I want to conclude this series by talking about an often quoted passage from Romans 10.

Romans 10:9-13: “If you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved. The scripture says, ‘No one who believes in him will be put to shame.’ For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him. For, ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’”

This passage is where the concept of a “Sinner’s Prayer” comes from, that is, the teaching that one is saved by praying to God and making these proclamations of faith. However, some Christians have objected to the idea, saying that you cannot be assured of your salvation simply because you have said a prayer. They say that you must also demonstrate genuine repentance.

That could be a valid objection if you are only seeing the surface meaning of the Scripture above. However, what I have come to believe is that the passage has a deeper meaning, and if you believe the deeper meaning underlying those words, then that prayer is indeed enough to give assurance of salvation.

First, while the concept of confessing Jesus as Lord is often seen as pledging allegiance to His will for our lives, it could also be seen as placing our trust in Him to work in us “to will and to work” (Phil. 2:13), believing that He will operate in us to ensure that our attitudes and actions progressively conform to His will. Next, the part about believing in one’s heart that God “raised him from the dead,” alludes back to Chapters 6-8 in which Paul describes how we should believe in the power of Christ’s resurrection over our own lives to set us free from sin’s bondage. This goes beyond simply acknowledging that a miracle happened 2,000 years ago.

Paul writes, “No one who believes in him will be put to shame . . . for ‘everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’” This is the ultimate assurance that if we sincerely ask God to bring us into this transformation through Christ, we cannot mess up our salvation. We can rest assured that, regardless of what phase of the journey we are in now, we are undergoing a transformative process to become what God has made us to be.

Romans 8 opens with the statement that “there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.”

One important thing to note is that in the original Greek manuscripts of the New Testament, the books were not divided into chapters or verses. Thus, the statement that “there is no condemnation” was meant to be in the same context as the struggle with sin described at the end of Chapter 7. I think Paul wanted readers to see that we are free from condemnation even when there are problems that we have not yet overcome.

Verses 5-6 state, “Those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.”

Verse 9: “But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.”

Verses 12-13: “So then, brothers and sisters, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh— for if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.”

I think it’s important to consider what it means to “put to death the deeds of the body” by the Spirit in order to have life. At first, this may sound like an admonishment to try harder to stop committing sins. However, I think Romans 7 shows how, in some cases, ramping up the effort to live right can actually keep us stuck in bad habits because inward rebellion is stimulated in response to the righteous effort. Thus, I think that, where Romans is concerned, living according to the flesh versus the Spirit isn’t so much about what we are doing, but rather, what is the focus of our minds. The point is that our minds should be focused on freedom from sinful habits, believing that the new life given to us through Christ’s death and resurrection has the power to change our lives as the Holy Spirit works in us.

So, I’ll get back to the question, “Should we continue trying to avoid sin?” I think it comes down to this: What are our efforts, or lack of efforts, doing to the focus of our minds? Ultimately, it is only by the Holy Spirit that certain problems can be overcome in our lives. And deliverance can be a process rather than an instantaneous event. Many spiritual Christians have taught the importance of patience in waiting for prayers to be answered. Although that principle is not often put in a context of personal morality, I think Romans gives us reason to make that extension. In Romans 4, Paul describes the faith of Abraham, who believed in God’s promise to give him descendants even though his and Sarah’s bodies were dead where reproduction was concerned. Paul wrote that God “gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist” (4:17). When that promise was given, Abraham and Sarah were powerless to fulfill that promise. Even if they had tried to act, it would not have succeeded. They were too old. Likewise, we can try to do what’s right, but our efforts don’t work unless we are spiritually enabled to follow through.

In 1 Corinthians 3:1-3, Paul wrote,
“And so, brothers and sisters, I could not speak to you as spiritual people, but rather as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for solid food. Even now you are still not ready, for you are still of the flesh. For as long as there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not of the flesh, and behaving according to human inclinations?”

Paul wrote that the Corinthians were still “of the flesh . . . behaving according to human inclinations.” However, Paul refers to them as “brothers and sisters,” which clearly indicates they were justified and genuinely in the faith. Spiritually, they were in a situation similar to Abraham’s physical situation. But if we trust in the power of Christ’s death and resurrection to set us free, we can know that our time is coming to grow out of the problems in our lives even if currently we do not feel that power working.

