All roads lead to Rome

Pastor Dave’s final Bible column looks at Jesus, roads and Romans.

The emperors of ancient Rome had a passion for building roads. They built long, smooth roads reaching out from Rome for hundreds of kilometres. Why did the emperors build these vast highways? For one purpose—all roads lead to Rome. While the Romans built roads to benefit Rome’s infrastructure, there was an interesting side effect. Word of mouth accelerated. People heard empire news and gossip much quicker than before. The early Christians benefited remarkably from the Roman roads. While all roads did lead to Rome and the cities at the other ends of those roads, Christians saw something else—those roads lead to people. Lots of people! Jesus had left them with a mission to “go and make disciples of all nations” and Roman roads made their mission possible.

Many people today suggest that all spiritual roads lead to heaven. Buddist, Muslim, Christian, Jew, Taoist (or any of 31 other flavours)—choose your path, walk it faithfully and one day you will arrive in the kingdom. Jesus said something quite different: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through me.” There is only one road that leads to heaven—Jesus Christ.

And yet, God calls us to be ridiculously tolerant. Paul was “all things to all men,” considering himself “a slave to everyone.” Peter, after a vision from God, stated: “I now realise how true it is that God does not show favouritism but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right.” These early Christians had recognised something tremendous about the gospel—Jesus is for everyone! While no-one stands outside the heart of God, everyone stands outside the salvation of God without Jesus. Everyone NEEDS Jesus.

What was true thousands of years ago is still true today—all roads lead to Rome. People everywhere are connected by the world’s infrastructure—postal systems, phone lines, Internet, and even bitumen highways. There are numerous roads connecting you to people who need Jesus. While the roads were built for other purposes, you can be like the early Christians and use the existing infrastructure to bring a life-saving message to a dying world.

NIV texts in the order quoted: Matthew 28:19; John 14:6; 1 Corinthians 9:22, 19; Acts 10:34, 35.