Bob Wilkin (2:39)

Romans 3:23 says, for all have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God. And it's usually presented like this. We're all sinners and we're going to go to hell. I mean, that's basically what they say, right?

Ken Yates (2:52)

Right.

Bob Wilkin (2:53)

For all have sinned and our sin is going to send us to the lake of fire.

Ken Yates (2:57)

However, experience has been, when people do this, it goes more like this. For you have sinned and you have fallen short of the glory of God. But if you read Romans 3:23, he's talking about, all right, everybody, including Paul himself.

Bob Wilkin (3:12)

Right.

Ken Yates (3:12)

In other words, everybody has sinned in the past and fall short of the glory of God. That's present tense.

Bob Wilkin (3:19)

Present tense. So we all fall short of the glory of God.

Ken Yates (3:21)

So if I share that verse. Well, I do share it, but I typically don't share it in evangelism because the point is, Jesus has already taken away the sin barrier. So I don't really need to get into this from an evangelistic. This is a sanctification issue. But still, when Paul's bringing that up, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. I think his point is that the moralist can't claim that he's going to have eternal life based on his works. Right, right.

Bob Wilkin (3:54)

Or that he is going to escape the wrath of God because we all fall short both living like I am, I deserve the wrath of God. How do I avoid it?

Ken Yates (4:03)

And the way you avoid it, first of all, you're justified. But then secondly, you're sanctified. You have to live the Romans 5 through 8 experience. Or as we said in the last one, 4:25, through the end of chapter 8. And if you do, then you'll escape God's wrath.

Bob Wilkin (4:20)

And then it goes in the Romans road normally. And to me, this was a key, Bob. When I was first exposed to this, I said, boy, this makes a lot of sense. Because the next verse on the Roman road that's often used if you look at gospel tracts is Romans 6:23. But stop right there.

Ken Yates (4:37)

Yes.

Bob Wilkin (4:38)

Romans 6 is right in the middle of Paul's discussion on Christian living.

Ken Yates (4:43)

True.

Bob Wilkin (4:43)

So why are we using this as an evangelistic verse for unbelievers?

Ken Yates (4:48)

Okay, so here, let's read Romans 6:23, and then maybe we can talk about it.

Bob Wilkin (4:54)

Right. Romans 6:23 says, for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. So they read these verses, the wages of sin is death. And evangelicalism across the board says, okay, the wages of sin is death. That's talking about the lake of Fire, you know, the lake of fire. I'm going to go to hell because of my sin. Exactly.

Ken Yates (5:20)

The wages of sin is physical death. And the reason why Bob Wilkin and Ken Yates are going to die if the rapture doesn't occur first is because of sin.

Bob Wilkin (5:30)

Right.

Ken Yates (5:31)

When Adam ate the forbidden fruit, he plunged himself and the entire human race into mortality. Remember, the Lord told him, in the day you eat of it, you shall surely die. Well, he didn't physically drop dead at that moment, but he did become mortal at that moment.

Bob Wilkin (5:53)

He will die.

Ken Yates (5:53)

And from a Jewish perspective, he started dying.

Bob Wilkin (5:56)

Sure.

Ken Yates (5:57)

Let's say a person gets shot and they're in critical condition and three days later they die. Well, it would be fair to say that them being shot killed him.

Bob Wilkin (6:07)

Sure.

Ken Yates (6:07)

Even though it took three days. Well, him eating that fruit killed him.

Bob Wilkin (6:11)

The second you got shot, you're going to die.

Ken Yates (6:13)

And the second he ate that fruit, he was going to die.

Bob Wilkin (6:15)

He was going to die.

Ken Yates (6:16)

He started dying and he became mortal.

Announcer (6:19)

It's coming. It'll be here before you know it. What am I talking about? The Grace Evangelical Society's National Conference, 2026, May 18th through the 21st at Camp Kopas, an absolutely beautiful campground in North Texas, right on the lake with lots of recreation, great food, a great place to stay, wonderful fellowship and wonderful free Grace Bible teaching information and online registration now@faithalone.org events. First timers waive registration fees. Faith alone,

Ken Yates (6:54)

and we all die because we're his offspring. We are mortal, and so we die. And so the wages of sin is death means that because we sin, we die.

Bob Wilkin (7:04)

And let me just say I mentioned it just a minute ago about this was, I think probably the key verse for me to understand that the Roman road, we need to get off the Roman road is an evangelistic thing. Because like I said in Romans 5, 6, 7, and 8, he's talking about Christian living. And twice in chapter 6, Paul says, should we continue in sin now that grace may abound?

Ken Yates (7:27)

No, may it never be right.

Bob Wilkin (7:29)

And he's talking to believers. Should we as believers continue to sin because we're no longer under the law or because we're under grace? And the answer is no. Well, why? Because sin produces death. Or we would say in the book of Romans, it produces the wrath of God in our lives.

Ken Yates (7:46)

Okay, so then why does he say, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Why mention eternal life?

