Jesus was the quickener

JESUS WAS THE QUICKENER
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
“And you has He quickened, who were dead in
trespassesand sins.”Ephesians2:1
Spiritual Resurrection BY SPURGEON
“And you has He quickened, who were dead in trespasses andsins.”
Ephesians 2:1
IT might naturally be expected that I should have selectedthe topic of the
Resurrectionon what is usually calledthe EasterSabbath. I shall not do so–
for although I have read portions which refer to that glorious subject, I have
had pressedon my mind a subject which is not the Resurrectionof Christ but
which is in some measure connectedwith it–the resurrectionof lost and
ruined man by the Spirit of God in this life.
The Apostle is here speaking, youwill observe, of the Church at Ephesus and,
indeed, of all those who were chosenin Christ Jesus, acceptedin Him and
redeemedwith His blood. And he says of them, “You has He quickened, who
were dead in trespassesand sins.”
What a solemn sight is presented to us by a dead body! When last evening
trying to realize the thought, it utterly overcame me. The thought is
overwhelming that soonthis body of mine must be a carnival for worms. That
in and out of these places where my eyes are glistening, foul things, the
offspring of loathsomeness,shallcrawl. That this body must be stretched in
still, cold, abject, passive death–must then become a noxious, nauseous thing,
castout even by those that loved me, who will say, “Bury my dead out of my
sight.”
Perhaps you canscarcely, in the moment I can afford you, appropriate the
idea to yourselves. Does it not seema strange thing that you who have walked
to this place this morning shall be carried to your graves? Thatthe eyes with
which you now behold me shall soonbe glazedin everlasting darkness? That
the tongues which just now moved in song, shall soonbe silent lumps of clay?

And that your strong and stalwartframe, now standing in this place, will soon
be unable to move a muscle and become a loathsome thing–the brother of the
worm and the sisterof corruption? You can scarcelygethold of the idea!
Deathdoes such awful work with us–it is such a vandal with this mortal
fabric–it so rends to pieces this fair thing that God has built up that we can
scarcelybearto contemplate its works ofruin
Now, endeavor, as well as you can, to get the idea of a corpse and when you
have done so, please understand that that is the metaphor employed in my
text–to setforth the condition of your soul by nature. Just as the body is dead,
incapable, unable, unfeeling and soonabout to become corrupt and putrid, so
are we if we are unquickened by Divine Grace. We are dead in trespassesand
sins, having within us death which is capable of developing itself in worse and
worse stagesofsin and wickednessuntil all of us here, left by God’s Grace,
should become loathsome beings.
We are as loathsome through sin and wickedness,evenas the corpse through
natural decay. Understand that the doctrine of the Holy Scripture is that man
by nature, since the Fall, is dead. He is a corrupt and ruined thing. In a
spiritual sense utterly and entirely dead. And if any of us shall come to
spiritual life, it must be by the quickening of God’s Spirit vouchsafedto us
sovereignlythrough the good will of Godthe Father. Not for any merits of our
own but entirely of His own abounding and infinite Grace.
Now, this morning I trust I shall not be tedious. I shall endeavorto make the
subject as interesting as possible and also endeavorto be brief. The general
doctrine of this morning is that every man that is born into the world is dead
spiritually and that spiritual life must be given by the Holy Spirit and canbe
obtained from no other source. Thatgeneraldoctrine, I shall illustrate in
rather a singular way. You remember that our Savior raisedthree dead
persons. I do not find that during His lifetime He causedmore than three
resurrections.
The first was the young maiden the daughter of Jairus who, when she lay on
her bed, dead, rose up to life at the single utterance of Christ, “Talitha cumi”!
The secondwas the case ofthe widow’s son, who was on his bier, about to be
carried to his tomb. And Jesus raisedhim up to life by saying, “Young man, I
say unto you, Arise.” The third and most memorable case was thatof
Lazarus, who was not on his bed, nor on his bier, but in his tomb. Yes, and
corrupt, too. But notwithstanding that, the Lord Jesus Christ, by the voice of
His Omnipotence, crying, “Lazarus, come forth,” brought him out of the
tomb.

I shall use these three facts as illustrations of the different states of men,
though they are all thoroughly dead. Secondly, as illustrations of the different
means of Divine Grace used for raising them, though, after all, the same great
agencyis employed. And in the third place, as illustrations of the after
experience of quickened men. For though to a greatdegree they are the same,
yet there are some points of difference.
1. I shall begin by noticing, then, first of all, THE CONDITION OF MEN
BY NATURE. Men by nature are all dead. There is Jairus' daughter.
She lies on her bed. She seems as if she were alive. Her mother has
scarce ceasedto kiss her brow, her hand is still in her father’s loving
graspand he can scarcelythink that she is dead–but dead she is–as
thoroughly dead as she ever canbe.
Next comes the case ofthe young man brought out of his grave. He is more
than dead, he has begun to be corrupt, the signs of decay are upon his face
and they are carrying him to his tomb. Yes, though there are more
manifestations of death about him, he is no more dead than the other. He is
just as dead. They are both dead and death really knows no degrees.
The third case goesfurther still in the manifestation of death, for it is the case
of which Martha, using strong words, said, “Lord, by this time he stinks. For
he has been dead four days.” And yet, mark you, the daughter of Jairus was
as dead as Lazarus. Though the manifestationof death was not so complete in
her case.All were dead alike. I have in my congregationsome blessedbeings,
fair to look upon. Fair, I mean, in their character, as well as their outward
appearance. Theyhave about them everything that is goodand lovely.
But mark this, if they are unregenerate they are still dead. That girl, dead in
the room, upon her bed, had little about her that could show her death. Not
yet had the loving fingers closedthe eyelid. There seemedto be a light still
lingering in her eyes, like a lily just nipped off. She was as fair as life itself.
The worm had not yet begun to gnaw her cheek, the flush had not yet faded
from her face. She seemedwell-nearalive. And so is it with some I have here.
You have all that heart could wish for, exceptthe one thing needful. You have
all things save love to the Savior. You are not yet united to Him by a living
faith. Ah, then, I grieve to say it, you are dead! You are dead!
As much dead as the worstof men, although your death is not so apparent.
Again, I have in my presence young men who have grown to riper years than
that fair damselwho died in her childhood. You have much about you that is
lovely but you have just begun to indulge in evil habits. You have not yet
become the desperate sinner. You have not yet become altogethernoxious in

the eyes of other men. You are but beginning to sin. You are like the young
man carried out on his bier. You have not yet become the confirmed
drunkard, you have not yet begun to curse and blaspheme God. You are still
acceptedin goodsociety. You are not yet castout. But you are dead,
thoroughly dead, just as dead as the third and worst case.
But I dare sayI have some characters that are illustrations of that case,too.
There is Lazarus in his tomb, rotten and putrid. And so there are some men
not more dead than others but their death has become more apparent. Their
characterhas become abominable, their deeds cry out againstthem. They are
put out of decent society, the stone is rolled to the mouth of their tomb. Men
feel that they cannot hold acquaintance with them, for they have so utterly
abandoned every sense of right, that we say, “Put them out of sight, we cannot
endure them!”
And yet these putrid ones may live. These lastare not more dead than the
maiden upon her bed, though the death has more fully revealeditself in their
corruption. Jesus Christ must quicken the one as well as the other and bring
them all to know and love His name.
Now, then, I am about to enter into the details of the difference of these three
cases. I will take the case ofthe young maiden. I have her here today. I have
many illustrations of her present before me. At least, I trust so. Now, will you
allow me to point out all the differences? Here is the young maiden. Look
upon her. You can bear the sight. She is dead but oh, beauty lingers there. She
is fair and lovely though the life has departed from her. In the young man’s
case there is no beauty, the worm has begun to eat him, his honor has
departed. In the third case, there is absolute rottenness. But here there is
beauty still upon her cheek.
Is she not amiable? Is she not lovely? Would not all love her? Is she not to be
admired, even to be imitated? Is she not fairest of the fair? Yes, that she is–
but God the Spirit has not yet lookedupon her. She has not yet bent her knee
to Jesus and cried for mercy. She has everything except true religion. Alas for
her, alas!That so fair a charactershould be a dead one. Alas, my Sister, alas!
That you–the benevolent, the kind one–shouldyet be, after all, dead in your
trespassesandsins.
As Jesus wept over that young man who had keptall the Commandments and
yet one thing he lacked, so I weepover you this morning. Alas, you fair one,
lovely in your characterand amiable in your carriage–whyshould you lie
dead? For dead you are, unless you have faith in Christ. Your excellence,your

