The “Romans Recipe”

Let’s now look at the “Romans Recipe” of Romans 6. The word recipe evokes the image of a cookbook. If we Christians used the Bible in the same simple, practical way that chefs use cookbooks, we would find that God’s recipes always work. The Romans Recipe is God’s way of making the truths of the gospel work in our lives.

“What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.” (Romans 6:1–10 NIV)

The outcome of this “recipe” is tremendous: “sin shall not be your master”—sin will no longer dominate or control you. Deliverance from sin and all its evil consequences comes through our identification with Jesus Christ in His death, burial, resurrection, and ascension.