If we are trying to change ourselves, and see that our efforts are not working and are simply causing frustration, that frustration takes our attention away from trusting in the Spirit to set us free and puts the spotlight back on the problems in our lives. If that’s the case, we might need to concede the failing efforts, trust in the Spirit’s power to ultimately set us free, and wait until we receive the empowerment to tackle certain issues.

If we realize that we don’t have to change ourselves to be right with God, we become free to conduct an honest examination of ourselves, rather than feeling like we have to twist the data to make it look like we’re meeting a certain standard. When we get a clearer view of what is going on inside of us, we may see why our efforts to change ourselves aren’t working. We can try to create new approaches to solving problems in our lives that better reflect our individual psychology. Ultimately, God may empower us to overcome issues by leading us into this kind of wisdom.

What we should avoid is the situation in which we sense that we realistically have the willpower and strength to make certain changes, but we force ourselves to override our conscience because we want zero pain. In that situation, we are steering our attention away from deliverance and back towards sin. When Paul instructs readers to avoid giving in to sin, I think this is what he is talking about.

I believe there are two mentalities that should be contrasted: A mentality of law, and a mentality of licentiousness. The mentality of law says, “You must do xyz. No buts, no ifs, no debates. JUST DO IT!” The mentality of licentiousness says, “Forget about xyz, there’s no need for change in your life. You can define your own ideals.” Grace, however, acknowledges that we should be subject to God’s will. However, grace (unlike Law) allows us to be realistic about what we can and cannot do. Grace is not lenient; rather, it has the transformative power to bring our lives closer to God’s will. Biblical grace could be likened to chemical reactions, combustion, radiation, etc. When you come to see this, you can see that pejorative terms like “cheap grace” are completely irrelevant. Also, phrases like a “license to sin” become irrelevant because if you are free from Law, there is no need for a license, for a license gives you permission to do something that the law normally forbids. The only reason you need a driver’s license is because there is a law that says you cannot drive without one.

Ultimately, any power to make a change in our lives comes from God. I believe that for some Christians, due to either psychological traits that God designed them to have, or a special working of the Holy Spirit within them, they can apply heavy self-discipline and actually get the desired results because they have some sort of power that many of us do not have. I think that there are even non-Christians who have this inherent ability as I alluded to in Parts 2-3 of this series. For some people, this is the only way that they can understand obedience because they are not experiencing the limitations of willpower. These people can live by the principle that the Apostle James outlined (that faith without works is dead). They show their faith in God by consistently doing what the Holy Spirit convicts them that they should do.

But what can happen is that over time, temptations build up, and they get tired of persevering to live right. But they do not understand the message of grace and transformation outlined in Romans, so they resort to a mentality of licentiousness and disregard Biblical virtues. I think that it is possible for salvation to be lost, and this is where it might occur.

However, I believe if we come to realize that we cannot change ourselves through our willpower and energy, and are trusting in God to help us experience freedom from sin through the power of Christ’s death and resurrection, we cannot mess up our salvation. Furthermore, I believe we are living in a state of continual repentance by believing these things even if we have not verbally confessed every act of sin. It is at this point that we are justified apart from our present works. We have left our lives in God’s hands, and we can be assured that He will operate in us so that we will be saved when our lives are evaluated.

The Book of Romans is one of the most analyzed books of the New Testament. It has much material that is central to Christian teaching, so one’s interpretation of this book has much bearing on what Christianity means for that person.

So, let’s start with Romans 1.

Verses 5-7: “We have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for the sake of his name, including yourselves who are called to belong to Jesus Christ, to all God’s beloved in Rome, who are called to be saints.”

These passages appear to establish the epistle as one written to a Christian audience. However, later in Chapter 1 Paul describes people who do not appear to be Christians.

Verses 18-23, 28-32: “Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God. Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles. Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done. Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip.”

In this passage Paul seems to single out people who worship idols or nature. What is noticeable when reading the Bible is that in the ancient world, Christians and Jews viewed pagans as participating in an immoral culture that separated them from the Scripture-based religious community. However, if we look at the world today, we may find non-Christians who don’t seem to have the evil characteristics described above. Basically, I think in the ancient world, pagans were viewed by Christians the same way that Hollywood is viewed by conservative American Christians today. Preachers speak of such people as a group, focusing on some characteristics prevalent in their lifestyles from a top-down view. They may paraphrase the passage above when talking about Hollywood and swap the word “idols” with “money” or “self-glorification” and then list all those sins at the end. But, that doesn’t mean that every individual movie star must be evil. I think in Romans 1, Paul was making top-down observations of the pagan culture in his day, and he saw a lot of immoral behavior and attitudes which he wrote about. However, that doesn’t mean that every non-Christian in the world must be evil.