Bob Wilkin (7:56)

Well, we've been given eternal life, and we've been given it freely, but now we can Walk in it.

Ken Yates (8:02)

Okay, so in other words, according to this view, there is a contrast between death and life.

Bob Wilkin (8:08)

Right.

Ken Yates (8:09)

The wages of sin is physical death, but the gift of God is eternal life. But I think when Zane Hodges in his commentary talks about that, he more or less said what you just said. Here's what Hodges says. But eternal life is an unearned experience because at its core, eternal life is the gift of God that is given in Christ Jesus our Lord. When we produce holiness, we are living out the gift that God gave us when we were justified by. By faith. And he goes on to say, the whole gracious bestowal can be described as justification sourced in life. And he says C5,18. And he says the closing words of verse 23 in Christ Jesus our Lord are identical to the words that close verse 11. And he says the repeated words serve to emphasize the truth that the eternal life, which is given to us as a gift is our possession in union with the Savior in whom we died and in whom we have been raised to walk in God's paths. So what Hodges is seeing in Romans 6:23 is a call to live in this eternal life experience that he has given us. He's given us this life, and. And we need to live in it.

Bob Wilkin (9:37)

Yes. So we can either walk in life or walk in death. That's the option. But he's talking to believers.

Ken Yates (9:43)

Or another way, you could say, walk in light or walk in darkness.

Bob Wilkin (9:46)

Sure. And he's not talking. Nowhere in chapter six is he talking about unbelievers.

Ken Yates (9:53)

Right. This is not an evangelistic verse in Romans.

Bob Wilkin (9:57)

And I would just say that anybody who goes to the Romans, so many are going to insist upon it, you know, because of the Gospel tracts. I would say, to do what I did, look at this Romans chapter 6 and say, how can we be using these verses in an evangelistic way when Paul's not using it that way?

Ken Yates (10:16)

Exactly. And it gets worse when we get to Romans 10, 9, 10. Yes, because when we get to Romans 10, 9, 10, what people say is, it's not enough to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. You've got to both believe and confess Him.

Bob Wilkin (10:31)

Right.

Ken Yates (10:32)

And they say the belief is internal and the confession is external. Maybe you could read that.

Bob Wilkin (10:37)

Okay, which verses do you want to read in Romans 10, by the way?

Ken Yates (10:39)

9 and 10.

Bob Wilkin (10:40)

Okay. In Romans, chapter 10, verses 9 and 10, it says. And this is another verse that you'll see in these gospel tracts, Part of the Roman Road. It says in Romans 10:9 that if you confess with your mouth, the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead. You will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto. Yeah.

Ken Yates (11:06)

Now, I mean, this is what Billy Graham and other evangelists used a lot. Remember, they would say, the buses will wait, you need to come down and confess Christ.

Bob Wilkin (11:15)

And I said that I was in a Sunday school class just recently and they said, you've got to confess Jesus as Lord in order to make it into the kingdom. And they said, believing is not enough. And they used these verses.

Ken Yates (11:28)

Okay, so because this is such a big deal, I think we're going to have to carry this over into the next one and specifically talk more about Romans 10, 10, 9 and 10. But let me make this point clearly. Whatever Romans 10, 9, 10 is saying, it's not saying that believing in Jesus for eternal life is not enough.

Bob Wilkin (11:48)

Right.

Ken Yates (11:48)

It's not saying you've got to also confess him publicly or you've also got to be baptized, which a lot of people say this is referring to baptism because that's where we confess him publicly. Or some people will say that's where you go forward in an evangelistic meeting or at a church meeting or at a evangelistic crusade. That's not what Romans 10, 9, 10 are saying. So we'll take a look at that in the next session.

Bob Wilkin (12:13)

Yeah, but the main point here is that these verses are used as a Roman road for evangelism. What we're saying and what we're going to say at the conference is get off of that road. No, don't use these verses to tell an unbeliever how to go to heaven by confessing Jesus as Lord.

Ken Yates (12:29)

Alright, in the meantime, let's keep grace in focus.

Announcer (12:36)

We would love to know where you are when you are listening to us. Please take a short minute to send us the call letters of this station and the city where you are listening and how many times a week you listen. Thank you. You will be helping us with our stewardship. Send it to radioaithalone.org that's radioaithalone.org we are so thankful for our financial partners who keep us on the air. Every gift is tax deductible and very much appreciated. If you'd like to find out how you can give, go to faithalone.org on our website. We have a church tracker. It's an easy to use map that will help you locate those other free grace churches that might be in your area. So come visit us at the website and take advantage of our free church Tracker. It's@faithalone.org that's faithalone.org now, friend. We love it that you've joined us all this week on Grace in Focus. We hope you have a great weekend. Come back and join us again on Monday for more Grace in Focus.

Bob Wilkin (13:45)

The proceeding has been a listener supported ministry from the Grace Evangelical Society.