What Does the Phrase 'Dead in Sin" Mean? (On Ephesians 2 & the "faith vs. works" question)

"And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins" - Ephesians 2:1 "Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)" - Ephesians 2:5

"And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses" - Colossians 2:13

What does the phrase 'dead in sin" mean? What does it mean to be spiritual dead? And how did these simple concepts become so convoluted?

Arminian or synergistic arguments against the Calvinist interpretation 'dead in sin' usually go something like this: There is no Scriptural evidence for the mistaken calvinistic notion that spiritual death means to be like a physically dead corpse and so nonresponsive and unable to believe the gospel. the Reformed view of "spiritually dead" or "dead in sin", they claim, refers to dead spirit of man, that (the inner spirit) is what is dead. Therefore the Calvinist comparison of a dead body’s inability to respond with a dead spirit’s ability to respond is fundamentally flawed...and that if the Bible says unsaved humans are “dead in our sin” this alone is insufficient for making deductions about the dead spirit’s inability to choose Christ. If that is the case, they reason, then spiritually dead people should not be able to do anything more than corpses can do, which want to show is plainly absurd. An often used example:

To prove the Calvinist view of "dead in sin" is wrong, notice the Bible plainly teaches that those who are dead in sin can resist the Holy Spirit. Now have you ever seen a corpse resist something? Of course not. So if we adopt the implications of the Calvinistic definition of “dead in sin” then we must deny that anyone who is dead in sin can resist the Holy Spirit or reject the gospel (Acts 7:51; 2 Thess. 2:10; 1 John 4:10; Rom. 10:21). Corpses can’t resist or reject anything any more than they can see or hear anything. This, they reason, shows that Calvinists have misinterpreted the meaning of dead in sin. Dead is dead, right?, they say. “How do men “dead to sin” choose pornography, marital infidelity, etc.? In other words, they reason that Calvinists take the phrase “dead in sin” too far. Arminians will propose that “dead in sin” means something less than living “as a walking cadaver in a spiritual graveyard” whose “ear is deaf to any word from heaven” (Sproul). They will say they have read Calvinistic articles that argue things like man is no more capable of responding to God’s offer of salvation than a corpse is of responding to an offer of a fine meal. But man can respond, they say.

So what do Arminians claim that “dead in sin” really means? In the context of a series of verses that like Ephesians 2:1-3, Paul says that the Gentiles are “excluded from the life of God” (Ephesians 4:18). “Excluded” could also be translated “alienated.” Arminians usually propose that “dead to sin” means that man is alienated, hostile, separated from God, and void of eternal life. To be dead in sin means to be separated from God (and, thus, His life). But it does not mean he is incapable of responding to the gospel.. Death is separation, Arminians argue, not simply a termination or cessation of life. Physical death is the separation of spirit from body. The body ceases to live and decay begins, but the spirit continues to exist. When Paul says, “The wages of sin is death,” he is not simply referring to the cessation of corporeal existence, the Arminian argues. Therefore, to the Arminian, spiritual death for the natural man is better understood as separation from God and not in terms like, “spiritual cadaver” or “spiritual corpse.” If you use terms like that, then you have to refer to a “walking cadaver.” In other words, you’ve got to have a cadaver who still functions somehow. It’s better to just go with “separation from God.” Again Arminians will argue that if unregenerate man is cadaver-like and incapable of hearing from God and believing in Him, then, they reason, why aren’t regenerate men cadaver-like with respect to sin, Satan, and this world?

Response: All of these arguments actually reveal a fundamental misconception of what is meant by Calvinists when they use the biblical phrase "dead in sin" to refer to man's spiritual inability to respond to the gospel. Furthermore, I believe I can fully demonstrate that classic Arminians believe almost exactly the same thing as Calvinists with regard to man's natural condition apart from the Holy Spirit.

Stay with me here because I believe a lot of unnecessary ink has been spilled over this issue. Scripturally speaking, "Spiritually dead" refers to the idea that the unregenerate man (that is, the person without the Holy Spirit) is dead to spiritual things. His utter inability to respond the spiritual truth is due to the fact that he is unspiritual, of the flesh. Jesus said, "that which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of Spirit is Spirit... The Spirit gives life but the flesh counts for nothing...that is why I told you that no one can come to me unless God grants it" (John 3:3, 6; 6:63,65) The person who is flesh is unregenerate and therefore dead in sin or spiritually dead. He is dead to spiritual things BUT IS ALIVE TO THE FLESH. That is why he can love sin and resist the Holy Spirit. Notice in the three quotes from Ephesians and Colossians at the top of this article... in each instance, quickening or regeneration is the solution to the problem of being dead in sin. What is that? It is the work of the Holy Spirit. That is, apart from regeneration, the sinner remains dead in sin or in his natural condition of original sin. To drive home the point, lets ask, can a person come to Christ apart from any help from the Spirit?