virtue and your goodness shall avail you nothing. You are dead and dead you
must be, unless He makes you live.
Note, too, that in the case ofthis maiden whom we have introduced to you, the
daughter of Jairus, she is yet caressed. She has only been dead a moment or
two and the mother still presses hercheek with kisses.Oh, can she be dead?
Do not the tears rain on her, as if they would sow the seeds of life in that dead
earth again?–earththat looks fertile enough to bring forth life with but one
living tear? Yes, but those salttears are tears of barrenness. She lives not but
she is still caressed.
Not so the young man. He is put on the bier. No man will touch him anymore,
or else he will be utterly defiled. And as for Lazarus, he is shut up with a
stone. But this young maiden is still caressed–so it is with many of you. You
are loved even by the living in Sion. God’s own people love you. The minister
has often prayed for you. You are admitted into the assemblies ofthe saints,
you sit with them as God’s people, you hear as they hear and you sing as they
sing. Alas for you! Alas for you, that you still are dead! Oh, it grieves me to
the heart to think that some of you are all that heart could wish, except that
one thing, yet lacking that which is the only thing that candeliver you.
You are caressedby us, receivedby the living in Sion into their company and
acquaintance, approved of and accepted. Alas, that you should yet be without
life! Oh, in your case, if you are saved, you will have to join with even the
worstin saying, “I have been quickened by Divine Grace, orelse I had never
lived.”
And now will you look at this maiden again? Note, she has no grave clothes on
her. She is dressedin her own raiment–just as she retired to her bed a little
sick–solies she there. Notyet have the napkin and the shroud been wrapped
about her. She still wears the clothes of sleep, she is not yet given up to death.
Not so the young man yonder–he is in his grave clothes. Notso Lazarus–he is
bound hand and foot. But this young maiden has no grave clothes upon her.
So with the young person we wish to speak to this morning. She has as yet no
evil habits. She has not yet reachedthat point. The young man yonder has
begun to have evil habits. And yonder gray-headedsinner is bound hand and
foot by them. But as yet she appears just like the living–she acts just like the
Christian.
Her habits are fair, goodly and comely. There seems to be little ill about her.
Alas, alas!That you should be dead, even in your fairest raiment! Alas, you
who have setthe chaplet of benevolence onyour brow, you who do gird
yourself with the white robes of outward purity–if you are not born again–you

are still dead! Your beauty shall fade away like a moth. And in the Day of
Judgment you will be severedfrom the righteous, unless God shall make you
live. Oh, I could weepover those young ones who seemat presentto have been
delivered from forming any habits which could lead them astray but who are
yet unquickened and unsaved. Oh, would to God, young Man and young
Woman, you might in early years be quickenedby the Spirit.
And will you notice, yet once more, that this young maiden’s death was a
death confined to her chamber?. Notso with the young man. He was carried
to the gate of the city and many people saw him. Not so Lazarus. The Jews
came to weepat his tomb. But this young woman’s death is in her chamber.
Yes, so it is with the young woman or the young man I mean to describe now.
His sin is as yet a secretthing, kept to himself–as yet there has been no
breaking forth of iniquity but only the conceptionof it in the heart. Just the
embryo of lust, not as yet broken out into act. The young man has not yet
drained the intoxicating cup although he has had some whisperings of the
sweetness ofit.
He has not yet run into the ways of wickedness, thoughhe has had
temptations thrust upon him. As yet he has kept his sin in his chamber and
most of it has been unseen. Alas, my Brother! Alas, my Friend, that you who
in your outward carriage are so good, should yet have sins in the chamber of
your heart and death in the secrecyofyour being which is as true a death as
that of the grossestsinner, though not so thoroughly manifested. Would to
God that you could say, “And He has quickened me, for with all my loveliness
and all my excellence,I was by nature dead in trespassesandsins.”
Come, let me just press this matter home. I have some in my congregation
that I look upon with fear. Oh, my dear Friends, my much-loved Friends, how
many there are among you. I repeat, they are all that the heart could wish,
exceptthat one thing–that they love not my Master. Oh, you young men who
come up to the House of God and who are outwardly so good. Alas for you,
that you should lack the rootof the matter! Oh, you daughters of Sion, who
are everat the House of Prayer! Oh, that you should yet be without Divine
Grace in your heart! Take heed, I beseechyou, you fairest, youngest, most
upright and most honest. When the dead are separatedfrom the living, unless
you are regeneratedyou must go with the dead. Though you are ever so fair
and goodly, you must be castawayunless you have been quickened by the
Holy Spirit.
Thus I have done with the first case.Now we will go to the young man, who
stands second. He is not more dead than the other but he is further gone.
Come now and stop the bier. You cannotlook upon him! Why, the cheek is

sunken–there is a hollowness there, not as in the case ofthe maiden whose
cheek was still round and ruddy. And the eyes–oh, whata blackness is there!
Look on him, you cansee that the gnawing of the worm will soonburst forth.
Corruption has begun its work.
So it is with some young men I have here. They are not what they were in
their childhood, when their habits were proper and correct. But maybe they
have just been enticed into the house of the strange woman. They have just
been tempted to go astrayfrom the path of rectitude. Their corruption is just
breaking forth–they disdain now to sit at their mother’s apron strings. They
think it foul scornto keepto the rules that bind the moral! They–they are
free! They say they are and they will be free. They will live a jolly and a happy
life. And so they run on in boisterous yet wickedmerriment and betray the
marks of death about them.
They have gone further than the maiden. She was still fair and comelybut
here there is something that is the afterwork of death. The maiden was
caressedbut the young man is untouched–he lies on the bier and though men
bear him on their shoulders, yet there is a shrinking from him. He is dead and
it is known that he is dead. Young man, you have gotas far as that. You know
that goodmen shrink from you. It was but yesterday that your mother’s tears
fell fastand thick as she warned your younger brother to avoid your sin. Your
very sister, when she kissedyou but this morning, prayed to God that you
might get goodin this House of Prayer.
But you know that of late she has been ashamedof you. Your conversationhas
become so profane and wickedthat even she can scarcelyendure it. There are
houses in which you were once welcome–where youonce bowedyour knee
with them at the family prayer and your name was mentioned, too. But now
you do not choose to go there, for when you go, you are treated with reserve.
The goodman of the house feels that he could not let his songo with you for
you would contaminate him. He does not sit down now side by side with you
as he used to do and talk about the best things.
He lets you sit in the room as a matter of mere courtesy. He stands far away
from you, as it were. He feels that you have not a spirit congenialwith his
own. You are a little shunned. You are not quite avoided. You are still
receivedamong the people of God yet there is a coldness that manifests that
they understand that you are not a living one. And note, too, that this young
man, though carried out to his grave, was not like the maiden. She was in the
garments of life but he was wrapped in the cerements of death.

So many of you have begun to form habits that are evil. You know that
already the screw of the devil is tightening on your finger. Once it was a screw
you could slip off or on. You said you were master of your pleasures–now
your pleasures are master of you. Your habits are not now commendable, you
know they are not. You stand convicted while I speak to you this morning.
You know your ways are evil. Ah, young Man, though you have not yet gone
so far as the open profligate and desperatelyprofane, take heed–you are dead!
You are dead! And unless the Spirit quickens you, you shall be castinto Hell,
to be the food of that worm which never dies but eats souls throughout
eternity!
And ah, young Man, I weep, I weepover you! You are not yet so far gone that
they have rolled the stone againstyou. You have not yet become obnoxious.
You are not yet the staggering drunkard, nor yet the blasphemous infidel.
You have much that is ill about you but you have not gone all the way yet.
Take heed. You will go further still, there is no stopping in sin. When the
worm is there, you cannot put your finger on it and say, “Stop! Eatno more.”
No, it will go on to your utter ruin. May Godsave you now, before you shall
come to that consummation for which Hell so sighs and which Heaven can
alone avert.
One more remark concerning this young man. The maiden’s death was in her
chamber. The young man’s death was in the city gates. In the first case I
described, the sin was secret. But, young man your sin is not. You have gone
so far that your habits are openly wicked. You have dared to sin in the face of
God’s sun. You are not as some others–seeminglygood. But you go out and
openly say, “I am no hypocrite. I dare to do wrong. I do not profess to be
righteous. I know I am a rascal. I have gone astrayand I am not ashamedto
sin in the street.” Ah, young Man, young Man!
Your father, perhaps, is saying now, “Would to God that I had died for him–
would to God that I had seenhim buried in his grave before he should have
gone to such a length in wickedness!Would to God that when I first saw him
and my eye was gladdenedwith my son, I had seenhim the next minute
smitten with disease anddeath! Oh, would to God that his infant spirit had
been calledto Heaven, that he might not have lived to bring in this way my
gray hairs in sorrow to the grave!” Your sport in the city gates is misery in
your father’s house. Your open merriment before the world brings agonyinto
a mother’s heart.
Oh, I beseechyou, stop! Oh, Lord Jesus!Touch the bier this morning! Stop
some young man in his evil habits and say to him, “Arise!” Then will he join

