And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;
Paul now shifts his attention from Christ’s authority to how he has used this position of power for the benefit of the Ephesians (and all Christians). But before getting to the details, he briefly digresses, as he is sometimes prone to do. In verses 1 to 3, Paul reminds the believers in Ephesus of what their lives were like before they met Jesus.
The word “quickened” doesn’t appear in the original text until verse 5, so we’ll get to it then. What is the first thing Paul mentions about the Ephesians’ previous state without Christ? They were dead. Logic would suggest he isn’t referring to bodily death, so what does he mean? The Bible mentions two kinds of death, physical and spiritual. The first occurs when the soul is separated from the body. The second is separation from God.
Going back to Adam and Eve for a moment, God warned that the moment they ate the forbidden fruit, they would die. But when they disobeyed, they didn’t keel over dead, did they? Their physical death took time, but spiritually, they died instantly. Their relationship with God was broken. How do we know this? Because the first thing they did was hide from his presence. (1)
The Bible clearly states that death only made its ugly appearance on earth as the result of sin. (2) Paul echoes this truth here. He directly links death and sin, showing they are connected.
But what exactly is sin? Paul uses two words to help us understand it more precisely. “Trespass” means “to fall beside or near something.” It implies straying from the right path, so in this sense, sin is anything that deviates from truth or morality. In other words, it’s anything that isn’t perfectly true or good. The second word means “to miss the mark.” It paints a picture of shooting at a target and missing, whether by a millimeter or a mile. What is the objective? God’s will. We all fall short of fully and consistently obeying it.
Now that we understand these two words better, we can see how much bigger the problem of sin is than we realize. Too often, I have dismissed some action as a “little sin” that doesn’t matter! (For example, speeding – but not by too much, mind you!) We use the term “white lies” to suggest that some lies are okay.
What we often forget is that all these sins, big or small, lead to death! Let’s think about the first sin for a moment. What did Adam and Eve do? They ate some fruit! Wouldn’t we today dismiss it as a minor sin with no consequence? Probably. Did God? That “little sin” is what opened the door to all that is wrong in our world.
The good news is that the story doesn’t end here. God has provided a way for us to avoid death, which we will discuss later. For now, it’s important to never take any sin lightly!
(1) Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-10
(2) Romans 5:12