Dead in Trespasses
by Terry Wane Benton
"And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:1-7).
Does this mean dead like Calvinists teach? They say “dead” means “inability to respond to any stimuli,” like a physical corpse. I would challenge that concept being read into the text (eisegesis).
Dead in sin means “separated” from God. Out of spiritual fellowship with God means we are separated from God. The prodigal son’s father said his son was “dead,” but now that he came home, he was alive again (Luke 15). It did not mean that the son could not respond to any stimuli. In fact, there were positive stimuli still going on in his heart, namely the better memory of home and his own ability to repent, changing his mind and then direction, before he ever got home and was alive again to his father. So, Jesus showed us that death does not mean the inability to respond to stimuli. It meant being separated from fellowship with the life of the family.
To be “dead in trespasses and sins” means to be separated from life with God. It does not mean one cannot hear the gospel or let it convict and bring one into penitent faith.
One Calvinist told me that I don’t truly believe in Jesus because it is merely my pride telling me I do, and my only hope is for God to inject repentance and faith into me miraculously. But the word of God is living and powerful (I Peter 1:22ff; Hebrews 4:12), and brings conviction (Acts 2:36-37) and then gives the terms of reconciliation (Acts 2:38-41). Life is fellowship with God restored. Death is broken fellowship, not inability to even hear and respond to God’s stimuli, the gospel (Romans 10:17; 1:16).
Choose Life
If the Israelites have a choice and can “choose life” over death (Deuteronomy 30), and God thinks they have that power of choice, then it is in our power to choose, and we are not locked in “inability” to choose, as our Calvinist friends assert. How ridiculous would it be to tell people who have no power of choice to choose life over death?
God Does Not Lie
When God says He would “have all men to be saved” and “come to the knowledge of the truth” (I Timothy 2:4) but refuses to empower them to do so, this doctrine of inability makes God lie about having all men saved. If it is totally up to God and He truly would have all men saved, then every man would be saved. Calvinism cannot reconcile this verse with its doctrine.
Not Willing That Any Should Perish
Suppose God is truly not willing that any should perish (II Peter 3:9), and it is totally up to God because man is dead and unable to respond to His word unless God gives him the ability to repent. In that case, the consequence of Calvinism is that they make God a liar again here! If He truly does not wish that any perish, but He refuses to give any the ability to repent, then God would truly be lying about not being willing to perish. He truly wills that many perish if man has no power to reason into the power of the gospel!
Calvinist Ignore These Points
They ignore them and pretend that they have other verses that somehow trump these verses. Giving a verse contradicting these is not an honest handling of the Scriptures. They need to answer these points and show the real harmony with these verses, but they can’t! What they typically do is accuse us of being so depraved that we can’t know what we are talking about and go on with their indoctrination, accusing us of being too full of pride and depravity to see things their way!
Their view is based on blind indoctrination, handling verses out of context, and pretending that God gave only them the power to reason correctly on the Scriptures, which is just a backhanded way of claiming infallibility in understanding. We must reason together, but they really think we can’t, and there is the trouble. They charge us with sinful inability, and that can’t really be our fault (if their doctrine is totally on God’s willingness to give us ability is true). Calvinism is a perverse indoctrination that makes reasoning with others totally an exercise in futility!
Reject such divisive and unreasonable men!