The Scripture says that "no one can say "Jesus is Lord" except in the Holy Spirit." (1 Cor 12:3) So "spiritually dead" does not mean man has a dead spirit, but rather is void of the Holy Spirit and therefore is dead to spiritual things. Paul said, "For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness" (Rom 6:20).

"But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God... these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For ...no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, THAT WE MIGHT UNDERSTAND the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. The NATURAL PERSON does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is NOT ABLE to understand them because they are SPIRITUALLY DISCERNED." (1 Cor 2:7; 10-14) (emphasis mine) Spiritual truth spoken to an unregenerate man is not discerned, foolish and unacceptable unless God reveals it to us by his Spirit, and he gave His Spirit that we might understand, as the text says. What is ironic about this whole thing is that the very Arminians who spill so much ink refuting this actually believe this very same thing. I would like to issue the following challenge to any Arminian or synergist: Can a natural person, left to themselves, even lift a finger toward their own salvation? or have any response whatsoever to the gospel APART FROM the work of the Holy Spirit? No, in fact traditional Arminianism teaches that unless the Holy Spirit grants "prevenient grace" then there is not even the possibility of any response. So frankly I am baffled as to why Arminians would spend time writing countless articles in an attempt to refute something which they themselves already affirm. The very necessity of prevenient grace to the Arminian excludes the possibility of a response by those dead in sin, and demonstrates beyond any further question, that they fully embrace the term "spiritually dead" in the exact same way as the traditional Calvinist. This is not where these to camps differ. The difference is whether this working of the Holy Spirit in the heart of the unbeliever prior to salvation is monergistic or synergistic....whether it effectually accomplishes God's intended design or whether such grace can be resisted by man. That is really where we differ, not over the meaning of the phrase "dead in sin". At least the concept of total inability to respond is precisely the same apart from grace.

To review, man's natural condition is that we have no spiritual life in us and are therefore dead to the things of God. By nature we have a moral inability an thus no inclination to believe the Christ of the Gospel. Prior to being born from above were are in bondage to our sinful impulses, unless and until the Spirit first opens our blind eyes, deaf ears and stony hearts to the gospel.

But lest there be any misunderstanding, lets be clear, the Apostle Paul wrote that even though the natural man is 'dead in sin', that 'faith comes by hearing, and hearing the word of God.'(Rom 10:17). No one is saved apart from believing the gospel. But Paul also teaches that the word must be accompanied by the Holy Spirit or it will fall on deaf ears. In 1 Thess 1: 4,5 he says,

"For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction." He knows they are chosen by God because the gospel he preached was impressed upon their renewed hearts by the Spirit, without which, he could preach till he is blue in the face and they would never respond. In a like manner, a farmer can do all the things necessary to plant crops, but unless God blesses his work with rain from above, the farmer's work will not be productive. Our job, the scripture teaches, is to preach the gospel, declaring to the world the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ (John 5:24). We plant and water, but God alone causes the growth and opens the heart. Paul said that we are to 'persuade' unbelievers, and to 'reason' with them, and this was his own practice. Now why would Paul write and practice this if he knew people are as dead as Lazarus and incapable of believing or hearing the truth? Because it is only through the proclaimed gospel accompanied by the effectual working of the Holy Spirit to change a heart of stone to a heart of flesh that one believes in Jesus. So yes, Jesus is asking us to do what is impossible. He asks us to preach to those dead in sin... to people who cannot and will not respond. But being impossibe should never stop us from obeying and being used as a means to accomplish Jesus’ end, because "what is impossible with man [faith and repentance] is possible with God." So we do not let the fact that we can’t cause the new birth stop us from heralding the gospel to all creatures. That is, in fact, how people are born again, through the good news of Jesus Christ as the Holy Spirit opens their ears to it.

So I believe this clearly demonstrates that this whole argument against the Calvinist understanding of "spiritually dead" does not make sense because, apart from Arminian prevenient grace, they believe the same thing about the natural state man. Where we differ is over the nature of saving grace ... not over our inability believe or respond apart from the work of the Holy Spirit.

