Following is a brief paper I wrote on spiritual death in Ephesians. I know DHK, and others of his ilk, will attempt to eviscerate it, but it lays forth a biblical and logical argument. I am not going to play DHK's hopscotch approach to exegesis.
A Brief Study on Spiritual Death
Ephesians 2:1-7
Ephesians 2:1–7 (NASB95)
1 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins,
2 in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.
3 Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,
5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),
6 and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
7 so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
Paul had just finished telling the believers in Ephesus they were:
Blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ (1:3).
Chosen before the foundation of the world (1:4).
Adopted by God, as sons (1:5)
Redeemed through Christ’s blood, and had forgiveness of sins (1:7).
Recipients of an inheritance, in Christ (1:11)
Sealed by the Holy Spirit (v. 13).
The hard reality was that the Ephesians possessed nothing in themselves that would have qualified them for any of the blessings that were just listed. Paul begins the second chapter of Ephesians by telling the church that before they were Christians they were, “dead in their trespasses and sins”. The word Paul used to describe their previous condition, in relation to their trespasses and sins, is νεκρός (nekros). According to Strong’s, nekros means, “a dead person, dead body, corpse ”. Nekros is a tangible word used to describe something intangible; the material describing the immaterial. What was Paul trying to convey, and why the use of a word with such finality?
The first thing that needs to be addressed is the interpretive difficulties of nekros. Nekros does not mean that sinners are literally dead bodies, although that is exactly what the word means. Paul qualifies the use of nekros when he adds, “in their trespasses and sins”. The implication is that sinners are dead spiritually. τοῖς παραπτώμασιν καὶ ταῖς ἁμαρτίαις ὑμῶν, literally “in your trespasses and in your sins”. Paul was not saying that the body of the sinner is dead even though the body is under the curse because of Adam. Paul is writing about the immaterial part of man; i.e. man’s soul. This is where nekros begins to make sense. The soul of the sinner is just as dead as a corpse is dead. Therefore, Paul is writing about spiritual death. Nekros is used to convey just how dead the soul of the sinner is.
Another interpretive difficulty is dispelling the notion that those who believe that the sinner is spiritually dead are contradicting themselves by proposing a logical fallacy. The supposed logical fallacy is seen as proposing that the sinner is spiritually dead and a corpse all at the same time. This opinion stems from a misunderstanding of the way nekros is used to describe the spiritual capabilities of the sinner. In verse 2 Paul writes, “in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.” Immediately on the heels of calling sinners nekros (“dead”; the previous spiritual condition of the Ephesian believers), Paul now writes that sinners do act. In this case they walk according the course of this world. They walk as those who are servants in the enemy’s camp. They are, in a very real sense, dead men walking. Their soul is twisted, perverted. It is incapable of righteousness. It cannot serve God because it is both incapable and unwilling to do so. That is the depth of nekros. The soul of the sinner is dead to righteousness. This is what Paul told the church in Corinth:
1 Corinthians 2:14 (NASB95)
14 But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.
The natural man (the unsaved man) not only does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, he cannot understand them. Why? Because they are spiritually appraised. Only those who are spiritual, those who have the Spirit of God, can understand the things of the Spirit. This is the result of being spiritually dead; an inability, and unwillingness, to understand the things of the Spirit of God.
This inability and unwillingness places the sinner in dire circumstances. Left to his own devices the sinner will never seek God; or at least never seek God in the way the Bible prescribes (Heb. 11:6). The sinner is, as Ephesians 2:12 describes:
Ephesians 2:12 (NASB95)
12 remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
What hope is there for the sinner who is dead to righteousness, and cannot do anything to improve upon his spiritual condition? None apart from the mercy and grace of God, and that is exactly what we see in Ephesians 2:4, 5:
Ephesians 2:4, 5 (NASB95)
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),
Even when we were dead in our transgressions, God made us alive together with Christ! It took a unilateral act of God to radically change the spiritually dead sinner’s soul. The soul that was at one time unwilling and unable to believe is made so by the Spirit of God. This is the work of regeneration.
