“Among whom are ye also the called of Jesus Christ: to all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Romans 1:6-7)

The initial audience of the Biblical letters cannot be ignored when attempting to find the proper interpretation of scripture. This letter was written to children of God who were already “called to be saints.” Quite simply, this means they were already born again.

They had issues with their understanding of how they were saved and their discipleship was lacking, particularly in equality of love. But nevertheless, they were ALREADY saved eternally or born again.

With this in mind, I think we should be wary of the various schemes used in modern evangelism that strain the true meaning of scripture or flat out ignore context altogether.

One of those techniques is the “Roman Road To Salvation.” This step by step process may be catchy but is it true? The technique walks unbelievers through portions of the book of Romans and ends with them praying for salvation in the new birth.

This process completely ignores the purpose of Paul’s writing, and certainly ignores the fact that his initial (and intended) audience was already born again!

This method and other “decision-based” systems of salvation must ignore the true meaning of scripture, and they declare the will of man to be more effective that the blood that Jesus shed on the cross!