Paul continues to dish out deep theological truths right from the start of chapter two. He writes:
“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”
— Ephesians 2:1–3 (ESV)
“And you” — that is, we, the elect — “were dead in our trespasses.” Not sick. Not drowning in need of rescue. Not wounded, needing a bit of spiritual medicine. Dead. Spiritually lifeless. This is a vital point if we are to rightly understand the nature of salvation as Paul goes on to describe it.
Dead means powerless. Dead means incapable. Dead means entirely unable to respond to spiritual stimuli. A dead man cannot revive himself. He cannot crawl, climb, reach, or even blink. That’s why Paul describes our pre-salvation state in such morbid and absolute terms — to make clear that we could do nothing to save ourselves. We didn’t have eyes to see. We didn’t have ears to hear. We didn’t have hearts inclined to God. We were walking corpses, spiritually enslaved — following the world, the devil, and the passions of our flesh. And because of that, we were by nature children of wrath, under judgment just like the rest of mankind.
But then comes the greatest interruption in all of Scripture:
“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ — by grace you have been saved — and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”
— Ephesians 2:4–6 (ESV)
Not “but man turned his life around.” Not “but man made a decision for God.” No. It says that even while we were dead — while we were still rotting in sin — God, being rich in mercy, made us alive together with Christ. That’s regeneration.
This is why regeneration must precede faith and repentance. A dead man cannot believe. God must first breathe life into the soul. Then, and only then, can we respond in faith. And even that faith is not our own. Paul makes this crystal clear a few verses later:
“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
— Ephesians 2:8–9 (ESV)
This gift — grace, salvation, even the faith through which it comes — is all from God. No part of it originates in us. We contribute nothing but the sin that made salvation necessary. There is no room for pride, no place for boasting, because it was all Him. From death to life — God did it.
Paul closes the chapter with a shift in focus: from the individual to the corporate body of believers. He explains how Gentiles, who were once “far off,” have been brought near by the blood of Christ. The dividing wall of hostility — particularly between Jew and Gentile — has been broken down. Christ has made one new man, uniting us together as His people, His household, His temple.
We are now no longer strangers and aliens, but fellow citizens with the saints, members of the household of God, being built into a dwelling place for Him by the Spirit.