The Roman recipe (2)

We'll go back and briefly point out to you the successive phases of this Romans Recipe that I've read out to you from God's divine cookbook - the scriptures.

First, of all we notice at the beginning of that passage the successive points of identification. Verse 1 says, "We died to sin." When did we die to sin? When Jesus died. That was our death. He died - we identify ourselves with His death. Verse 6 says it again, "Our old self was crucified." When did that happen? When Jesus was crucified, our old self - that rebel that lives inside every one of us, inherited from Adam - that old rebel was crucified when Jesus was crucified.

Second, it says we were buried with Him. How? By baptism into His death. So we not only die with Him, we are buried with Him. And then verses 4 and 5 it says, "We are also united with Him in resurrection." Following Him through death and burial, we move out into His resurrection life. We share His life with Him.

Verse 6 says: "The body of sin is rendered powerless." That old corrupt evil nature which enslaved   which made us do the wrong thing, even many times against our desire to do the right thing   is rendered powerless. Why? It's been crucified. It's been put to death.

The next consequence: we are no longer slaves to sin. The most terrible in the universe is the slavery to sin. Being compelled by sin to do things you don't want to do   things which are harmful, things which are destructive, things which will ultimately bring tremendous disasters upon you, both in time and ultimately even in eternity. But through this identification with Jesus we no longer are slaves of sin.

And the next consequence, verse 7, says we are free from sin. More literally, we are justified. We are acquitted. Jesus paid the final penalty for our sin. When that final penalty is paid, there's no more penalty to pay. There's no more condemnation. We're not even guilty. We're not merely released from the power of sin, we're released from the guilt of sin. We have a good conscience. We can stand, even before the throne of Almighty God without fear. We're acquitted, we're justified. Christ's righteousness has become our righteousness because first of all He was made sin with our sinfulness.

Tomorrow, we’ll look at the last section, verses 8 through 14, which tells us the practical successive consequences of this identification with Jesus in death, burial and resurrection, and its glorious result.