AND YOU WERE DEAD IN YOUR TRESPASSES AND SINS: Kai humas ontas (PAPMPA) nekrous tois paraptomasin kai tais hamartiais humon: (Eph 2:5,6; 1:19,20; John 5:25; 10:10; 11:25,26; 14:6; Romans 8:2; 1 Corinthians 15:45; Colossians 2:13; 3:1-4) (5; 4:18; 5:14; Matthew 8:22; Luke 15:24,32; John 5:21; 2Corinthians 5:14; 1 Timothy 5:6; 1 John 3:14; Revelation 3:1) 

AND (kai) clearly ties the following statement to the previous verses. That is, as Christ was raised and exalted, so we also are spiritually raised in Christ and given new life in Him. But before describing our revivification and resurrection, he describes our former state of spiritual death. The death Paul describes is a death of "the most vital part of man's personality - the spirit - is dead to the most important factor in life - God." (Wood)

Again Paul writes one continuous sentence from verse 1 to verse 7.

Wiersbe introduces this section writing..

“Having described our spiritual possessions in Christ, Paul turns to a complementary truth: our spiritual position in Christ. First he explains what God has done for all sinners in general; then he explains what God did for the Gentiles in particular.” (Wiersbe, W: Bible Exposition Commentary. 1989. Victor)

In Ephesians 2:1, the KJV adds the words "hath he quickened" and the NKJV "He made alive". These words are not in the original Greek but are implied from the context. Paul ended Chapter 1 (see note Ephesians 1:23) by considering that the ultimate example of God's power was the resurrection of Jesus; now Paul considers what the implications of Jesus' resurrection are for us.

Let us never forget where we have come from - dead in trespasses and sins. We were not merely sick or injured, but were spiritually dead. And death always brings separation. Thus every person ever born has been born into a state of separation from our Creator.

Gaebelein speaks of cards signed during an evangelistic campaign, which read

"From now on I promise to lead a better religious and Christian life."

To these promises Gaebelein replied that in light of the truth in Ephesians 2:1...

"How is it possible for a person to live a better life, when that person has no life at all"?

As an aside, it is notable that such promises are not without Biblical precedent. Read several other times where people made promises they could not keep -  Ro 7:14-25 Ex 24:3, 7, Ex 19:8 Jos 24:21,22,24.

Dead in - "In" identifies this as the so-called locative of sphere, indicating the sphere, or realm, in which something or someone exists. We were not dead because we had committed sin but because we were in the sphere of sin. As a fish is in an aquarium, we were in sin. What does this mean? The idea is that we sin because we are sinners. Stealing does not make us a thief. We stole because we were a thief.

When God looks down from heaven, the whole world looks like a cemetery to him. All he sees are dead people. Above every corpse is a three-word epitaph: "DEAD IN SIN." Paul begins with the most important point-the need for grace. Miss this point and you may miss eternity with God!

Dead (3498) (nekros from which we get English "necropsy") denotes the body derived of life, and refers literally to the physical condition of being deceased. As used here in Ephesians, figuratively "dead" refers to the spiritual condition of those who are unable to attain to the life of faith in and of themselves. Lost men are spiritually dead, not merely weakened, incapacitated, disabled, or sick.  Spiritual death is the state of separation from God and His life. Death itself is a separation, whether physical, the separation of the person from his body, or spiritual, the separation of the person from God. Two other marks of a dead person are corruption and impotence, both relevant to the spiritual condition of unregenerate men and women.

This is probably the most difficult truth in all of Scripture for human beings to believe.  The unsaved think we've lost our mind talking about the "walking dead"! They don't accept that because of sin we are separated from God. They refuse to believe that dead mankind is unable to know God personally and can’t do anything about the condition. Worst of all, they are dead and don’t know it! To be dead is a hopeless condition and later in this chapter Paul specifically says the Gentiles were those "having no hope."

In Genesis 2 before Eve had been created, God warned Adam...

but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you shall surely die." (Genesis 2:17)

In Genesis 3 the serpent of old, Satan, the liar and deceiver countered Eve's arguments...

And the serpent said to the woman, "You surely shall not die! (Genesis 3:4)

Paul sums these events up writing...

Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned (see note Romans 5:12) (Comment: We are all born as sons of Adam and thus born in sin and in guilt and condemnation...all because of Adam's sin). (See also related topic Births, Deaths, and Resurrections.)