Moving on to Romans 2, Paul criticizes the “churchgoers” of his day for casting judgment on the “worldly” people around them, but not actually practicing what they preach. Paul references “Jews” and “Greeks” a lot. I think that in Paul’s writing, the modern equivalent of “Jews” are those associated with Christianity, and “Greeks/Gentiles” are everybody else you meet today. In the first century, Christianity was viewed more like an interpretation of Judaism, rather than a separate religion as is perceived today.

What Paul writes in Romans 2 is that, regardless of whether someone is associated with the Church or not, if the person does not live according to Biblical commandments, he or she will be judged no differently than someone who doesn’t claim adherence to the faith. Also, notice what Paul writes in verses 10-15:

“There will be anguish and distress for everyone who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. For God shows no partiality. All who have sinned apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but the doers of the law who will be justified. When Gentiles, who do not possess the law, do instinctively what the law requires, these, though not having the law, are a law to themselves. They show that what the law requires is written on their hearts, to which their own conscience also bears witness; and their conflicting thoughts will accuse or perhaps excuse them.”

In essence, I think this is saying that Gentiles (or today, those outside the Christian religion) can be rewarded when judged if they sought to live according to their conscience, which by nature has God’s law written on it.

So, the message of Romans 2 is clearly judgment based on works regardless of what you believe or what religion you associate with. Now, here’s the thing. When we move on to Chapters 3-8, Paul writes some things that seem to contradict everything he said in the first two chapters. There have been many attempts by theologians to make sense of the contrasts. You may wonder why I am bothering to try to address the matter myself. I’ve asked myself that as well, However, I have come to realize that my personal beliefs on this dilemma are connected to central elements of my faith, so addressing these issues is a part of evangelism rather than an attempt to wade into controversy.

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptural quotations in this series are from the New Revised Standard Version.

You have probably heard a lot of Christians state that we need to “walk the walk” and not just “talk the talk.” I hear that a lot of people claim to believe certain things about God or Jesus, and maybe they also go to church, but they are not perceived as putting their faith into practice.
So, then, what exactly does it mean to put your faith into practice and be a real Christian? Well, depending on who you ask, you will probably get one or more of the following answers:

1. Engaging in evangelism
2. Charitable work
3. Devotional practices (such as prayer or meditation)
4. Staying pure of certain vices
5. Loving your neighbor as yourself
6. Being forgiving and patient
7. Separating yourself from immoral company
8. Not getting obsessed with material things.
9. Going to church

Some of you may have the experience I am about to describe. You go to church every week (among a congregation of, say, one hundred people), and hear sermons about what real Christian living involves. You think about your life and decide that you need to make some changes to be a more faithful Christian. You know that it’s going to be hard to change some things – that some lifestyle changes would cause anxiety or be difficult to get in the habit of, but while you’re at church hearing the message, you are probably not thinking about those difficulties too much. You decide that you’re going to somehow make yourself follow through with what you need to do.

Well, by the time you were back in church the next week, did anything in your life change? If your honest answer is no, you’re in good company. That was probably the case for at least ninety-eight out of the hundred people in church last week. Maybe you were trying to change, or maybe once you got back in your normal routine, you didn’t worry about changing anymore, until you heard the message again the next Sunday.
However, one person in the congregation actually succeeded at making those changes. Not only that, he has managed to stick with it for six months already. One Sunday, he gave a testimony of the changes he made. He talked about how hard it was to resist temptation and to get over the fear of doing what’s right, but refused to let fear or temptation stop him. So you think, if he did it, I can do it too. You may try a little harder after that, but did you get the desired results?

You may be thinking, “Well, that one guy can know that he is saved. He can read the Bible and feel good knowing that he’s doing what he needs to.” The rest of you may be finding some Scriptures that hit a little too close to home.

So, here’s the question I want to talk about in this series: Does the Bible have a redemptive message for the ninety-nine other folks? We often hear that God loves those people, and they can be comforted knowing that He is ready to forgive them as soon as they repent. But, what about those of us who can’t identify our sins as isolated acts that can be counted on our fingers? Is there a special message for such people, who can’t seem to change themselves, that can actually give them present assurance of salvation being what they are right now?

I believe there is such a message for these people, if they have come to believe certain things about the power of Christ’s death and resurrection in their lives. I find this message in Paul’s writing in Romans, which is what I will talk about in the rest of the series.