Ephesians 2:1-3 – We are dead in our trespasses and sins – Part 1 of 3

In the past few weeks we have been discussing about sin and we have realized how sinful we are and how we ourselves are to weak to save ourselves from sin. We noted that only a divine intervention was the only way we stood a chance to be saved from God’s wrath of eternal condemnation. The good news is that there was a divine intervention and this intervention did save us. The name of that intervention was Jesus Christ. Let’s now see how this intervention was done.

The word trespass means a fault, lapse, error, mistake or wrongdoing. The word sin means to miss the mark of the standard of holiness as set and required by God. Now we know that when someone or something is dead, it means it will never wake up. It will never come back to life. The Greek word for the word dead used here is the word “nekros” which means a corpse or dead. I have not heard of someone who is dead waking up again on his own. We know of people in the bible that have woken up from the dead but these were either woken up by Jesus, in the case of Lazarus or by the Apostles. No one I know of, woke up on his own. So, we can safely conclude that once dead, you cannot raise yourself from the dead. You stay dead. 

Paul uses this very same word to describe the state of sinners before they are saved. Paul says that they were dead in the trespasses and sins. In other words, they were deep in their trespasses and sins that they was no way of repenting from it. They were so caught up in their trespasses and sins that there was no way of by themselves, repenting and turning away from sin. They were trapped in this state and could not get out of this trap. 

Therefore, Paul is saying as sinners, we are so trapped in our trespasses and sins that on our own, we have absolutely no hope of ever getting out of the trap and freeing ourselves. In a nudshell, we are all destined to eternal hell. This is our state before we were saved and this is your state now if you have not accepted Jesus in your life as your Lord and Savior. 

Paul continues to tell the Ephesians that they were dead in their trespasses and sins in which they once walked. This verb used here for walked in Greek “peripateo”, is in an aorist indicative, meaning that this is something that they did sometime in the past and it is a fact that they did that. So Paul is saying to them and to us that it is a fact that you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which before you were saved, you at sometime in the past walked in.

Paul then also says, while you were walking in this path of trespass and sin, you were following the prince of the power of air, meaning that you were following the devil. Paul is saying, in this trespasses and sins that you were dead in and walking in, you were actually following the devil. This devil is the spirit that even now is working, as it was working in you while you were a sinner, this same spirit, is now working in the hearts of those that are disobedient and have not accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour. 

Paul is saying here that we also, while were sinners, were living among these sons of disobedience or these people that disobey God. We were once just like them. We also lived in the passions of our flesh. We carried out the desires of the body and the mind. We were by nature children who deserves God’s wrath like the rest of mankind.