The uselessness of the dead is the subject of Solomon's proverb who writes that

whoever is joined with all the living, there is hope; surely a live dog is better than a dead lion (Ecclesiastes 9:4)

Jesus referred to all of us in our spiritually "embalmed" condition when He prophesied...

"Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear shall live. (John 5:25)

Maybe you heard about the little boy who walked out of the church sanctuary one Sunday. Out in the lobby was an engraved plaque listing all the members of the church who were dead as a result of their military service. The little boy asked his father, ''Dad, what's that?'' His dad replied, ''That's for the members who died in the Service.'' To which the little boy asked, ''Which service did they die in, Dad? The morning or the evening service?''

Most of our politicians, business leaders, educators, journalists, and work associates are dead. With a few rare exceptions, this world is being run by people who are spiritually dead and in desperate need of new life.

S Lewis Johnson tells the following story from a Scottish expositor who wrote...

that there was a graveyard in Ayrshire, one of the counties of Scotland, where once a stranger was buried. It greatly distressed the people of that particular parish, so much so that they put a notice up on the outside of the graveyard to this effect, this is what it read: “This graveyard is reserved exclusively for the dead who are living in this parish.” Now, that is what we have in this parish of the whole wide world. We have dead people. They’re alive, just like Adam was alive, physically, after he had sinned, but nevertheless, he was spiritually dead. We are living in the parish, but we are dead, as we are born into this human race. (Ephesians 2:1-10 His Power and Our Salvation - Audio)

Trespasses (3900) (paraptoma from parapipto = fall aside from para = aside + pipto = fall) means a deviation from living according to what has been revealed as the right way to live, stepping out of line of true conduct, a deviation from truth and uprightness. The plural of both trespasses and sins further emphasizes the natural tendency of humans to continue in sin.

The basic idea of paraptoma is conveyed is that of stumbling or falling so as to lose one's footing. Paraptoma conveys the idea of a false step and so often is translated a transgression. The idea behind transgressions (transgress in English means to to go beyond or overstep a limit or boundary and is from Latin  trans- across + gradi = to step) is that we have crossed a line, challenging God's boundaries. Similarly, the word derived via the Old French from a word meaning "to pass over" or "to go across" to commit an offense against a person or a set of rules.

ISBE says that trespass means...

To pass over, to go beyond one’s right in place or act; to injure another; to do that which annoys or inconveniences another; any violation of law, civil or moral; it may relate to a person, a community, or the state, or to offenses against God.  The Hebrew 'asham ("sin"), is used very frequently in the Old Testament when the trespass is a violation of law of which God is the author. (ISBE Article)

Sins (266) (hamartia) originally had the idea of missing mark as when hunting with a bow and arrow. Later it came to mean missing or falling short of any goal, standard, or purpose. Hamartia in the Bible means to miss God's mark as an archer misses the “bull’s eye” and ultimately to miss the true purpose and end of our lives which is God Himself.

Sin is any violation of God’s righteous character. It is anything we say or do or think or imagine or plan that does not meet God’s standard of perfection.

What are some of the implications of theses truths? Trespasses and sins lead to guilt, which places all men in need of forgiveness. They ultimately lead to eternal death, which is only reversed by a new life in Christ.

The fact that all men apart from God are sinful does not mean that every person is equally corrupt and wicked.  In other words, not all men are as evil as they could be, but irregardless, all fail to measure up to God’s perfect standard.

On the other hand Sin has infected every part of our being—our mind, our emotions, our will, our intellect, our moral reasoning, our decision making, our words and our deeds. No part of our life is exempt from the debilitating effects of sin. As someone has said, "If sin were blue, we’d be blue all over." Part would be dark blue, part would be sky blue, part would be light blue, but every part would be blue in one shade or another.

The KJV Bible Commentary adds that...

This truth is denied in these days. Men speak of “the better self” and “the good spark.” Man needs a new heart, not just a new start; a new life, not just turning over a new leaf; a resurrection, not just reformation. Signing a pledge card will not suffice. No one can live a life for God until he first receives life from God. (Dobson, E G, Charles Feinberg, E Hindson, Woodrow Kroll, H L. Wilmington: KJV Bible Commentary: Nelson)

Spiritual death defines all of mankind's condition. Furthermore, as explained in chapters like Romans 6, all unbelievers are in a state of bondage or enslavement to the power of sin. Jesus declared...

"Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits (present tense) sin is (present tense) the slave of sin." (John 8:34)

We commit sins because we are born sinners.