with us in confessingthat those who are alive have been quickenedby Jesus,
through the Spirit, though they were dead in trespassesand sins.
Now we come to the third and last case–LAZARUS DEAD AND BURIED.
Ah, dear Friends, I cannottake you to see Lazarus in his grave. Stand, oh
stand awayfrom him! Where shall we flee to avoid the noxious odor of that
reeking corpse? Ah, where shall we flee? There is no beauty there. We dare
not look upon it. There is not even the gloss oflife left. Oh, hideous spectacle!I
must not attempt to describe it–words would fail me–and you would be too
much shocked. Nordare I tell the characterofsome men present here. I
should be ashamedto tell the things which some of you have done.
This cheek might mantle with a blush to tell the deeds of darkness which some
of the ungodly of this world habitually practice. Ah, the last stage ofdeath, the
last stage ofcorruption–oh, how hideous! But the last stage ofSIN–hideous far
more! Some writers seemto have an aptitude for playing in this mud and
digging up this miry clay. I confess that I have none. I cannotdescribe to you
the lust and vice of a full-grown sinner. I cannot tell you what are the
debaucheries, the degrading lusts, the devilish, the bestialsins into which
wickedmen will run when spiritual death has had its perfect work in them
and sin has manifested itself in all its fearful wickedness.
I may have some here. They are not Christians. They are not, like the young
maiden, still fondled–nor even, like the young man, still kept in the funeral
procession. No, theyhave gone so far that decent people avoid them. Their
very wife, when they go into the house, rushes upstairs to be out of the way.
They are scorned. Suchan one is the harlot from whom one’s head is turned
in the very street. Such an one is the openly profligate to whom we give wide
quarters, lestwe touch him. He is a man that is far gone. The stone is rolled
before him. No one calls him respectable. He dwells, perhaps, in some back
slum of a dirty lane–he knows not where to go.
Even as he stands in this place he feels that if his next door neighbor knew his
guilt he would give him a wide berth and stand far awayfrom him. For he has
come to the last stage. He has no marks of life, he is utterly rotten. And mark–
as in the case ofthe maiden the sin was in the chamber, secret. In the next case
it was in the open streets, public. But in this case it is secretagain. It is in the
tomb. For you will mark that men, when they are only half gone in wickedness
do it openly–but when they are fully gone their lust becomes so degrading that
they are obliged to do it in secret.
They are put into the grave in order that all may be hidden. Their lust is one
which can only be perpetrated at midnight, a deed which can only be done

when shrouded by the astonishedcurtains of darkness. Have I any such here?
I cannot tell that I have many. But still I have some. Ah, in being constantly
visited by penitents I have sometimes blushed for this city of London. There
are merchants whose names stand high and fair. Shall I tell it here? I know it
on the best authority and true, too–there are some who have houses large and
tall, who on the exchange–are reputable and honorable and everyone admits
them and receives them into their society.
But ah, there are some of the merchants of London who practice lusts that are
abominable. I have in my Church and congregation–andI dare to say what
men dare to do–I have in my congregationwomenwhose ruin and destruction
have been workedby some of the most respectedmen in respectable society.
Few would venture on so bold a statementas that. But if you boldly do the
thing, I must speak ofit. It is not for God’s ambassadorto wash his mouth
beforehand–lethim boldly reprove as men do boldly sin. Ah, there are some
that are a stench in the nostrils of the Almighty. Some whose characteris
hideous beyond all hideousness.
They have to be coveredup in the tomb of secrecy, formen would ban them
from societyand hiss them from existence if they knew all. And yet–and now
comes a blessedinterposition–yet this last case may be saved as well as the
first and as easily, too! The rotten Lazarus may come out of his tomb as well
as the slumbering maiden from her bed. The last–the mostcorrupt, the most
desperatelyabominable–may yet be quickened and he may join in exclaiming,
“And I have been quickened, though I was dead in trespassesand sins.” I
trust you will understand what I wish to convey–thatthe death is the same in
all cases. Butthe manifestation of it is different. And that the life must come
from God and from God alone.
II. And now I will go on to another point–THE QUICKENING. These three
persons were all quickened and they were all quickened by the same Being–
that is by Jesus. But they were all quickened in a different manner. Note, first,
the young maiden on her bed. When she was brought to life, it is said, “Jesus
took her by the hand and said, Maiden, arise,” It was a still small voice. Her
heart receivedits pulse againand she lived. It was the gentle touching of the
hand–no open demonstration–and the soft voice was heard–“arise.” Now,
usually when God converts young people in the first stage ofsin, before they
have formed evil habits, He does it in a gentle manner. Not by the terrors of
the Law, the tempest, fire and smoke. He makes them like Lydia, “whose
heart the Lord opened,” that she receivedthe Word.
On such, “it drops like the gentle dew from Heavenupon the place beneath.”
With hardened sinners Divine Grace comes downin showers that rattle on

them. But in young converts it often comes gently. There is just the sweet
breathing of the Spirit. They perhaps scarcelythink it is a true conversion.
But true it is, if they are brought to life.
Now note the next case. Christdid not do the same thing with the young man
that he did with the daughter of Jairus. No. The first thing He did was He put
His hand, not on him, mark you but on the bier. “And they that bare it stood
still,” and after that, without touching the young man, He said in a louder
voice, “Young man, I say unto you, Arise!” Note the difference–the young
maiden’s new life was given to her secretly. The young man’s was given more
publicly. It was done in the very street of the city. The maiden’s life was given
gently by a touch. But in the young man’s case it must be done, not by the
touching of him, but by the touching of the bier.
Christ takes awayfrom the young man his means of pleasure. He commands
his companions, who by bad example are bearing him on his bier to his grave,
to stop. And then there is a partial reformation for awhile and after that there
comes the strong out-spokenvoice–“Young man, I sayunto you, Arise!”
But now comes the worstcase. And will you please, atyour leisure, at home
notice what preparations Christ made for the lastcase ofLazarus? When He
raisedthe maiden, He walkedup into the chamber, smiling and said, “She is
not dead but sleeps.” WhenHe raisedthe young man, He said to the mother,
“Weepnot.” Not so when He came to the last case.There was something more
terrible about that–it was a man corrupting in his grave. It was on that
occasionyou read, “Jesus wept,” and after He had wept it is said that, “He
groanedin His Spirit.” And then He said, “Take awaythe stone.”
And then there came the prayer, “I know that You hear Me always.” And
then, will you notice, there came what is not expressedso fully in either of the
other cases.It is written, “Jesus criedwith a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth!”
It is not written that He cried with the loud voice to either of the others. He
spoke to them–it was His word that savedall of them. But in the case of
Lazarus, He cried to him in a loud voice. Now, I have, perhaps, some of the
last characters here–the worstofthe worst. Ah, Sinner, may the Lord quicken
you! But it is a work that makes the Savior weep. I think when He comes to
call some of you–from your death in sin–who have gone to the utmost
extremity of guilt, He comes weeping and sighing for you.
There is a stone there to be rolled away–yourbad and evil habits–and when
that stone is takenaway a still small voice will not do for you. It must be the
loud crashing voice, like the voice of the Lord which breaks the cedars of
Lebanon–“Lazarus, come forth!” John Bunyan was one of those rotten ones.

What strong means were used in his case!Terrible dreams, fearful
convulsions, awful shakings to and fro–all had to be employed to make him
live. And yet some of you think, when God is terrifying you by the thunders of
Sinai, that really He does not love you. It is not so–youwere so dead that it
needed a loud voice to arrestyour ears.
III. This is an interesting subject–I wish I could dilate upon it but my voice
fails me. And therefore, permit me to go to the third point very briefly.
THE AFTER-EXPERIENCEOF THESE THREE PEOPLE WAS
DIFFERENT–atleastyougather it from the commands of Christ. As soonas
the maiden was alive, Christ said, “Give her meat.” As soonas the young man
was alive “He delivered him to his mother.” As soonas Lazarus was alive, He
said, “Loose him and let him go.” I think there is something in this. When
young people are convertedwho have not yet acquired evil habits–whenthey
are savedbefore they become obnoxious in the eyes of the world–the
command is, “Give them meat.”
Young people want instruction, they want building up in the faith. They
generallylack knowledge. Theyhave not the deep experience of the older
man. They do not know so much about sin, nor even so much about salvation
as the older man that has been a guilty sinner. They need to be fed. So our
business as ministers when the young lambs are brought in, is to remember
the injunction, “FeedMy lambs.” Take care of them, give them plenty of
meat. Young People, searchafteran instructive minister. Seek after
instructive books. Searchthe Scriptures and seek to be instructed–that is your
principal business. “Give her meat.”
The next case was a different one. He gave the young man up to his mother.
Ah, that is just what He will do with you, young man, if He makes you live. As
sure as ever you are converted, He will give you up to your mother again. You
were with her when you first as a babe saton her knee. And that is where you
will have to go again. Oh, yes, Divine Grace knits togetheragainthe ties which
sin has loosed. Let a young man become abandoned–he casts off the tender
influence of a sisterand the kind associations ofa mother–but if he is
converted, one of the first things he will do will be to find the mother and the
sisterand he will find a charm in their societythat he never knew before.
You that have gone into sin, let this be your business, if God has savedyou.
Seek goodcompany. Just as Christ delivered the young man to his mother, so
you seek afteryour mother, the Church. Endeavor as much as possible to be
found in the company of the righteous. For, as you were carriedbefore to
your grave by bad companions, you need to be led to Heaven by goodones.

