The Romans Road to the Kingdom of God

The Romans Road to the Kingdom of God is a series of Bible verses, all taken from the powerful New Testament book of Romans, that lead the way to the Kingdom of God. It outlines the benefits of being a child of the Kingdom, why we need forgiveness to get into the Kingdom, how God provides access into His Kingdom, and finally, how to enter the Kingdom by calling upon God in faith.

I. The first step towards the Kingdom of God is desiring the King and His Kingdom benefits.

Besides the obvious benefit of being gathered with the wheat instead of the weeds, how else do we benefit as children of the Kingdom?  All the benefits are “in Christ,” so I don’t mean to imply one can desire the benefits of the Kingdom but not the King. It’s impossible to separate the two. The book of Romans shares many glorious and fascinating benefits, and it’s really just the tip of the iceberg. By believing the gospel of Christ, I enjoy the following:

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I am justified before God, have peace with God, and have access to God’s grace ¤ Romans 5:1, “Being therefore justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ; through whom we also have our access by faith into this grace in which we stand.”

I am free from any charges of sin ¤ Romans 8:1, “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who don’t walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.” Romans 8:33-34, “Who could bring a charge against God’s chosen ones? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, yes rather, who was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.”  Praise God!    

I have assurance that I’m God’s child ¤ Romans 8:15-16, “For you didn’t receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God.” Simply put, the Holy Spirit tells me I’m a child of God. Our Lord said, “I know my own, and I’m known by my own” (John 10:14).    

I am certain all things work together for good ¤ Romans 8:28, “We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, for those who are called according to his purpose.”

I cannot be separated from the love of God ¤ Romans 8:38-39, “For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from God’s love which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

I have the victory over the one who comes to steal, kill and destroy ¤ Romans 8:31, “What then shall we say about these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?” Also, Romans 16:20, “And the  God of peace will quickly crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.”

II. The first step towards the Kingdom is desiring the King and his Kingdom benefits. The second step is admitting that I have sinned against the King. 

Because I’ve sinned against the King, I have no business anywhere near His Kingdom. I don’t deserve any of the benefits of the Kingdom of God. And I certainly can’t EARN access into the Kingdom, unless I keep the law perfectly, which no one can do. Accordingly, what I need is mercy, grace and forgiveness. For without the Father’s mercy and grace and forgiveness, I’m on the hook to serve the sentence for my sin, which is death. Not just physical death, which is separation of my soul from the body, but also spiritual death, which is separation of my soul from God. In short, because I’m a sinner, I deserve death – which is the opposite of life in the Kingdom of God.

Romans 3:10-12, 18, “As it is written, ‘There is no one righteous; no, not one. There is no one who understands. There is no one who seeks after God. They have all turned away. They have together become unprofitable. There is no one who does good, no, not so much as one.’ ”  “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

Romans 3:23, “For all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God.”

Romans 5:12, “Therefore as sin entered into the world through one man, and death through sin; so death passed to all men, because all sinned.”  Adam ushered in sin and sin ushered in death to all.

Romans 8:6-8, “For the mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace; because the mind of the flesh is hostile toward God; for it is not subject to God’s law, neither indeed can it be. Those who are in the flesh can’t please God.”

Romans 6:23a, “For the wages of sin is death…”

III. The third step towards the Kingdom of God is knowing that the LORD of the Kingdom loves me and has provided me with a way into His Kingdom. 

The Father loves us. He proved His love by providing salvation to us through His Son. The sinless lamb of God died on the cross to receive our sentence for sin. The innocent for the guilty. By raising him from the dead, the Father “declared” the Christ to be the Son of God. Jesus is the bridge between a holy God and a fallen race!

Romans 1:4, “[Jesus] was declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.”

Romans 1:16-17, “For I am not ashamed of the Good News of Christ, because it is the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first, and also for the Greek. For in it is revealed God’s righteousness from faith to faith. As it is written, ‘But the righteous shall live by faith.’ ”

Romans 3:21-23, “But now apart from the law, a righteousness of God has been revealed, being testified by the law and the prophets; even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all those who believe. For there is no distinction, for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God.”  There’s a righteousness of God apart from the law?

Romans 5:6,8-10, “For while we were yet weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly…But God commends [demonstrates] his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we will be saved from God’s wrath through him. For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we will be saved by his life.” - We will be saved because He died for us, and more so, because He lives forever to make intercession for us!