From a human standpoint, it appears that people might be able to do good, but God through His prophet Isaiah explains that

“all our righteous deeds are like a filthy (Hebrew = menstruation a picture of ceremonial uncleanness and undesirable filth) garment” (Isa 64:6)

Paul affirms this truth writing that...

ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY HAVE BECOME USELESS; THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD, THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE." (see note Romans 3:12)

In another passage Paul explains that unbelievers are not even able to understand the things of God, for

"a natural (unsaved, still "in Adam", not "in Christ") man does not accept (dechomai = deliberately and readily, receive kindly, they do not "put out a welcome mat"! = present tense) the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness (moria = that which is considered intellectually weak, irrational) to him, and he cannot (dunamai = present tense = have intrinsic power - natural men lack the inner, inherent ability and resources on their own to) understand (verb ginosko = know by experience) them, because they are spiritually appraised (anakrino =  sift up and down and so to scrutinize, to examine accurately and carefully with exact research like in legal processes)." (1Cor 2:14)

Nor can we come to God in our own power, for Jesus says,

“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him” (John 6:44).

And so from a theological standpoint, the truth that all men are born spiritually dead touches on one of the most controversial areas in theology. How can a "dead" man hear so as to be saved? This is a topic we won't delve into except to say that the exact nature of what happens when a spiritually dead person is regenerated or born from above is mysterious. Mortal man does not understand how God gives spiritual life to the spiritually dead, except through what He has revealed to us in Scripture. Jesus alluded to the mysterious, invisible nature of regeneration when He explained to Nicodemus that...

"The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit." (John 3:8)

And so just as one cannot see the wind at work but can see its results, so it is with the new birth. It may come about slowly or suddenly, from one direction or another. One cannot detail the mechanics of the regeneration process. Just as one does not remember his physical birth, he may be unable to pinpoint his spiritual birth. As the proof of the one is the reality of his physical life, so the proof of the other is the reality of his spiritual life. And it is this glorious truth that Paul is preparing to unveil in the subsequent passages. But first, he continues to explain more of  the "bad news".

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Ray Pritchard sums up the consequences of sin writing that because of sin we are…

Lost—To be lost means to be in a position of great personal danger because you cannot find your way to safety. The unsaved are "lost" in precisely that sense. They are far from God and do not know where or how to find him.

Separated from God—Sin has created a great chasm between God and us. We were made to know God but our sin keeps us from him. We feel it and we know it is true. There is a cloud between us, a mountain of sin rising up, and a deep chasm beneath us. This is why we are restless. Nothing on earth can satisfy our hunger for God. This is why we are seeking and searching and trying and striving.

Blind—Sin destroys our ability to see things clearly. We live in the darkness of sin and not even the tiniest ray of light breaks through to us.

Dead—A dead person has eyes but cannot see, ears but cannot hear, lips but cannot speak, feet but cannot move. The spiritually dead have within them no ability to respond to God. Unless someone raises them to life, they can never know the God who made them.

Enslaved—Because of sin we are slaves to our own lusts. Even our heart has been corrupted. Jeremiah 17:9 reminds us that the heart is deceitful and wicked so that we cannot trust our own instincts. Left to ourselves, we repeatedly choose to do wrong. Try as we might we cannot change ourselves. In the words of the cartoon character Pogo, "We have met the enemy and he is us." We are enslaved and we cannot set ourselves free! God says, "Thou shalt not" but we say "I shall" and then we hate ourselves afterwards. Why? We are enslaved to sin. Sin masters us, rules us, dominates us. We are a people of high ideals and weak wills, of big dreams and small deeds, high hopes and low living.

Helpless—This is the logical end of it all. A person who is lost, separated, blind, dead, and enslaved is truly helpless. He is trapped with no hope within himself. Any help must come from somewhere else. (The Truth about You)

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From Today in the Word- Dead Men Can't Hear - In an article in Fortune magazine, David Whitford wrote of the shocking discovery prior to his father's death that his dad had amassed a six-figure debt on high-interest credit cards. There had been clues that his father was having financial problems, but when Whitford had tried to talk about it his father immediately changed the subject. “At one point,” Whitford writes, “he put his hands over his ears and made a humming noise.” Yet two days after his father's death, Whitford found these words scrawled on his father's desk: “Help me. I'm drowning.” Whitford's story illustrates a tragic reality. There is little we can do for those who refuse our help.
 