And then comes the case ofLazarus. “Loose him and let him go.” I do not
know how it is that the young man ever was loosed. I have been looking
through every book I have about the manners and customs of the Eastand
have not been able to geta clue to the difference betweenthe young man and
Lazarus. The young man, as soonas Christ spoke to him, “satup and beganto
speak.” ButLazarus, in his grave clothes, lying in the niche of the tomb, could
do no more than just shuffle himself out from the hole that was cut in the wall.
And then stand leaning againstit. He could not speak. He was bound about in
grave clothes. Why was it not so with the young man?
I am inclined to think that the difference lay in the difference of their wealth.
The young man was the sonof a widow. Very likely he was only wrapped up
in a few common things and not so tightly bound about as Lazarus. Lazarus
was of a rich family–very likely they wrapped him up with more care.
Whether it was so or not, I do not know. What I want to hint at is this–whena
man is far gone into sin, Christ does this for him–He breaks off his evil habits.
Very likely the old sinner’s experience will not be a feeding experience. It will
not be the experience ofwalking with the saints. It will be as much as he can
do to pull off his grave clothes, to get rid of his old habits. Perhaps to his death
he will have to be rending off bit after bit of the cerements in which he has
been wrapped.
There is his drunkenness. Oh what a fight will he have with that! There is his
lust. What a combathe will have with that for many a year! There is his habit
of swearing–howoftenwill an oath come into his mouth and he will have as
hard work as he can to thrust it down again!There is his pleasure-seeking–he
has given it up–but how often will his companions be after him to get him to
go with them? His life will be ever afterwards a loosing and letting go. Forhe
will need it till he comes up to be with God forever and ever.
And now, dear Friends, I must close by asking you this question–have you
been quickened? And I must warn you that–good, bad, or indifferent–if you
have never been quickened you are dead in sins and must be castawayat the
last. I must bid you, however, who have gone the furthest into sin, not to
despair. Christ can quicken you as wellas the best. Oh, that He would quicken
you and leadyou to believe! Oh, that He now would cry to some, “Lazarus,
come forth!” and make some harlot virtuous, some drunkard sober. Oh, that
He would bless the Word, especiallyto the young and amiable and lovely, by
making them now the heirs of God and the children of Christ!
And now but one thing I have to sayto those who are quickened. And then
adieu this morning and may God bless you! My dear Friends, you who are
quickened, let me advise you to be aware of the devil. He will be sure to be

after you. Keep your mind always employed and so you will escape him. Oh,
be aware of his devices!Seek to “keepthe heart with all diligence, for out of it
are the issues of life.” The Lord bless you, for Jesus'sake. Amen.
BIBLEHUB RESOURCES
Pulpit Commentary Homiletics
Spiritual Death
Ephesians 2:1
T. Croskery
The apostle sets forth the greatness ofDivine powerin man's salvationby
setting forth the greatness ofhis sin and misery, representedunder the aspect
of spiritual death. Let us understand the nature of this death.
I. MARK THE EXPRESSIVENESS OF THE TERM. It is strange to find it
applied to living men. But there are certain suggestive points of similarity
betweennatural and spiritual death.
1. The dealt have all the organs ofsense, but no sensibility. As the psalmist
said of the idols of the heathen, so are the dead: "Eyes have they, but they see
not: they have ears, but they hear not" (Psalm115:5, 6). So the spiritually
dead have no susceptibility in regard to the things of God; they see not the
beauties of holiness;they see not God or Christ.
2. The dead drove all the machinery of motion, but the machine is at rest. So
the spiritually dead have all the natural faculties of life - judgment, memory,
imagination, feeling, conscience - but they are unable to renew themselves into
spiritual life. The inability is not natural, but moral, and therefore sinners are
responsible for it. They cannot, because theywill not. "Ye will not come unto
me, that ye may have life" (John 5:40).
3. The dead are cold to the touch. The living body retains its heat very much
in the same manner as a fire retains its heat, and, in a very true sense, we are
all literally burning out like the fuel that is consumedin our fires. The dead
are coldas the grave that covers them. So are the spiritually dead; they have
no warmth of Christian love going out either to God or man. Though
intellectually alive to all purely worldly interests, they are coldly indifferent,
or even hostile, to the interests of the kingdom of grace.

4. The dead go onward to corruption. The process ofcorruption may be
arrestedfor a time by the skill of man, but it will prevail in the end, and man
returns to the dust whence he came, as the spirit has returned to the God who
gave it. So the spiritually dead are corrupt, constitutionally, in virtue of the
sin of Adam, and they are still more corrupt through temptation to actual
transgression. The absence oflove to God interposes no check to the progress
of corruption in a human heart. What a terrific picture is that of a dead soul!
II. THE CIRCUMSTANCESOR CONDITIONS OF SPIRITUALDEATH.
We see our dead surrounded successivelyby the shroud, the coffin, the hearse,
the grave. So likewise the spiritually dead are surrounded by "trespassesand
sins." These two expressive terms indicate, not simply the cause of death, but
its conditions and circumstances.
1. Trespasses.This term is exceedinglyexpressive as embodying what is
involved in the original term.
(1) It suggests the idea of a landmark fixed by God, which he has commanded
us not to pass. Yet who can say that he has not passedthe landmark? Who can
say that he has not trespassedupon God's preserves? Forwhat God had
reservedfor himself out of all the trees of the garden of Eden, cur first parents
trespassedupon; and who among ourselves has not againand again
trespassedupon that reservedterritory of love wherewith God has
surrounded himself and surrounded eachone of our neighbors?
(2) The word suggests the further idea of a barrier which God has placedin
our way, and told us that we are not to force it or pass it. There is the barrier
of his Law, which he has strengthenedby terrible penalties, and upon which
he has inscribed his own fearful curse: "Cursedis every one that continueth
not in all things which are written in the book of the Law to do them"
(Galatians 3:10). Yet who can saythat he has not passedthis barrier, though
God's curse was inscribed upon it? There is the barrier of consciencewhich
God has built up strongly in every man; and who can say that he has not
againand againpassedthis barrier, often bringing the artillery of worldly
advantage or pleasure to bear againstit and break it down?
2. Sins. This term points to the sinful movements of the soul - sins of thought
and purpose, as trespasses seemto point to the various developments of a
sinful nature. The sins are the fruit of moral corruption which has its seatin
the heart, and radiates thence to every department of human conduct. The
principle of sin is not merely negative, for it is a positive negationof the Divine
will, putting something else in its place. The term "sins would, more exactly
than the other, include sins of omission, which are necessarilymuch more

numerous than sins of commission. It is a solemnthought that men are dead
in sin" by every duty they omit, by every opportunity they neglect, by every
blessing they despise, as wellas by every positive transgressionofthe Divine
Law. The radical significance ofboth terms implies a real hostility to God,
which is only brought into prominence the moment the sinful spirit comes into
sharp and painful collisionwith the pure Law of God. This dark picture of the
sinner's state suggeststhat
(1) we ought to mourn for the dead, as we mourn for our dear ones who are
carried forth to burial;
(2) that we ought to pray for the dead, that God may grant them "a
quickening togetherwith Christ;"
(3) that we ought to warn the dead that, if they die in their trespassesand sins,
they will be buried in their trespasses andsins. - T.C.
Biblical Illustrator
And you hath He quickened who were dead in trespassesandsins.
Ephesians 2:1
The quickening powerof the gospel
A. F. Muir, M. A.
This the peculiar characteristicofthe preaching of Christianity in the first
age. It came into a world preoccupiedby other systems of religion, Jewishand
Gentile, and succeededwhere they had failed. The secretofits success is the
same today — vital power.

I. UPON WHOM IS IT EXERTED?
1. The spiritually dead.
2. The bondslaves of Satan.
3. The subjects of Divine wrath.
II. THROUGH WHOM DOES IT OPERATE? Christ, the manifested Son of
God, is the Alpha and Omega ofits proclamations.
1. Through faith men are united to Him.
2. Share in His resurrection.
III. IN WHOM IS ITS SOURCE? It is God who ordained the means of
salvation, sent His Son into the world to die for sinners, and raising Him from
the dead raisedalso all those who were united to Him by faith by a spiritual
resurrection, that they might "walk in newness oflife." This gracious work is
due —
1. To His nature. "Being rich in mercy."
2. To His affectionfor men. "ForHis greatlove wherewithHe loved us."
(A. F. Muir, M. A.)
Regeneration
J. Parsons.
I. THE CHANGE HERE NOTICED IS OF A REMARKABLY DECIDED
NATURE. A change of the whole human character, by which the dispositions
of men become thoroughly alteredfrom that which is evil to that which is
good, and by which there are implanted and formed within them those
spiritual graces whichare essentiallyconnectedwith the bestowmentof the
Divine favour and the restorationof the Divine image.
II. THIS CHANGE IS ACCOMPLISHED PURELY BY DIVINE AGENCY.
1. The agencyof the Spirit of God in the work of renovationis sovereign.
2. The agencyof the Spirit is mysterious.
3. The agencyof the Spirit is connectedwith the instrumentality of the Word.
III. THIS CHANGE IS ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIALFOR THE
SALVATION OF THE IMMORTAL SOUL.
1. This is evident, if you considerthe occupation, society, andenjoyments of
heaven.

