“Walk in newness of life.”
Knowing that the exercise is good for us, Connie and I enjoyed a walk around our neighborhood the other day. Birds were singing, the air was balmy, and there was a gentle breeze. It was a pleasure to walk with her on a lovely day. In fact there is nobody on earth I would rather be with.
The next time you take a stroll or a hike, ask yourself what it would be like to walk with God.
The patriarch Enoch enjoyed the companionship of God on his walk through life (Genesis 5:21-24). That is an amazing statement. I think it means that Enoch was going in the same direction as God, that he lived by God’s values, and that he loved and worshipped God.
In the Bible, “walking” is a frequent metaphor for living life. The New Testament uses it a lot to distinguish a life lived with Christ from a life lived for merely worldly or selfish interests. It tells us how we, too, may walk in fellowship with God.
Paul the apostle wrote that walking with God represents a new kind of life, or a new quality of life. “Therefore we have been buried with Him, through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4, NASB). The word “walk” is a translation of the Greek word peripateo. Some English translations render the phrase “live a new life.”
Walking with God, then, means to be dead to the old, pre-Christian life of sin. This is a spiritual baptism, or identification with Christ. This is what Paul described as being “united with Him in the likeness of His death” (Romans 6:5, Galatians 2:20). It is symbolized by baptism, or immersion in water, a picture of a believer’s death and resurrection with Christ.
To walk with God with a new life, one must experience a resurrection. This is what happens when one believes in Jesus Christ. Jesus’ ministry provides us with an illustration (John 11). His friend Lazarus had died and the Lord went to his graveside to weep with his family. In a miraculous demonstration of divine power, Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead! Even though he had been dead for four days, Lazarus walked out of the tomb wrapped in graveclothes. Physically, he was raised to walk in newness of life. Spiritually, this what happens to a person who believes the gospel and is raised from spiritual death (Ephesians 2:1-10).
Paul shows us another aspect of walking with God. Walking in newness of life means that the same glorious power that raised Jesus from the dead is available to us to enable us to live with with a new lifestyle. If we rely on our natural ability, we cannot overcome temptation and sin. It is the Holy Spirit who enables us to please God as we live with him and for him in this world (Hebrews 11:5).
The early chapters of Genesis tell us that there were two Enochs. The one who walked with God descended from the godly line of Seth, those who called on the Lord in worship (Genesis 4:26). The other Enoch (Genesis 4:17) was a representative of the ungodly line of Cain, the first murderer. This illustrates the difference between those who walk in newness of life and those who do not. I want to be one of those who do.
Pastor Randy Faulkner