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Illustration of Sin - An open-air preacher was telling the old, old story, when a thoughtless youth rapped out, “You tell us about the burden of sin. I feel none.” Then he flippantly added, “How much does sin weigh? Eighty pounds? Ten pounds?” The preacher answered, “Tell me, if I put a 400 pound weight on the chest of a dead man, would he feel it?” “No, because he is dead,” answered the youth. The preacher responded, “And the man who feels no load of sin is dead spiritually.” The lad’s remarks only proved what he was. The Scriptures call it “Dead in trespasses and sins” (Eph. 2:1). Do you feel the burden of your sins? If you do not, you may well feel alarmed. You are dead spiritually.—Baptist Herald

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From Today in the Word - Staring at A Dead Man: Author Mark Twain received so many photos from men claiming to look like him that he composed this form letter to send out: 'My dear Sir, I thank you very much for your letter and your photograph. In my opinion you are more like me than any other of my numerous doubles. I may even say that you resemble me more closely than I do myself. In fact, I intend to use your photograph to shave by. 'Twain's humorous letter helps to illustrate a serious spiritual truth. When we hold the Bible up to our lives, the picture it gives us of ourselves is more accurate than what we see in the mirror, because the Bible shows us our hearts.

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Our Daily Bread - "Life Giving Words" ...

In Luke 7 we read the dramatic story of what happened when Jesus encountered a large funeral procession. A widow was on her way to the cemetery to bury her only son. With a heart full of compassion, Jesus spoke to the woman, touched the coffin, and with a command brought her son back to life.

What happened to that young man is an illustration of what happens to a person who is converted to Christ. Until you and I come in contact with the Savior, we are "dead in trespasses and sins" (Eph. 2:1)  and on our way to the cemetery of what the Bible calls the second death (Rev. 20:6). We will be eternally separated from God's love unless we are spiritually reborn.

But when Jesus speaks to the needy sinner through the convicting power of the Holy Spirit, and the person puts his faith in Jesus, instantly he receives new life. Peace, joy, and blessing will follow.

Friend, have you heard the life-giving words of  Jesus? He alone can take away the deadness of your  soul and give you a thrilling awakening that brings forgiveness and joy right now, and the prospect of heaven forever.

If Jesus has rescued you from eternal death, ask Him to use you to tell others of the One who gives new life.-- Henry G. Bosch (Our Daily Bread, Copyright RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, MI. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved)

Once far from God and dead in sin,
No light my heart could see,
But in God's Word the light I found --
Now Christ liveth in me.-- Whittle

When you trust God's Son, darkness gives way to the light.

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Our Daily Bread - "New Life" ...

For a long time the old church sat empty and abandoned in a Detroit neighborhood. The decaying building blended naturally into the whole area. Storefronts were boarded up. An old school building was padlocked. Party stores flourished, but little else. Grim, unswept, forgotten—that's how it all looked.

Then one night things changed. The old church sparkled with light. Parked cars lined the streets. The sound of music filled the air. What had been dead and abandoned had come to life.

I've seen people like that. For years they were dark and empty like that old church. There was little inside except anger, selfishness, and pride. Then one day all was changed. Suddenly the darkness was gone. It was as if someone had turned on the lights.

And that Someone is God. He forgives those who come to Him through faith in His Son Jesus Christ. He specializes in giving new life to those who seem to be beyond hope—those who are dead in trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1).

If all this sounds unfamiliar, it may be because we've lost sight of the transforming power of Jesus Christ. Let's remember what He has done for us, and what He can do for others. —MRDII  (Ibid)

Christ takes each sin, each pain, each loss,
And by the power of His cross
Transforms our brokenness and shame
So we may glorify His name. —D. De Haan

Salvation produces a change within that breaks the chains of sin.

IN WHICH YOU FORMERLY WALKED ACCORDING TO THE COURSE OF THIS WORLD: en ais pote periepatesate (2PAAI) kata ton aiona tou kosmou toutou: (3; 4:22; Job 31:7; Acts 19:35; 1 Corinthians 6:11; Colossians 1:21; 3:7; 1 Peter 4:3; 1 John 5:19) (Psalms 17:14; Jeremiah 23:10; Luke 16:8; John 7:7; 8:23; 15:19; Romans 12:2; 1 Corinthians 5:10; Galatians 1:4; 2 Timothy 4:10; James 1:7; 4:4; 1 John 2:15-17; 5:4)

In which (in trespasses and sins) marks the sphere or "environment" in which the unsaved Ephesian Gentiles conducted their life. In other words, "In" is the "locative of sphere" meaning that the unregenerate order their behavior and regulate their lives within the sphere of trespasses and sins.