IV. The fourth and final step towards the Kingdom is believing the gospel message and calling upon God in faith to save me.  

Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Romans 8:24-25, “For we were saved in hope, but hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for that which he sees? But if we hope for that which we don’t see, we wait for it with patience.”

Romans 10:8-9, “But what does it say? ‘The word is near you, in your mouth, and in your heart;’ that is, the word of faith which we preach: that if you will 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 10:11-13, “For the Scripture says, ‘Whoever believes in him will not be disappointed.’ For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, and is rich to all who call on him. For, ‘Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ ”

So that’s the Romans Road to the Kingdom of God. Ready to take that fourth and final step of faith?Remember, “God supplies sufficient evidence for faith to operate, but not enough to convince the unbelieving mind.”  The Bible says, “For we were saved in hope, but hope that is seen is not hope” and “The just shall live by faith.” God demands that I trust Him, that I hope in His mercy.

When the forces of Babylon came to burn and destroy Jerusalem, Yahweh spared the life of an Ethiopian. God told him in Jeremiah 39:18, “For I will surely save you, and you won’t fall by the sword, but you will escape with your life; because you have put your trust in me.” The Lord is pleased when we put our trust in Him. As a matter of fact, “Without faith it is impossible to be well pleasing to him, for he who comes to God must believe that he exists, and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him” (Hebrews 11:6).  

Remember those glorious benefits of being in the Kingdom? The Most High stands ready to reward all those who seek him. Do you hunger and thirst for righteousness? Do you long for King Jesus to reign supreme in your life? If so, it’s time to call upon Him. The Bible promises: “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.” To call upon Him simply means to pray to Him, to ask for his mercy and forgiveness. To call upon Him means to acknowledge to God that you’re sorry for sinning against Him, and that you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ alone for deliverance from the kingdom of darkness. 

Please know that the words you utter will not save you. There’s no “magic” in the words themselves. Only the risen Savior can save you. So as you say the words, don’t just say the words. That which comes from the heart will speed its way to His. God is more concerned with the attitude of your heart than the exactness of your words. Consider these two passages from Isaiah. The first is from chapter 57, verse 15: “For the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy, says: ‘I dwell in the high and holy place, [I dwell] with him also who is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite.” 

Contrite = feeling or showing genuine sorrow and remorse for  my sin and my shortcomings.

And Isaiah 66, vv.1-2: Yahweh says, “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build to me? Where will I rest? For my hand has made all these things, and so all these things came to be,” says Yahweh: “but I will look to this man, even to he who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at my word.” 

We started this section with the parable of the wheat and the weeds. It illustrates the separation of the children of God from the children of the evil one. Let’s close this section by looking at another parable of Jesus. It’s from Luke 18:9-14, and it illustrates the type of person God will grant access into His Kingdom, and the type of person who’s blocked from the Kingdom: 

He [Jesus] also spoke this parable to certain people who were convinced of their own righteousness, and who despised all others. “Two men went up into the temple to pray; one was a Pharisee, and the other was a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed to himself like this: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of men, extortionists, unrighteous, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I get.’

“But the tax collector, standing far away, wouldn’t even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

A Prayer of Faith:

Father God, be merciful to me, a sinner! I ask for your forgiveness and your grace. I believe Your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, came into this world in the flesh, lived a sinless life, and was crucified for my sins. I believe You raised my Lord Jesus from the dead to sit at Your right hand in glory and power. Save me from my sins. As best I know how, I open my heart to Jesus and invite Him to come in. By faith, I receive the Son and I receive the Life. Rescue me from the kingdom of fear and darkness, and place me into Your Kingdom of love and light. Fill me with Your Holy Spirit. Use me to be a witness for you and to do Your will.  I love You Lord because You first loved me. Teach me Your truth. Unite my heart to fear Your name, and may I live always for Your Glory alone.  In the name of Jesus I pray,  Amen.

If you spoke to the LORD about joining His Kingdom and His work, I encourage you to seek out a Bible-teaching church that will help you grow strong in the faith.  Also, feel free to contact us to share your experience.  Maybe JAH would have us partner in His work, for “I am a companion of all them that fear thee, and of them that keep thy precepts.” Psalm 119:63 KJV.  Grace, Peace and Jahspeed!

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