Is fornication pure and lawful as long as we have faith for it? Is murderous rage pure and lawful as long as we have faith for it? Are gossip and slander pure and lawful as long as we have faith for them?

Paul says those who do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God and are worthy of death.

What do you say?

It is clear that the Apostle Paul has been grievously misunderstood. It is time that Christian people repent of their disobedience to Christ and His Apostles. The Holy Spirit is revealing God's attitude toward our doctrine by the repentance He is calling for in the revivals He is sponsoring.

Another way of looking at Romans 6:2 is that once we accept Christ we no longer have a sin nature. Sometimes this is incorporated in a special experience of "sanctification" in which sin is removed from us root and branch. This results in a kind of spiritual schizophrenia. "It looks like I'm sinning but I'm really not because having been sanctified I can't sin."

We favor a third viewpoint, which is that we are not to practice sinful behavior because this would be inconsistent with the position we have taken in water baptism. We have counted ourselves crucified with Christ and alive with Christ. To continue in sinful behavior doesn't fit the program of salvation we have entered.

What does it mean when it says "we, that are dead to sin"? It means that at one time we were under the Law of Moses. It is the Law that defines sin. Now we have taken our place on the cross with the One who kept the Law of Moses perfectly. Since we have died on the cross we no longer are under the Law of Moses because the Law of Moses governs only those who are alive.

We now are free, not to live any way we please but as one who is married to Christ, in union with His Divine Life.

In water baptism we declare our life to be over, having died on the cross. This is the death of our entire first personality, not just the "bad part."

What has come forth from the waters of baptism is a new creation, having been born of Christ and having ascended with Him to the right hand of the Father.

This is the position we are to take by faith.

Is it a fact that our natural man is dead and our new man is alive in Christ and seated at the right hand of the Father?

Yes, and no. No in the sense that our natural man is very much alive and our new man is still an infant although seated spiritually with Christ in the heavens.

Yes, in the sense we have declared this to be true by faith and God has accepted our declaration and treats us from henceforth as though it is actually true which indeed itis in the mind of God.

The true Christian life is one in which we maintain our death and resurrection by faith in what God has stated, and yet deal realistically with our sinful nature from day to day as the Holy Spirit brings the vision to reality.

Can you see now why continuing to sin is not at all compatible with the profession of faith we have made by being baptized in water?