Kenneth Wuest explains it this way...

All their thoughts, words, and deeds are ensphered by sin. Not one of their acts ever gets outside this circle of sin. That is what is meant by total depravity. (Wuest, K. S. Wuest's Word Studies from the Greek New Testament: Eerdmans)

Formerly (4218) (pote) is a generalization concerning time and means at some time and when referring to past time as in this verse means once or at one time in the past. This is a reminder to the Ephesians "holy ones" of their former "unholy" state! Before their new birth, they walked in a wrong path of conduct conforming to the world’s low standard of morality, doing what came naturally. Their day to day life was determined by the spirit and practice of the age in its unregenerate, evil, anti-god state.

Paul brings up the past again later as a means of motivating their present and future conduct writing that...

that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind (see note Ephesians 4:22)

In a similar manner, Paul reminded the saints at Colossae of the incredible change that God's Spirit had wrought in them...

And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, 22 yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach (see notes Colossians 1:21; 1:22)

Writing to the Church at Corinth Paul reminded them of their former manner of life to emphasize the greatness of their salvation...

Or do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you (this is who we all once were); but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God. (1Cor 6:9-11)

Walked (4043) (peripateo from peri = about, around + pateo = walk, tread) (Click word study on peripateo) means literally to walk about here and there or to tread all around. Peripateo then came to mean, to make one’s way, to make progress, to make due use of one’s opportunities and finally (as used by Paul in Ephesians), to live, to regulate one’s life, to conduct one’s self. Most of the NT uses refer to the daily conduct of one's life or how one orders their behavior or passes their life.

Walked is in the aorist tense, which Wuest explains as...

"constative, a construction which looks at a thing or an action as a complete unit, looks at it in a panoramic view. The whole life of the unsaved person is nothing but sin. (Wuest, K. S. Wuest's Word Studies from the Greek New Testament: Eerdmans)

According to (2596) (kata) is a preposition which used in the NT in a variety of ways but in this verse kata means "down" which speaks of domination and control. Paul's point is that unregenerate men in the act of ordering their behavior in the sphere of trespasses and sins are dominated or controlled by the "course of this world". They are continually in the state of being "under" the dominion or power of the world system and the evil prince, Satan.

Course  (165) (aion) is not an easy word to define but in general aion usually refers to some aspect of time past, present or future. As used in this verse, aion conveys a figurative meaning referring primarily to the ethical/moral system of the world. In other words in this use aion refers to the system of practices and standards associated with secular society (that is, without reference to any demands or requirements of God). Note that aion is also sometimes translated "world" with somewhat of a similar meaning to the following word "kosmos". For example Paul exhorts believers to stop being

"conformed to this world (aion), but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect." (see note Romans 12:2)

This present evil world system is continually seeking to squeeze men into its mold of godlessness.  The unsaved either consciously or unconsciously are controlled by the values and attitudes of this world system and behave accordingly.

Trench adds that aion can be defined as...

“All that floating mass of thoughts, opinions, maxims, speculations, hopes, impulses, aims, aspirations, at any time current in the world, which it may be impossible to seize and accurately define, but which constitutes a most real and effective power, being the moral, or immoral atmosphere which at every moment of our lives we inhale, again inevitably to exhale,—all this is included in the aion, which is, as Bengel has expressed it, ‘the subtle informing spirit of the kosmos, or world of men who are living alienated and apart from God’ ” (Trench, R. C. Synonyms of the New Testament. Hendrickson Publishers. 2000)

Wuest commenting on aion adds that...

The Germans have a word for it, zeitgeist, “the spirit of the age.” “World” is in the head, his demons are his emissaries, and all the unsaved kosmos, which here refers to the system of evil of which Satan are his slaves, together with the purposes, pursuits, pleasures, and places where God is not wanted. To distinguish the words, one could say that kosmos gives the over-all picture of mankind alienated from God during all history, and aion represents any distinct age or period of human history as marked out from another by particular characteristics.

World (2889) (kosmos) basically means something well arranged or orderly (English word = "cosmetics"!). Kosmos is used 186 times in the Greek New Testament, and virtually every instance has an evil connotation. Kosmos does not represent the physical creation in this verse but refers to the world in a moral or ethical sense, specifically the world's values and ways of doing things. The idea is captured by the phrase we often hear -- "the spirit of this age". It is the "order" of this evil world system, which is ruled by Satan and his