Introduction
This topic is being drawn out from the book of Ephesians chapter 2 verses one and two. The author of this book talks about people who are physically alive, yet he pronounced them as being dead. This assertion would ginger the minds of grammarians that how could a person be alive and yet be dead.
It is known that “living” and “dead” are opposite words. Living things according to Biology and other Health Sciences related courses have characteristics that show that they are living things. Among the listed characteristics for living things are movement, growth, respiration etc. But dead bodies do not possess these characteristics again, because life has been snuffed out of them, thus they couldn’t exhibit any of the characteristics that the living things are exhibiting.
Let us examine what the apostle means by this word, “and you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;” (Eph 2:1)
Cause of the Death
He says what the quickened living dead were once “dead in”, and they were trespasses and sins. By being “dead in” something according to grammatical explanations it means what killed the person among other meanings that could be given to the words. Take as instance, when a person has an accident and died in the process. The people who were there when they will be given the report about the person’s death, they would say he “died in” in the accident. By this word they mean what killed perhaps killed the person, what led to the person’s death.
This is akin to what the author is saying here that the living dead that he is talking or writing about, the person’s causes of death are trespasses and sins.
“And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;” (Eph 2:1)
Trespasses in Greek word is “παράπτωμα”, Romanized form is paraptōma (phonetic spelling is par-ap'-to-mah) which means error, slip or deviation. David Guzik in his commentary says it means crossing a line, challenging God’s boundaries.
Sin on the other hand is written in Greek as “ἁμαρτία”, Romanized from is hamartia (pronounced as ham-ar-tee'-ah) which means offence. David Guzik says that sin means missing a mark, fallen short of God’s perfect standards.
Stott says, Trespasses speak of man as a rebel, sin speaks of man as a failure. “Before God we are both rebels and failures”.
The living dead being talked about by the apostle is someone who has died in his trespasses and sins.
Like the illustration above of a person who was found dead after an accident, on further interrogation and findings, the people could then say what led to what. They may say it was over-speeding that caused the person’s death, they may say they find traces of alcohol in his blood and that may be those things that led to the man’s abnormal driving or over speeding and his eventual death.
What Necessitated the Living Dead’s Death
What led to the living dead’s death before was shared in verse two of this book, and it states that, “wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:” (Eph 2:2)
1. Walking According to the Course of this World: The author speaks of one of the attributes of a living thing here as he says this living dead has been walking according to the course of this world before, and because he has been walking according to the course of this world, that was what led to him being dead though living.
The course here in means the nature of the world, the style of the world. This man has patterned his life after the worldly styles. The worldly styles are said to be under three categories by Apostle John in his epistle to the saints.
“For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.” (1 Jn 2:16)
We all know that a person who is walking without support, for it is not said by the author of the book of Ephesians that this living dead was walking with supports. This essentially means that the man was healthy, active, because he was healthy, it means other characteristics of the living being would be put into use as he walks thus.
Therefore, while patterning his life after the world, he would be respiring, breathing in and out the polluted air of the world; siting among the worldly people, talking like they are talking, acting as they are acting because he has patterned his life after them.
2. Walking According to the Prince of the Power of the air: another thing mentioned that resulted in the death of the living dead was that he patterned his life according to the Prince of the Power of the air. We shall recall that Prince of this world according to the bible is Satan.
“Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out.” (Joh 12:31)
“Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.” (Joh 14:30)
This living dead becomes dead because he has patterned his life according to the devil’s way of life, he has been imitating what the prince of the power of the air was doing which the bible says we shouldn’t do.
He by doing these rebelled against God and failed him.
How was He Quickened?
This living dead becomes quickened when he heard about the Gospel and discovered that he has been following the wrong path all this while and decides to retrace his steps back unto God.
He by faith hears the message of Jesus, repents of his sins and turns a new leaf.
“Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;” (Act 3:19)
It should be known that everyone in the world has been a living dead because we were born and shaped in iniquities.
“Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.” (Psa 51:5)
For this reason, the son of God was made manifest so that he will save us. If you equally wish to be quickened, you have to repent of your sins and give your life to Jesus Christ today, and when you do this, you would discover changes in your life, because the inner man, the spiritual man that has been dead before would be brought to life by the Power of Jesus Christ that would be working in you.
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