Does Ephesians 2 teach that an unsaved person is so dead that he cannot respond to God unless God first regenerates him?
This is a fundamental claim of Calvinism under the category of “Total Depravity,” which is essentially the idea that we are so corrupted by sin that we cannot respond to God’s call in our unregenerate state. But is that really what the Bible teaches?
I think we can answer this question if we take an honest look at the passage.
And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:1-7)
The key word in this passage is “dead.” We were “dead in trespasses and sins.” According to Calvinism, because a man is born spiritually dead, he can have no part in choosing Christ. He is nothing more than a spiritual corpse. God, in His elective sovereignty, regenerates the man, granting him faith and the ability to believe.
While this may seem at first glance to be what the passage teaches, I would like to offer four responses to the contrary.
Response 1: Spiritual death is different than physical death
Ephesians 2 does not discuss physical death, so we should not introduce it ourselves. Spiritual death is the subject here. Furthermore, while a physically dead body can do nothing, the “dead in Ephesians 2 actually do things.
Let’s take another look at the passage, with the actions of the “dead” person in bold.
And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins,
in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:1-7)
While we were dead, we “walked according to the course of this world.” We also “once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh” and were “fulfilling the desires of the flesh.”
Apparently, the “dead” can do something.
We could also consider the teaching of Jesus in John 3, when He described salvation using the analogy of the brass serpent. Those who had been bitten by the poisonous snakes had to respond in faith by looking at the brass snake. If they were dead in the physical sense, they could not have done this.
Response 2: Death does not mean the inability to do anything good
If a “dead” person can do something wrong, as we saw above, maybe he can also do something right.
Jesus seemed to think so.
If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!” (Luke 11:13)
Even evil people can occasionally do good things! We see this all the time. Unsaved people do great humanitarian work and perform selfless acts. Many selflessly die in battle. They can do things that we would call “good,” so why draw the line at responding to God?
I want to be clear that Calvinists do not argue that an unsaved person can do nothing good, but that he cannot choose Christ unless first regenerated. However, I fail to see how a person can do any number of “good things,” but cannot simply respond to the call of Christ.
Consider also the case of the “rich young ruler” in Mark 10:17-22. He had obeyed all the commandments. Jesus recognized that he had done a decent job at being good, except he had one fault:
Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow Me.”(Mark 10: 21)
He had done lots of good things but remained unregenerate. When faced with the call of Jesus, he walked away. Something was more important to him than his eternal salvation.
Response 3: Death is separation
Now that we have determined that “dead” in this passage does not men “inability to do anything,” we have to ask an important question: what does it mean to be dead?
For my Calvinist friends, it means total inability to choose God. The unsaved person is nothing more a spiritual corpse. He can do nothing. One has to wonder, though, how the “dead” person can choose to sin but not choose to come to God.
In the Bible, death is depicted as separation. Eternal death, for example, is eternal separation from God rather than a cessation of existence or lack of ability to do anything.
As dead people, we are separated from God because of our sin. Consider Adam and Eve. God promised them that when they sinned, they would die. When they sinned, however, they did not cease to exist. Nor did they lose the capability to do anything good. What happened was their relationship with God was destroyed. They were relationally separated from Him.
Response 4: Believers are also dead
If unbelievers are dead in that they are nothing more than spiritual corpses unable of choosing Christ, what about believers who are also considered “dead?”
If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. (Colossians 3:1-3)
If “die” always means that we cannot make any choices to do anything, then we also have no choice after salvation, having died to ourselves. This would necessarily lead to sinless perfection.
In my opinion, “died” in this verse indicates that we have been separated from bondage to our fleshly desires. We will be bonded to either the sin or God. Before salvation, we are bonded to sin and separated from God; after salvation, we are bonded to Christ and separated from sin.
If “death” means that we are like a corpse or a stone, as Calvinists believe, then unbelievers could never do anything good and believers could never do anything bad. But God tells people who are “dead” to straighten up. The church in Sardis, for example.
And to the angel of the church in Sardis write, “These things says He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars: ‘I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead. Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die, for I have not found your works perfect before God.’” (Revelation 3:1-2)
How could these folks straighten up if they are dead? We don’t make it a habit to chide corpses for their lethargy. Jesus, however, scolded these folks. “You are dead, But don’t stay dead. Do something about it. Make a change!”
So, returning to Ephesians 2, I do not believe that Paul is saying that before regeneration, we are incapable of choosing Christ. It seems to me that he is saying that we were relationally separated from God, and when we respond to His call, we are re-united with Him and able to work toward fulfilling our purpose of glorifying Him.