2. It is also evident by considering the express testimony of God on the
subject.
(J. Parsons.)
Quickening of the dead
H. Foster, M. A.
I. THE SCRIPTURE PHRASESBY WHICH THE SINFUL STATE OF
MAN IS DESCRIBED.Sleep. "Therefore letus not sleep, as do others," etc.
(1 Thessalonians5:6, etc.). "Wherefore he saith, 'Awake thou that sleepest,'"
etc. (Ephesians 5:14). Deathin trespasses(see text). "And you, being dead in
your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh," etc. (Colossians 2:13). A
corrupt tree. "A goodtree cannotbring forth evil fruit," etc. (Matthew 7:18).
"Forhe shall be like the heath in the desert," etc. (Jeremiah17:6). Darkness.
"But ye, brethren, are not in darkness," etc. (1 Thessalonians5:4). Led
captive, etc. (Ephesians 2:3). Enmity (Romans 8:7).
II. HOW THE SCRIPTURES DESCRIBE THE CHANGE THAT IS
WROUGHT IN THOSE THAT SHALL BE SAVED AND STATE GOD AS
THE AUTHOR OF IT. Being quickened— by God (see text). Born again —
by God (John 3:3; 1 Peter 1:3). Washedand sprinkled — by God (Ezekiel
16:8, 9; Ezekiel36:25). Writing the law in the heart — by God (Jeremiah
31:33). Grafting — by God (Romans 11:23-25). Creating light to shine where
was darkness (2 Corinthians 4:6).
III. NO MEANS SHORT OF GOD CAN QUICKEN AND CONVERT SUCH
A SINNER. Let us considereverything that is likely.
1. Will miracles? No (Exodus 8:16-18;John 12:10-12;Acts 4:16, 17).
2. Will the fulfilment of prophecies? No (Cf. Matthew 27:62, etc. with
Matthew 28:11, etc.).
3. Will prosperity? No (Psalm 73:3).
4. Will adversity? No (Proverbs 27:22).
5. Will preaching the gospel? No (1 Corinthians 1:23).
6. Will one rising from the dead? No (Luke 16:31). The necessityof a Divine
agentin the Church of God.
IV. EVIDENCES OF BEING QUICKENED.
1. A feeling sense of the evil of sin (Romans 7:18; Psalm 38:3-7).

2. A dying to self-confidence, and a trusting in Christ alone (Romans 7:7-11;
Galatians 2:19, 20; Philippians 3:7-9).
3. An appetite for the means of grace (1 John 2:3).
4. Love to the brethren as such (1 John 3:13, 14).
(H. Foster, M. A.)
Various manifestations of death
W. Graham, D. D.
The frightful presence ofdeath is manifested in many ways.
1. The dead have no motion; they cannotcome to God; they are helpless as
was Lazarus till the voice of Jesus reachedhim; grace alone canquicken the
dead soul.
2. The dead have no sensation;they are past feeling; all the fountains of
passionand emotion are sealed(Ephesians 4:19); so that before they can love
God or hate sin they must geta new life.
3. The dead have no enjoyment; food satisfies, beautypleases, andmusic
charms no more. It is even so. Sin has perverted the moral sense, andshut up
the heart againstthe enjoyment of God Himself. His characterand His love
please us no more. All the wonders of grace, as wellas the excellencies ofthe
Divine character, whichthe Cross reveals, fallupon us like sunbeams on the
eyes of the dead.
4. The dead have no restorative power. Life, that mysterious,
incomprehensible principle, which, though everpresent with us and filling all
things, eludes researchandbaffles reason, has a wonderful restorative power.
Indeed, life is a sort of miracle, for it reverses, suspends, and modifies most of
the laws of nature. In every plant, in every living creature, you see life
assimilating and incorporating most heterogeneous elements, counteracting
the law of gravity, nullifying the most potent chemical agencies, andresisting
the mechanicallaws. The dead are destitute of all these mysterious powers;
they remain as they are, or they become more and more corrupt. There is no
healing process going onin the dead soul by which, in the course of nature, it
can become pure and healthy and happy in the enjoyment of God.
(W. Graham, D. D.)
The dead man

R. Sibbes, D. D.
I. St. Paul reminds the Ephesians of their former condition. Contraries give
lustre one to another. It magnifies grace marvellously to considerthe opposite
condition. It should also stir up our thankfulness when we consider from what
we are delivered. Now to come to the words themselves. Whatis death? Death
is nothing else but a separationfrom the cause oflife, from that from whence
life springs. The body having a communicatedlife from the soul, when the
soul is departed it must needs be dead. Now death, take it in a spiritual sense,
it is either the death of law, our sentence — as we sayof a man when he is
condemned, he is a dead man — or death in regard of disposition; and then
the executionof that death of sentence in bodily death and in eternaldeath
afterward. Now naturally we are dead in all these senses.
1. First, by the sin of Adam, in whose loins we were, we were all damned. And
then there is corruption of nature as a punishment of that first sin, that is a
death, as we shall see afterward, a death of all the powers;we cannot actand
move according to that life that we had at the first; we cannotthink, we
cannot will, we cannot affect, we cannot do anything [that] savours of spiritual
life.
2. Hereupon comes a death of sentence upon us, being damned both in Adam's
loins and in original sin, and likewise adding actualsins of our own. If we had
no actual sin it were enough for the sentence of death to pass upon us, but this
aggravatesthe sentence.
3. We are dead in law as well as in disposition. This death in law is called guilt,
a binding over to eternal death. Now what is the reasonof it why we are dead?
First of all, the ground of it is; by sin we are separatedfrom the fountain of
life; therefore we are all dead. Secondly, by sin we lost that first original
righteousness whichwas co-producedwith Adam's soul. When Adam's soul
was infused it was clothedwith all graces, with original righteousness. The
stamp of God was on his soul. It was co-naturalto that estate and condition to
have that excellentgracious dispositionthat he had. Now, becausewe all lost
that primitive image and glory of our souls, we are dead. Nay, sin itself, it is
not only a cause ofdeath — of temporal death as it is a curse, and so of eternal
death; of that bitter sentence and adjudging of us too, both that we feel in
terrors of conscienceandexpect after — but sin itself is an intrinsical death.
Why? Because itis nothing but a separationof the soul from the chic! good,
which is God, and a cleaving to some creature; for there is no sin but it carries
the soulto the changeable creature in delight and affectionto its pride and
vanity, one thing or other. Sin is a turning from God to the creature, and that
very turning of the soulis death; every sinful soulis dead. In these and the like

considerations you may conceive we are all dead. Let us considera little what
a condition this is, to be "dead in trespassesand sins." And what doth death
work upon the body?
1. Unactiveness, stiffness;so when the Spirit of God is severedfrom the soul it
is cold, and unactive, and stiff. Therefore those that find no life to that that is
good, no, nor no powernor strength, it is a sign that they have not yet felt the
powerof the quickening Spirit; when they hear coldly and receive the
sacramentcoldly, as if it were a dead piece of work and business;when they
do anything that is spiritually goodcoldly and forced, not from an inward
principle of love to God, that might heat and warm their hearts, but they go
about it as a thing that must be done, and think to satisfy God with an
outward dead action.
2. Again, death makes the body unlovely.
3. Loathsomeness.
4. We severdead persons from the rest.
5. Deathdeprives of the use of the senses. He that is spiritually dead canspeak
nothing that is goodof spiritual things. And as he is speechless, so he hath no
spiritual eyes to see God in His works. There is nothing that we see with our
bodily eyes, but our souls should have an eye to see somewhatof God in it, His
mercy and goodness andpower, etc. And so he hath no relish to taste of God
in His creatures and mercies. When a man tastes ofthe creatures, he should
have a spiritual taste of God and of the mercy in him. Oh, how sweetis God!
A wickedman hath no taste of God. And he cannot hear what the Spirit saith
in the Word. He hears the voice of man, but not of the Spirit when the
trumpet of the Word sounds never so loud in his ears.
6. As there is no sense nor moving to outward things, so no outward thing can
move a dead body. Offer him colours to the eye, food to the taste, or anything
to the feeling, nothing moves him. So a dead soul, as it cannot move to good, so
it is moved with nothing. That affects a child of God and makes him tremble
and quake, it affects not a carnal man at all.
7. And as in bodily death, the longer it is dead, the more noisome and
offensive it is every day more than other, so sin makes the soul more
loathsome and noisome daily, till they have filled up the measure of their sins,
till the earth can bear them no longer.
(R. Sibbes, D. D.)
On spiritual death

R. Hall, M. A.
I. TO WHAT SINS THIS REPRESENTATION IS TO BE APPLIED, AND
TO WHAT DESCRIPTIONOF PERSONS IT BELONGS.
1. The apostle expresslyincludes himself among those whose former state he
had been considering.
2. The same expressionis applied generally to those who never were heathens
(Matthew 8:22).
3. It is the declaredintention of Jesus Christ, by His appearance in our world,
to give life to the world by exhibiting Himself as the Bread of Life. "I am come
that they might have life."
4. True Christians, without any exception, are described as persons who have
"passedfrom death unto life."
II. EXPLAIN THE IMPORT OF THIS REPRESENTATION.
1. It implies a privation, or withdrawment, of a principle, which properly
belongs, and once did belong, to the subject of which it is affirmed. The
withdrawment of God is, with respectto the soul, what the withdrawment of
the soulis in relation to the body. In eachcase the necessaryeffectis death;
and as that which occasionedthat withdrawment is sin, it is very properly
denominated a "death in trespassesand sins." Now this view of the subject
ought surely to fill us with the deepestconcern. Had man never possesseda
principle of Divine life, there would have been less to lament in his condition.
We are less affectedat the considerationofwhat we never had, than by the
loss of advantages whichwe once possessed. We look at a stone, or a piece of
earth, without the leastemotion, because, thoughit be destitute of life, we are
conscious itwas never possessed. But, when we look upon a corpse, it excites
an awful feeling.
2. To be dead in trespasses andsins, intimates the total, the universal
prevalence of corruption. Life admits of innumerable degrees and kinds.
There is one sort of vegetative life, as in plants, anothersubsists in animals,
and in man a rational, which is still a superior principle of life. Where life is of
the same sortit is susceptible of different degrees. It is much more perfect in
the largersorts of animals than in reptiles. The vital principle in different men
exists with various degrees ofvigour, so that some are far more animated,
alert, and vigorous than others. But there are no degrees in death. All things,
of which it canbe truly said that they are dead, are equally dead.
(R. Hall, M. A.)