I'm not Presbyterian and don't exactly agree with Calvin's teachings, but believe they interpret many things very well.

God saves us. Only He can give life to something dead.

"Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)" - Ephesians 2:5

Love is the glue that holds the human soul together. It’s the reason Jesus’ commandments are so important.

Sin creates an obstacle to Love in the soul. Grace heals the soul by removing the obstacle to Love.

If you heal the body, it is temporary. If you heal the soul it is permanent. The soul manifests the physical body. Sin destroys the physical body by injuring the soul.

In order to know Thy Father you must be like a child, free of sin. It is the sparkle you see in their eyes.

Loving thy neighbor as thyself is the process of finding and removing the obstacles to Love that exist within our souls. It is the process of becoming like a child.

Being dead in sin is being like the house built on sand rather than the house built upon the rock.

Some souls I encounter are like swiss cheese there are so many holes. Each of these souls is a sin.

Are you a Christian? I see that you are mentioning some passages from the Bible, but what you posted doesn’t really give me a good idea of what your own beliefs are.

5 posted on 06/04/2017 5:07:27 PM PDT by Faith Presses On (Above all, politics should serve the Great Commission, "preparing the way for the Lord.")

We went over this this morning in church.

John 3:1-21 discusses the issue.

Jesus said to Nicodemus that you must be born again. Spiritually.

There is no other way. If you are not born again then you are dead in sin.

Children aren’t free from sin. All sons of Adam are “shaped in iniquity” and “conceived in sin.” (Psalm 51:5) That’s the effect of the Fall.

No man can remove sin from his own heart, only God can do that through the miracle of the new birth. However, even then we aren’t free from sin (see Paul describe his ongoing struggle with his sin nature in Romans 7). Instead we have a new nature that fights against sin and because Christ Jesus paid the price for our sin, we are declared righteous and reconciled to the Lord.

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“What Does the Phrase ‘Dead in Sin” Mean?”

It’s referring to the old man “Adam” nature which is dead in sin as opposed to the new creation and new life in Christ Jesus, being risen with him to eternal life.

Ephesians 2:6 -

“And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus”

Very much Christian. Jesus is my Savior.

For me, much of the Bible is experiential rather than theoretical. I accept the Bible as the truth.

I keep a Bible by my reading chair and try to read or refer to it for guidance often.

Since you're not Presbyterian, I would refer you to the London Baptist Confession of Faith laid down by our Protestant forefathers. Please note especially Chapter 10. Effectual Calling.

A verse to consider:

Joh 1:12-13 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

We are not born of our will but of God. It's pretty straight forward but people make this very complicated and confusing.

Most Christiansuccessful don’t understand being “born of the spirit.”

When you are born of the spirit you begin to perceive dire tly from your soul or spirit rather than just your five senses.

I’ve died, gone to Heaven and returned into my physical body. Nothing in my experience discounted the Bible in any way. In fact it did the exact opposite. It increased my understanding to a knowing rather than just believing.

In my death I left my physical body and realized that I am a soul or spirit, not this temporary body. The process of dying caused me to lose my individual ego identity and to realize that I am a child of and creation of God. That is the reason for dying daily as if we are full of ourselves we have no room for God.

I see and feel the sins of others as physical objects in their soul as I walk up to them ever since my death almost 30 years ago. Most people also see sins in a person’s eyes. They are actually stored in the soul around the physical body. It’s how Jesus knew the thoughts and history of everyone around Him.

By the way, no one can ever separate from God as God is omnipresent.

However, my Father’s mansion has many rooms and if we deny the Holy Spirit that helps our souls grow, we become low and end up shackled in the proverbial dungeon of hell. Yes, hell is real.

There is much more to this journey of our soul than most people realize.

There is a scripture that describes the effect of sin as it relates to the Holy Spirit.

I don’t have time to look it up right now, but it says that a prayerful blessing to an evil person is like placing hot coals upon their head.

Sin causes souls to become afraid of the Holy Spirit as it brings them pain. Satan’s great lie is that the Holy Spirit and it’s Light will kill you when in reality it saves you.

This is why it is important to Love your enemy as your Love is like placing hot coals upon them and it keeps them away from you.

[[I’ve died, gone to Heaven and returned into my physical body.]]

Lucky You- I went to hell- shook my faith to it’s core-

It’s never to late to turn in the right direction. Even the vineyard workers that arrive in the last hour get the same pay.

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