it with thanksgiving. 3 At the same time pray for us too, that God may open a door for the message so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ,... 4 Pray that I may make it known as I should. 5 Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunities. 6 Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you should answer everyone.”

1 Peter 3:15-16 (NET) “15 But set Christ apart as Lord in your hearts and always be ready to give an answer to anyone who asks about the hope you possess. 16Yet do it with courtesy and respect, keeping a good conscience, so that those who slander your good conductin Christ may be put to shame when they accuse you.”

(glc)  This document lists 4 steps (5 counting step 0.) on the Roman Road.  If you do an Internet search you will find other sets of verses.

0.  God Created the World
Romans 1:20 “ 20 For since the creation of the world his invisible attributes—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen because they are understood through what has been made. So people are without excuse.” (NET) 

(glc) It is important that a person recognize God exists.  God is greater than the universe he created.  The universe is a witness that God exists.

1. All have sinned 
Romans 3:21-26  (NET) “21 But now apart from the law the righteousness of God ... has been disclosed – 22 namely, the righteousness of God through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. 24 But they are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. 25 God publicly displayed him at his death as the mercy seat accessible through faith. This was to demonstrate his righteousness, because God in his forbearance had passed over the sins previously committed. 26 This was also to demonstrate his righteousness in the present time, so that he would be just and the justifier of the one who lives because of Jesus’ faithfulness.”

(glc)Some people may want you to explain the concept of sin.

Romans 8:5-8 (NET) “5 For those who live according to the flesh have their outlook shaped by the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit have their outlook shaped by the things of the Spirit. 6 For the outlook of the fleshis death, but the outlook of the Spirit is life and peace, 7 because the outlook of the flesh is hostile to God, forit does not submit to the law of God, nor is it able to do so. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”

James 4: 17 (NET) “17 So whoever knows what is good to do and does not do it is guilty of sin.”


The Greek word for sin has the literal meaning of “to miss the mark.” (Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary)

(glc) God wants us to live in a godly way.  We naturally drift toward living our own way, and sin.


2. Christ Died For Us While We Were Sinners
Romans 5:6-9 (NET) “6 For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 (For rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person perhaps someone might possibly dare to die.) 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much more then, because we have now been declared righteous by his blood, we will be saved through him from God’s wrath.”

John 3:16-18 (NET) “16 For this is the way God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world should be saved through him. 18 The one who believes in him is not condemned. The one who does not believe has been condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the one and onlySon of God.”


John 14:6 (NET) “ 6 Jesus replied, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

1 Timothy 2:5,6 (NET) “5 For there is one God and one intermediary between God and humanity, Christ Jesus, himself human, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all, revealing God’s purpose at his appointed time.”


3.  Sin leads to Death (separation from God for eternity) but there is Eternal Life (with God) available through Jesus
Romans 6:23  (NET) ” 23 For the payoff of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life inChrist Jesus our Lord.”
Gal 6:7 – 8 (NET) “7Do not be deceived. God will not be made a fool. For a person will reap what he sows, 8 because the person who sows to his own flesh will reap corruption from the flesh, but the one who sows to the Spirit will reap eternal life from the Spirit. “


James 1: 13 – 15 (NET) “13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted by evil,and he himself tempts no one. 14 But each one is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desires. 15Then when desire conceives, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is full grown, it gives birth to death.”


Matthew 25:31-46  (NET) “31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be assembled before him, and he will separate people one from another like a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. 34 Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world….. 41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire that has been prepared for the devil and his angels! ... 46 And these will depart into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” “

Ephesians 2:8-10 (NET) “8 For by grace you are saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 it is not from works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are his creative work, having been created in Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared beforehand so we can do them.”
(glc) We are saved through faith in Jesus.  Then we show our faith by doing good works.

Galatians 2:16 (NET) “ 16 yet we know that no one is justified by the works of the law but by the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. And we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by the faithfulness of Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified. “


4.  Trust in Jesus and Speak Out your Belief
Romans 10:6-13  (NET) “ 6 But the righteousness that is by faith says: ...“The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we preach), 9 because if 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. 10 For with the heart one believes and thus has righteousness and with the mouth one confesses and thus has salvation. 11 For the scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” 12 For there is no distinction between the Jew and the Greek, for the same Lord is Lord of all, who richly blesses all who call on him. 13 For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

1 Corinthians 15:1-8 (NET) “Now I want to make clear for you, brothers and sisters, the gospel that I preached to you, that you received and on which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message I preached to you – unless you believed in vain. 3 For I passed on to you as of first importance what I also received – that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, 4 and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6Then he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as though to one born at the wrong time, he appeared to me also.”

Matthew 10:32,33 (NET) ”32 “Whoever, then, acknowledges me before people, I will acknowledge before my Father in heaven. 33 Butwhoever denies me before people, I will deny him also before my Father in heaven.”

(glc) In September 1973 I was attending a meeting of a Christian group on the University of Iowa campus.  The speaker was teaching Christian students how to tell others about Jesus.  I realized at that meeting that I had not told God I was sorry for my sins or accepted Jesus sacrifice for my sins.  That night I told God I was sorry for my sins and asked for his forgiveness.  And he did that for me.

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