Standing, yet dead
Henry Varley.
Whilst visiting the beautiful island of Tasmania our attention was often called,
nay, arrested, to huge trees which appear as "bleachedghosts ofa dead
forest." Theystand out in the brilliant moonlight with a weirdness that is
surprising and magnificent. The reasonfor their condition is as follows:On
accountof their greatsize and the heavy costof what is called"grubbing up,"
the settlerleaves them in the ground, but proceeds to cut them round the
trunk at a height of about four feet. The axe cuts through the bark and about
an inch into the tree. The effectis that when the next early spring comes all
the sapexudes from the "gashedwounds," and the monster of the forestdies.
The greatbranches wither, the leaves fall off, the bark strips, and a year or
two suffices to join the army of the upright dead. The farmer can now plough
the ground between, sow his corn, and reap the harvest in the huge
mausoleum of the forest. No sheltering foliage hinders the sun's rays and the
wheatplant thrives and ripens amidst hundreds of towering trees whose only
voice is the silence of the dead. As we lookedupon these dead ones we were
reminded of an experience which comes to many men who are dead also even
while they too are in posture, at least, upright. Hewed round in the trunk of
their robust life, the axe of "the adversary," hews and cuts until the sap, the
rising, spreading, and expanding life, is drained. The spring time in these
goodly trees of promise is followedby the bleach and ghostly death which
comes of the exuding of conscience, honour, strength, and life. Alas, alas!this
living human mausoleum knows no wheatgrowth or harvest at its base. The
malaria of death is there, and the spreading corruption infects other trees
also, and the forestof the dead extends. Welt does the apostle sayof such,
"They waxwanton and are dead while they live."
(Henry Varley.)
Partially quickened
C. H. Spurgeon.
I desire, brethren, for myself and you, that we may be alive all over, for some
professors appearto be more dead than alive; life has only reacheda fraction
of their manhood. Life is in their hearts, blessedbe God for that; but is only
partially in their heads, for they do not study the gospelnor use their brains to
understand its truths. Life has not touched their silent tongues, nor their idle
hands, nor their frost-bitten pockets. Theirhouse is on fire, but it is only at
one corner, and the devil is doing his best to put out the flame. They remind

me of a picture I once saw, in which the artist had laboured to depict Ezekiel's
vision, and the dead bodies in course of resurrection. The bones were coming
together, and flesh gradually clothing them, and he represents one body in
which the head is perfectly formed, but the body is a skeleton, while in
another place the body is well covered, but the arms and legs remain bare
bones. Some Christians, I say, are much in the same state.
(C. H. Spurgeon.)
Christ quickens the morally dead
RowlandHill, M. A.
I remember once conversing with a celebratedsculptor, who had been hewing
out a block of marble to representone of our greatpatriots — Lord Chatham.
"There," saidhe, "is not that a fine form?" "Now, sir," saidI, "canyou put
life into it: Else, with all its beauty, it is still but a block of marble." Christ, by
His Spirit, puts life into a beauteous image, and enables the man He forms to
live to His praise and glory.
(RowlandHill, M. A.)
The nature and universality of spiritual death
PresidentDavies, M. A.
To explain the context and show you the connection, I shall make two short
remarks. The one is, That the apostle had observedin the nineteenth and
twentieth verses of the foregoing chapterthat the same almighty powerof
God, which raisedChrist from the dead, is exerted to enable a sinner to
believe. The same exertion of the same power is necessaryin the one case and
the other; because, as the body of Christ was dead, and had no principle of life
in it, so, says He, ye were dead in trespassesand sins; and therefore could no
more quicken yourselves than a dead body can restore itselfto life. Deathis a
state of insensibility and inactivity, and a dead man is incapable of restoring
himself to life; therefore the condition of an unconverted sinner must have
some resemblance to such a state, in order to support the bold metaphor here
used by the apostle. To understand it aright we must take care, on the one
hand that we do not explain it awayin flattery to ourselves, orin compliment
to the pride of human nature; and, on the other hand, that we do not carry the
similitude too far, so, as to lead into absurdities, and contradictmatter of fact.
A sinner dead in trespassesandsins may be a living treasury of knowledge, an
universal scholar, a profound philosopher, and even a greatdivine, as far as

mere speculative knowledge canrender him such; nay, he is capable of many
sensations andimpressions from religious objects, and of performing all the
external duties of religion. Trespassesand sins are the grave, the corrupt
effluvia, the malignant damps, the rottenness ofa dead soul: it lies dead,
senseless,inactive, buried in trespassesand sins. Trespassesand sins render it
ghastly, odious, abominable, a noisome putrefaction before a holy God, like a
rotten carcase,ora mere mass of corruption: the Vilest lusts, like worms, riot
upon and devour it, but it feels them not, nor can it lift a hand to drive the
venom off. You have seenthat the metaphoricalexpressionin my text is
intended to represent the stupidity, inactivity, and impotence of unregenerate
sinners about divine things. This truth I might confirm by argument and
Scripture authority; but I think it may be a better method for popular
conviction to prove and illustrate it from plain instances of the temper and
conduct of sinners about the concerns ofreligion, as this may force the
conviction upon them from undoubted matters of fact and their own
experience.
I. Considerthe excellencyof the Divine Being, the sum total, the great
Original of all perfections. How infinitely worthy is He of the adorationof all
His creatures!how deserving of their most intense thoughts and most ardent
affections!Yet how insensible are we and all men to His perfections and
majesty. The sun, moon, and stars have bad more worshippers than the
uncreated Fountain of Light from which they derive their lustre. Kings and
ministers of state have more punctual homage and more frequent applications
made to them than the King of kings and Lord of lords. Createdenjoyments
are more eagerlypursued than the Supreme Good. Searchall the world over,
and you will find but very little motions of heart towards God; little love, little
desire, little searching afterHim. The reasonis, men are dead in trespasses
and sins.
II. The augustand endearing relations the great and blessedGod. sustains to
us, and the many ways He has takento make dutiful and grateful impressions
upon our hearts. What tender endearments are there containedin the relation
of a Father! Now the name of a father is wont to carry some endearment and
authority. Children, especiallyin their young and helpless years, are fond of
their father; their little hearts beat with a thousand grateful passions towards
him; and they fly to him upon every appearance ofdanger: but if God be a
father, where is His honour? here, alas!the filial passions are senseless and
immoveable. And is not a state of death a very proper representationof such
sullen, incorrigible stupidity? Living souls have very tender sensations;one

touch of their heavenly Father's hand makes deep impressions upon them.
Concluding reflections:
1. What a strange, affecting view does this subject give us of this assembly!
2. Awake thou that sleepest, andarise from the dead, that Christ may give
thee light. The principle of reasonis still alive in you; you are also sensible of
your own interest, and feel the workings of self-love. It is God alone that can
quicken you, but He effects this by a power that does not exclude, but attends
rational instructions and persuasions to your understanding.
3. Let the children of God be sensible of their greathappiness in being made
spiritually alive. Life is a principle, a capacitynecessaryfor enjoyments of any
kind.
4. Let us all be sensible of this important truth, that it is entirely by grace we
are saved. If we were once dead in sin, certainly it is owing to the freestgrace
that we have been quickened; therefore, when we survey the change, let us
cry, "Grace, graceunto it."
(President Davies, M. A.)
Dead
J. Eadie, D. D.
The epithet implies —
1. Previous life. Deathis but the cessationoflife. The spirit of life fled from
Adam's disobedient heart, and it died, for it was severedfrom God.
2. It implies insensibility. The dead, which are as insusceptible as their
kindred clay, can be neither wooednor won back to existence. The beauties of
holiness do not attract man in his spiritual insensibility, nor do the miseries of
hell deter him.
3. It implies inability. The corpse cannotraise itself from the tomb and come
back to the scenes andsocietyof the living world. The pealof the last trump
alone can start it from its dark and dreamless sleep. Inability characterizes
fallen man. And this is not natural but moral inability, such inability as not
only is no palliation, but oven forms the very aggravationofhis crime. It is
inability not of mind but of will. He cannot, simply because he will not, and
therefore he is justly responsible.
(J. Eadie, D. D.)

