The Roman recipe (1)

In these last couple of days of this series I'm going to sum up and conclude my messages on the theme of identification by giving you what I call the Romans Recipe. I use the word "recipe" deliberately. It suggests to us a housewife with her cookbook, planning to make a cake or something else to eat. I wish that we Christians could use the Bible in such a simple and practical way as a housewife uses her cookbook. If we would, we'd find that God's recipes always work. They always produce just exactly what God says they will produce. So today, I'm going to talk about the Romans Recipe, in other words; God's way to make these truths work in our lives that we've been discussing in these daily messages.

This Romans Recipe is found in Romans chapter 6, verses 1 through 14. I'm going to read those 14 verses straight off and then I'm going to go back over them and show you in a simple way just how they help you to make these truths work in your life. Romans 6 beginning at verse 1:

“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 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 rendered powerless, 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 is master over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.” (NIV)

That's a tremendous statement - that final statement - "sin shall not be your master..." Sin is no longer going to dominate you and control you. There's a way of deliverance from sin and all its evil consequences. And that way is through our identification with Jesus Christ in death, burial, resurrection and ascension.