The Real and Unreal
"Romans' Road to Heaven"
Brian R. Kenyon

An increasingly popular approach that one denomination is taking to teach a false, faith only, pray the "sinner's prayer" method of salvation is called "The Romans' Road to Heaven." Someone in this area mentioned it to me a few weeks ago. Then, while perusing through a bookstore in Indiana, I came across a tract, "The Romans' Road to Heaven." This little tract is so titled because it mainly uses verses from the Book of Romans to teach the faith only, "sinner's prayer" doctrine of salvation. Because this tract contains fundamental errors common to many denominations, it is important for us to be informed and forearmed against error. Let us compare the "Romans' Road to Heaven" depicted in the tract with what the Bible really teaches concerning salvation.

"Why Can't We Go to Heaven?"

After quoting, "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:23), and "As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one" (Rom. 3:10), the tract says, "We must then conclude that in our natural state, God views us as lost sinners that are headed to some place of rewards." The use of "natural state" implies that we are born sinners. They teach that we inherit Adam's sin as we would a genetic trait. This false doctrine of inherited Adamic sin is at the core of all faith only systems of salvation. Concerning Adam and sin, Paul wrote, "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned" (Rom. 5:12). Why did "death pass upon all men"? Not because we inherited sin, but because "all have sinned"! Our sin, not Adam's, is why we are lost! Ezekiel put it this way, "The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him" (Ezk. 18:20). Each person is accountable for his or her own sins. Christ's blood through the Gospel is the only remedy for sin.

"How Can We Go to Heaven When We Die?"

After quoting, "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Rom. 6:23), and referring to the "second death" in Revelation 20:14, the tract addresses the question, "How can we go to heaven when we physically die?" It quotes, "But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Rom. 5:8). The tract then says that after we acknowledge we are condemned sinners going to hell and that God loves us in spite of that, we should read Romans 10:9-10, 13, which says, "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation....For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." The tract then says, "God calls accepting Christ being saved," which, in a sense, is true. However, the way they explain accepting Christ is absolutely false and unscriptural.

In the next and final section, "What Exactly Do I Do Now?," there is not a single Scripture reference for how they say we are saved, and for good reason-there is no Bible for it! The tract says, "Realize you are lost. Realize Christ died for your sins. Ask Him to forgive you and save you. Will you please pray the following prayer [printed in the tract] and mean it the best that you know how?" Realizing that we are lost and that Christ died for our sins is indeed necessary, but where do they get the idea that their "sinner's prayer" saves us from sin? God does not respond in any special way to the prayers of those who are outside of Christ (Jn. 9:11; 1 Pet. 3:12). Yes, God works for all through providence (Acts 17:24-27), and He forgives those who repent in accordance with His will (Lk. 23:39-43), but where does anyone in the Bible ever pray the "sinner's prayer" as a condition of accepting Christ and being saved? Their "Romans' Road to Heaven" cannot truly lead us there!

The Real Road to Heaven Depicted in Romans

The Book of Romans begins with Paul saying that he has "received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations" (Rom. 1:5), and it ends with Paul declaring that the Gospel was "made known to all nations for the obedience of faith" (Rom. 16:26). Obedience to the Gospel is clearly a condition of being saved and going to heaven (Rom. 1:16 cf. Mk. 16:15-16)! Paul said in Romans 6:16-18 that the only way to be freed from the bondage of sin is to have "obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you." Note that in order for the Romans to have become Christians, they had to have obeyed a form of doctrine, not a "sinner's prayer"! What was that "form of doctrine"? It was baptism, which is a form of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. "Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? 4Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life" (Rom. 6:3-4). Why would that little tract on "The Romans' Road to Heaven" leave out the passages on baptism?

Under the new covenant, baptism is necessary for a person outside of Christ to be forgiven of sin, enter into a relationship with Christ, and be on the way to heaven. While it is true that belief in Jesus and confessing Him are necessary for salvation, the total teaching of the Bible gives the order of faith (Rom. 10:17), repentance (Rom. 2:4; 2 Cor. 7:10), confessing our faith in Christ (Rom. 10:10; 2 Tim. 2:19), and being baptized into Christ to have the remission of sins (Rom. 6:3-5; Mk. 16:15-16). Scriptural baptism is the precise point a sinner outside of Christ has his or her sins forgiven, becomes a Christian, and is added to the Lord's church (Acts 2:38, 47). Baptism is not the end of our salvation; it is only the beginning, the new birth (Jn. 3:3-5). As the Book of Romans also teaches, we must continue to follow the "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus" and "walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit" (Rom. 8:1-4). Let us not travel down denominationalism's pseudo-road to heaven. Rather, let us trust in God's plan of salvation, the real Romans' road to heaven.