Rom. 5: 15, 16, 18, and 20 of Adam's act of disobedience, which opened the door for

the entrance of sin and death.

SINS (hamartia).--The original word is from hamartanõ, "To miss" as a mark, or as a

way, a deviation, a failure. The tragedy of sin lies not only in its corruption and its

criminality, but in the fact that it writes "failure" across the life of man. The bow has

been drawn, the arrow has been shot, the mark has been missed; all have sinned and come

short. Both to sins of rashness, ignorance, and temptation, as well as to sins of failure

and deviation, the believer has died.

Do we intend by this that there are no longer two natures in the child of God? By no

means. Do we intend by this that we have no sin, and that we shall not sin? By no

means; but, knowing the blessed fact that Christ died to sin and for sins, we "reckon

ourselves dead indeed to sin" and also to "trespasses and sins", and set our minds on

things above, seeking the grace that He alone can give to enable us to begin to walk

worthy of the vocation wherewith we are called.

The believer in Christ has died to trespasses and sins. This supposes that once the

believer lived in them, which the apostle proceeds to teach, showing in so doing the

character of those sins to which the believer is now dead. First let us notice to whom the

apostle addresses himself. You in verses 1 and 2, we and us in verses 3 and 7. It is

noticed by all readers that the words of verse 1 are repeated in verse 5, where the subject

is resumed, but it may be necessary to point out the change of pronoun whereby both

Gentiles and Jews, one in sinfulness, may realize their oneness in grace. "And you being

dead ones to trespasses and to sins", "we also being dead ones to trespasses". This

linking together is observable in the verses now before us, "in which YOU once walked.

. . . among whom also WE all once had our conversation. . . .", the sinful life is called

a walk, and this chapter places before us two walks and two only, the one "according to

the age of this world", the other, the good works of the new creation (verse 10). Death

and resurrection stand between these two, and to walk according to the age of this world

is to walk contrary to our calling which has to do with the age to come.

It will be of service to us if we give a little time to the study of this word "walk".

Starting with Romans, we have first of all the new life presented as a walk:--