The passage in Ephesians 2 starts off highlighting our need for a Savior.

And although you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you formerly lived … and were by nature children of wrath … (Eph 2:1-3 NET)

Paul addresses the Ephesians as those who were dead. In doing so he leaves the reader hanging.

This chapter, as noted in the translation notes in the NET, starts off with an incomplete sentence. The participle finds its completion in verse 4 and 5 where we learn that we are “made alive together with Christ”.

What does Paul mean by the term “dead”?

Some possibilities include:

• physical death
• spiritual death
• the natural inability to do good or respond to the gospel

Continue reading →