Quickening grace
James Fergusson.
Hence learn —
1. It is not sufficient that the servants of Jesus Christdo only preach
privileges, and hold forth unto believers that happy estate unto which they are
lifted up through Christ; it is necessaryalso that jointly herewith they be
calling them to mind their woeful, miserable, and lost estate by nature: for the
apostle, in the preceding chapter, having spokenmuch of those high privileges
unto which the Ephesians were advancedby Christ, he doth here mind them
of that miserable state wherein Godfound them; "And you who were dead in
trespassesandsins."
2. There is nothing contributeth more to commend the doctrine of free grace
to people's consciences,and so to commend it as to make them closelyadhere
unto it, both in possessionandpractice, than the serious perpending of man's
woeful and altogetherhopeless estate by nature: this alone would do much to
scatterall that mist whereby human reasondoth obscure the beauty of this
truth, by extolling man's free will as a co-workerwith grace (Romans 3:19,
20).
3. Believers in Jesus Christ are not to look upon their lost and miserable estate
by nature separately, and apart from, but jointly with God's free grace and
mercy, which hath delivered them from that misery; for otherwise the
thoughts of sin and misery may, if God should give way, swallow them up
(Matthew 27:4, 5). Hence is it the apostle hath so contrived his discourse here,
that all along, while he speakethoftheir misery in the first three verses, the
mind of the reader is kept in suspense without coming to the perfectclose ofa
sentence, until God's mercy in their delivery from this misery be mentioned
(ver. 5); for the original hath not these words, "He hath quickened," in this
verse:but the translators have taken them from ver. 5, to make up the sense,
without suspending the reader so long until he should find them in their own
proper place, "And you who were dead," etc.
4. Every man by nature, and before conversion, is dead, not to sin (for that is
proper to the regenerate only; see Romans 6:2, where the grammatical
constructionis the same in the original with that which is here; only the sense
is much different), but in sin, whereby he is wholly deprived of all ability and
powerto convert himself (Romans 9:16), or to do anything which is spiritually
good(Romans 8:7).
(James Fergusson.)

Deadsouls
R. Sibbes, D. D.
When there is an estrangementof the soul from the Spirit of God and Christ,
sanctifying, and comforting, and cheering it, then there is a death of the soul.
The soul canno more actanything that is savingly and holily good, than the
body can be without the soul. And as the body without the soul is a noisome,
odious carcass,offensive in the eyes of its dearestfriends, so the soul, without
the Spirit of Christ quickening and seasoning it, and putting a comeliness and
beauty upon it, is odious. All the clothes and flowers you put on a dead body
cannot make it but a stinking carcass;so all the moral virtues, and all the
honours in this world, put upon a man out of Christ, it makes him not a
spiritual living soul; he is but a loathsome carrion, a dead carcass,in the sight
of God and of all that have the Spirit of God. For he is under death. He is
stark and stiff, unable to stir or move to any duty whatsoever. He has no sense
nor motion. Though such men live a common natural civil life, and walk up
and down, yet they are dead men to God and to a better life. The world is full
el dead men, that are dead while they are alive, as St. Paul speaks ofthe
"widow that lives in pleasures" (1 Timothy 5:6). A fearful estate, if we had
spiritual eyes to see it and think of it.
(R. Sibbes, D. D.)
Sin is the death of the soul
R. South, D. D.
Sin disengages the love of God to the creature, because itrenders the creature
useless as to the end for which it was designed. Things, whose essenceand
being stand in relation to such an end, have their virtue and value from their
fitness to attain it. Everything is ennobled from its use, and debasedas far as
it is useless. As long as a man continues an instrument of God's glory, so long
his title to life and happiness stands sure, and no longer. But now, sin in
Scripture, and in God's account, is the death of the soul. "We were dead in
trespassesandsins." Now death makes a thing utterly useless,becauseit
renders it totally inactive; and in things that are naturally active, that which
deprives them of their action bereaves them of their use. The soul, by reason
of sin, is unable to act spiritually; for sin has disordered the soul, and turned
the force and edge of all its operations againstGod; so that now it can bring
no glory to God by doing, but only by suffering, and being made miserable. It

is now unfit to obey His commands, and fit only to endure His strokes. It is
incapable by any active communion or converse with Him to enjoy His love,
and a proper object only to bear His angerand revenge. We may take the case
in this similitude. A physician has a servant; while this servant lives honestly
with him, he is fit to be used and to be employed in his occasions;but if this
servant should commit a felony, and for that be condemned, he canthen be
actively serviceable to him no longer; he is fit only for him to dissect, and
make an objectupon which to show the experiments of his skill. So while man
was yet innocent he was fit to be used by God in a way of active obedience;but
now having sinned, and being sentencedby the law to death as a malefactor,
he is a fit matter only for God to torment and show the wonders of His
vindictive justice.
(R. South, D. D.)
Spiritual insensibility
R. J. McGhee, M. A.
Announce to a man who believes himself possessedofan enormous capital
that bankruptcy and beggaryawaithim; tell a prisoner who hopes for certain
deliverance that the sentence of death is passedon him, and he may expectthe
summons of the executioner;inform a man who thinks he has got but a slight
disease, thatit is the symptom of a fatal plague, and advise him to prepare for
death; thunder at a man's door, and shout that the house is on fire, and bid
him escape forhis life — and surely nothing but that men had sunk in death
before these tidings reachedtheir ears, could prevent their being suitably
affectedby them. But men canhear of the judgments and the wrath of God as
though they heard them not; such announcements are like those of the
destruction of Sodom by Lot, "He seemedas one that mockedunto his sons-
in-law," or like the language of unbelieving Israelto the prophet, when he
proclaimed the fearful judgments to come, "Ah, Lord God! they sayof me,
doth he not speak parables?"
(R. J. McGhee, M. A.)
The solemnity of death
C. H. Spurgeon.
What a solemn sight is presented to us by a dead body! When last evening
trying to realize the thought, it utterly overcame me. The thought is
overwhelming, that soonthis body of mine must be a carnival for worms; that

in and out of these places, where my eyes are glistening, foul things, the
offspring of loathsomeness,shallcrawl; that this body must be stretchedin
still, cold, abject, passive death, must then become a noxious, nauseous thing,
castout even by those that loved me, who will say, "Bury my dead out of my
sight." Perhaps you can scarcely, in the moment I can afford you, appropriate
the idea to yourselves. Doesit not seema strange thing, that you, who have
walkedto this place this morning, shall be carried to your graves;that the
eyes with which you now. behold me shall soonbe glazed in everlasting
darkness;that the tongues, which just now moved in song, shall soonbe silent,
lumps of clay; and that your strong and stalwartframe, now standing in this
place, will soonbe unable to move a muscle, and become a loathsome thing,
the brother of the worm and the sisterof corruption? You can scarcelyget
hold of the idea; death doth such awful work with us, it is such a Vandal with
this mortal fabric, it so rendeth to pieces this fair thing that God hath builded
up, that we can scarcelybearto contemplate his works of ruin.
(C. H. Spurgeon.)
All are dead by nature
C. H. Spurgeon.
Now, endeavour, as well as you can, to getthe idea of a dead corpse, and when
you have so done, please to understand that that is the metaphor employed in
my text to setforth the condition of your soul by nature. Just as the body is
dead, incapable, unable, unfeeling, and soonabout to become corrupt and
putrid; so are we, if we be unquickened by Divine grace, deadin trespasses
and sins, having within us death, which is capable of developing itself in worse
and worse stagesofsin and wickedness, until all of us here, left by God's
grace, should become loathsome beings:loathsome through sin and
wickedness, evenas the corpse through natural decay. Understand, that the
doctrine of the Holy Scripture. is, that man by nature, since the Fall, is dead;
he is a corrupt and ruined thing; in a spiritual sense, utterly and entirely
dead. And if any of us shall come to spiritual life, it must be by the quickening
of God's Spirit, vouchsafedto us sovereignlythrough the goodwillof God the
Father, not for any merits of our own, but entirely of His own abounding and
infinite grace.
(C. H. Spurgeon.)
Man dead in trespassesand sins

