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Here is not reformation, but newness, the newness of life from the dead. Three other
references follow in Romans in which the negative appears, and by what they deny, the
reader may see the character of the walk of the flesh.
Rom. 8: 4, "That the righteous requirements of the law might be fulfilled in us, who
walk not after the flesh but after the spirit."
Here we have another division, "flesh" and "spirit".
Rom. 13: 13, 14, "As in (the) day, we should walk becomingly, not in riotings and
drinkings; not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying; but put ye on the
Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the lusts of the flesh."
Again the division is sharp and clear; on the one hand Christ, on the other the six-fold
lusts of the flesh, and the exhortation to walk becomingly.
Rom. 14: 15, "But if thy brother be grieved with thy meat, no longer according to
love thou walkest."
Here are three practical outworkings of the newness of life set forth in chapter 6:;
they all need a separate study, but cannot receive more than a passing glance in this
review. I Cor. 3: 3, "Are ye not carnal, and walk according to man?"; this must be read
together with the reference to man's day of chapter 4: 3 (margin). II Cor. 5: 7, "We
walk by means of faith and not by means of sight". Col. 2: 6, "As ye have therefore
received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk ye in Him". Col. 3: 7, "In which ye also once
walked, when ye lived in them". Oh what a depth of doctrine and practice these two
verses contain; see how the reception of Christ, and the character in which we receive
Him, must influence our walk; see also the way in which the walk is linked with the life,
Ye walked. . . . when ye lived is true both in the sphere of the flesh and of the spirit, so
also runs the argument of Gal. 5: 25, "If we live in the spirit, let us also walk in the
spirit"; the word "walk" occurs seven times in the epistle to the Ephesians, we give the
references: 2: 2, 10; 4: 1, 17; 5: 2, 8, 13.
Let us come closer to the passage under review, and learn from the parallels in
Ephesians and Colossians.
"Wherein once ye walked according to the age of this world, according to the prince
of the authority of the air, of that spirit now energising in the sons of disobedience"
(Eph. 2: 2).
"This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye no longer walk as the Gentiles
also walk, in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated
from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of
their heart; who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to
work all uncleanness with greediness" (Eph. 4: 17-19).
"Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, inordinate
affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness which is idolatry; for which things' sake
the wrath of God cometh" (Col. 3: 5, 6).
Such is the natural condition of those who were by grace blessed with all spiritual
blessings in the heavenlies in Christ. The sinful walk of Eph. 2: 2 is said to be
according to (1) the age of this world, and (2) the prince of the authority of the air.