Reader, mark especially these words in the foregoing quotation--"We that _are dead_"--"We are buried with Him"--"_Like as Christ_ was raised ... _even so_ we also"--"Our old man is crucified with Him"--"Dead with Christ"--"Dead indeed unto sin." Do we really understand such utterances? Have we entered into their real force and meaning? Do we, in very deed, perceive their application to ourselves? These are searching questions for the heart, and needful. The real doctrine of Rom. vi. is but little apprehended. There are thousands who profess to believe in the atoning virtue of the death of Christ, but who do not see aught therein beyond the forgiveness of their _sins_. They do not see the crucifixion, death, and burial of the old man--the destruction of the body of sin--the condemnation of sin--the entire setting aside of the old system of things belonging to their first Adam condition--in a word their perfect identification with a dead and risen Christ. Hence it is that we press this grand and all-important line of truth upon the attention of the reader. It lies at the very base of all true Christianity, and forms an integral part of the truth of the gospel. Let us hearken to further evidence on the point. Hear what the apostle said to the Colossians: "Wherefore, if ye be _dead with Christ_ from the rudiments of the world, why, _as though living in the world_, are ye subject to ordinances, after the commandments and doctrines of men, [such as] touch not, taste not, handle not"?--thus it is that human ordinances speak to us, telling us not to touch this, not to taste that, not to handle the other, as if there could possibly be any divine principle involved in such things--"which all are to perish with the using;" and "which, have indeed a show of wisdom in will worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body--not in any honor--to the satisfying of the flesh. If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your mind on things that are above, not on things on the earth. For _ye have died_ and your life is hid with Christ in God" (Col. ii., iii. 2).