There are two paths laid out in the book of Romans. The first is the path to faith laid out in three verses.
“… 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.”
— Romans 10: 9
The second step on the path of salvation is believing the gospel.
“For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.”
— Romans 10: 10
And the third step on the path of salvation is living the gospel.
“So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”
— Romans 10: 17
The path of salvation begins with hearing the gospel.
For now, in America, we are free to hear and believe and live the gospel, the good news about Jesus.
It’s a freedom bought and paid for by the Memorial Day heroes we honor and remember every year in May.
They are our fathers and grandfathers, our sons and daughters, and our friends and neighbors, who gave their lives to give us a better life!
But there are people in our world who have no idea there is a path. They can’t hear the gospel.
For instance, there are 800,000 people living in the Kingdom of Bhutan between China and India who were cut off from the rest of the world until the 1960s.
Even now the Bhutanese monarchy restricts access to the country and demands all its citizens follow Buddhism.
Hearing and believing the gospel of Jesus Christ in Bhutan means losing your free education, your health care, and even your lights and water. Faith in Bhutan is a dark cave and not many of its people are interested in exploring it.
The first step on the path to faith is hearing the faith in verse 17, the second step is believing the faith in verse 9, and the third step is living the faith in verse 10.
But I certainly don’t want to forget the fourth step on the first path to faith — sharing the faith creates a roundabout of faith.
How else will the 800,000 people living in Bhutan hear about Jesus? Or the 4,410 people living in Dawson, Ga., where I recently preached? Or the 18,900 people living in Thomasville where I’m a local pastor? Or the 2,000 people living in Clayton where we own a small cabin?
They’ve all heard the gospel, but maybe, just maybe, they’ve never really heard the gospel — if that makes sense?
It’s a round-about of hearing, believing, living, and sharing, and hearing, believing, living, and sharing.
Finally, after describing the first path to faith in Chapter 10, we’ll realize that Paul describes the second path after faith in the whole book of Romans for those who’ve taken the first path to faith in chapter 10:
• justification from sin’s penalty in chapters 1-8;
• salvation from sin’s power in chapters 9-11, and finally;
• sanctification or salvation from sin’s presence in chapters 12-16.
It’s quite a journey!
Charles “Buddy” Whatley is a retired United Methodist pastor serving Dawson Street Methodist Church in Thomasville, Ga. With wife, Mary Ella, they are missionaries to the Navajo Reservation.