One Sunday FatherTaylor preachedupon the Atonement. His text was,
"Deadin trespasses andsins." "Dead!" he exclaimed; "not only dead, but
buried; and you can't get out! A big boulder lays on the main hatch, keeping it
down over your heads. You may go to work with all your purchases — bars,
handspikes, winch, and double tackles;but you can't make it budge an inch.
But hark! who is it that has the watch on deck!Jesus Christ. Now, sing out to
Him, and Sing out loud. Ah! He hears you; and He claps His shoulder against
this rock of sin, cants it off the hatch, the bars fly open, and out you come."
Image of the unregenerate
Sir James Simpson.
The unregenerate man may be said to be made up of two parts — a living
body and a dead soul. In states ofdisease and injury we sometimes find
something analogous,in one part of the body being full of life, and another
part of it palsied and dead. I have seena person after injury of the lowerpart
of the neck surviving for a time; the head perfectly alive and well, but the
body and limbs perfectly motionless. In the lastfatal duel fought near
Edinburgh a bullet struck the spine of the challenger. I have often heard this
unhappy man's physician tell that when he first visited him, some hours
afterwards, and askedhim how he felt, "I feel," he replied, "exactlywhat I
am — a man with a living head and a dead body mysteriously joined
together." Everyunbelieving man consists of a dead soulmysteriously joined
to a living body.
(Sir James Simpson.)
A dead soul
H. G. Salter.
As a dead man cannot inherit an estate, no more cana dead soul inherit the
kingdom of God.
(H. G. Salter.)
Care for souls
Legend of St. John.
When on a visit to a city in the neighbourhood of Ephesus, St. John
commended to the care of the bishop a young man of fine stature, graceful

countenance, and ardent mind, as suited to the work of the ministry. The
bishop neglectedhis charge. The young man became idle and dissolute, and
was at length prevailed on to join a band of robbers, such as commonly had
their strongholds in the neighborhood of ancient Greek cities. He soonbecame
their captain, and attained to notoriety in crime. Long after St. John entered
the city again, and inquired for the young man. "He is dead," said the bishop,
"deadto God." Having ascertainedthe particulars, the apostle exclaimed, "I
left a fine keeperof a brother's soul!" then, mounting a horse, he rode into the
country, and was takenprisoner. He attempted not to flee, but said, "Forthis
purpose am I come, conductme to your captain." He entered the presence of
the armed bandit, who, recognizing the apostle, attempted to escape. "Why
dost thou flee, my son," saidhe, "from thy father — thy defenceless, aged
father? Fearnot, thou still hast hopes of life. I will pray to Christ for thee. I
will suffer death for thee. I will give my life for thine. Believe that Christ hath
sent me." The young man was subdued, fell into the apostle's arms, prayed
with many tears, became perfectly reformed, and returned to the communion
of the Church.
(Legend of St. John.)
Spiritual death and life
W. Mackenzie, M. Grigor.
I. THE ORIGINAL CONDITION OF THE EPHESIANS. They were deaden
trespassesandsins. The two words, "trespasses andsins," have almost the
same meaning. They imply the breaking, not keeping, oroffending againstthe
moral law of God. The negative symptoms of spiritual death are —
1. The want of spiritual perception. As a dead body has not the five bodily
senses,so a dead soul has not the spiritual senses. It neither sees nor hears,
nor tastes, norperceives the perfume, nor feels the reality of the spiritual
world. The glory of God shineth forth in the gospelof Christ, but dead souls
are blind and cannotsee it (2 Corinthians 4:3-4). God speakethby His
providence and by His inspired word in loudest tones of reproof, admonition,
invitation, and love, warning, and terror; but the dead soul is deaf, like the
adder that heareth not the voice of the charmer, charm he never so sweetly.
The dead soul cannottaste and see that God is gracious.
2. No spiritual understanding. "There is none that understandeth." "The
natural man receivethnot the things of the Spirit of God, for they are
foolishness to him; neither canhe know them because they are spiritually
discerned" (Romans 3:2).

3. Want of spiritual desires. "Departfrom us, we desire not knowledge ofThy
ways." "There is none that understandeth, there is none that seekethafter
God."
4. The dead soulhas no spiritual strength. The natural man is, in spiritual
exertion, absolutelyhelpless and powerless.
5. The dead soulhas no capacity of spiritual enjoyment. Dead in trespasses
and sins, it can have no true or permanent happiness.Having thus enumerated
five qualities in which the spiritually dead soul is deficient, we may now
mention those which such a soulhas.
1. It has entire corruption and depravity.
2. From entire depravity proceeds the secondpositive quality in the dead soul
— it is constantlycommitting actual sin.
3. A third property of a spiritually dead soul is, that it is under the wrath and
curse of God (Galatians 3:8).
4. The fourth and lastproperty which we shall mention is, that the soul in this
state is deserving of and prepared for eternal death. "The soul that sinneth
shall die" is the unchangeable wordof the inflexibly just God. "The wages of
sin is death."
II. THE CHANGE WHICH THE EPHESIANS UNDERWENT, SO AS TO
BRING THEM INTO THE STATE IN WHICH THEY WERE WHEN THE
APOSTLE TRANSMITTED TO THEIR CHURCH THIS EPISTLE — "You
hath He quickened." Under this head we might direct your attention to the
five following particulars: The nature, author, qualities, effects, and subjects
of this change.
1. As to the nature of this change. It was to the souls of the Ephesians what the
resurrectionof Lazarus was to his body, the actual communication of life to
what was previously dead.
2. Who was the author of this mighty transformation? Notthe apostle;he
utterly disclaims the power, as well as the honour, of effecting it (1
Corinthians 3:5-6). Not the Ephesians themselves. Canthe dead quicken the
dead? "You hath He quickened."
3. As to the qualities of this change. If our time permitted, we might describe
it as being supernatural in its origin, nature, and effects;immediate, abiding
(1 John 2:19), saving, transforming, and a most glorious and happy change,
giving glory to God, and conferring happiness on men.

4. The effects of this change of being quickened from spiritual death were two-
fold — inestimable privilege and holy fruit.
5. The subjects of this change. "You hath He quickened, who were dead in
trespassesandsins."
III. LET US NOW ENDEAVOUR TO APPLY TO OUR OWN USE WHAT
WE HAVE LEARNED RESPECTING THE EPHESIANS. Should anyone be
saying, "I greatly fear that I am dead, but oh that I knew how I may be
quickened!" Be of goodcourage, my brother, and despair not, for the mercy
of God is unsearchable, and may reacheven to you. If anyone in this assembly
be quickened from his death in sins, to him I would say, You have been
quickened in order that God in Christ may be glorified in you and by you.
You are a monument of the marvellous grace ofGod, therefore glorify the
grace ofGod by ascribing your salvationto sovereigngrace as its origin,
depending on efficacious graceas its means, and living to the praise of
redeeming grace as its end.
(W. Mackenzie,)
I. In the first three verses THE STATE AND CHARACTER OF THE
EPHESIANS BEFORETHEIR CONVERSIONIS DESCRIBED. As to their
state, they "were deadin trespassesand sins." This death may be viewed as
two-fold, namely, legaland spiritual. The former consistedin the condemning
sentence ofthe Divine law, under which they lay, as its transgressors;the
latter consistedin the moral pollution of their natures, in consequence of
which they were utterly incapable of any holy obedience to God. As to their
character, orexternal deportment, the Ephesians are describedin verses
secondand third, They "walkedin sins." The term "walk" is expressive of a
regular habitual course. Theirwhole life was sin. The sinful life which the
Ephesians led was more particularly distinguished by conformity to the world,
and compliance with the devil. They walkedin sins "according to the course
of this world," "according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that
now workethin the children of disobedience."
II. We come, secondly, to considerTHE GREAT CHANGE WHICH HAD
TAKEN PLACE IN THE WRETCHED CONDITIONOF THE EPHESIANS
THROUGH DIVINE GRACE.
1. This blessedchange is explained in verses 1, 4, 5, and 6. In verse 1 we are
informed in what the change consisted"Youhath He quickened." To quicken
is to implant holy principles in the soul, so that it becomes alive to Godand
righteousness.

2. We have next the author of this gracious change, in verses 4 and 5 — "But
God, who is rich in mercy, for His greatlove wherewith He loved us, even
when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us togetherwith Christ (by grace
ye are saved)." To quicken dead souls is a Divine work, as much so as is the
resuscitationof a dead body to life. The new birth is as far above the effort of
nature as the rearing of a world.
3. We have next the formal or meritorious cause ofthis change — "He hath
quickened us togetherwith Christ" (verse 4). Christ was quickenedby the
mighty powerof God when He rose from the dead; end His resurrectionwas
the Father's testimony to the perfectionand acceptanceofthat glorious work,
which is the foundation of all the grace which flows from heaven to poor
sinners.
4. "And hath made us sit togetherin heavenly places in Christ Jesus."Jesus
not only rose from the dead, to which His people are conformed in
regeneration, but also ascendedinto heaven, and "satdown at the right hand
of the throne of God";and this He did as the Head, so that in Him His people
satdown in heavenly places;and His exaltation there is the assurance that
they shall personally appearin heaven, and share in the glory the Father hath
bestowedon Him.
5. We have, finally, the moving cause ofthe grace shownto the Ephesians, in
verse 4 — "But God, who is rich in mercy," etc. The cause ofthe grace
manifested to Jews and Gentiles lay in God alone, not in any measure in them.
It was love residing in the bosomof the Eternal Himself which moved Him to
quicken these wretchedsinners.
III. We come, thirdly and lastly, to THE ULTIMATE OBJECTOF GOD'S
GRACE TO SINNERS OF THE JEWS AND GENTILES. It is mentioned in
the seventhverse — "that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding
riches of His grace in His kindness towardus through Christ Jesus." This was
a noble end, in all respects worthy of our gracious God. These pooridolaters,
quickened to a heavenly and endless life, are patterns of Divine grace to every
age, and to every sinner of every age, till time has run its course. Let me
shortly improve this subject by urging on you the lessons it inculcates. Learn,
first, from this subject, the guilt and wretchedness ofour spiritual condition
by nature. We learn, secondly, from this subject, how greatis the grace of
God in Christ Jesus.
(M. Grigor.)
COMMENTARIES

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers
(1) And you hath he quickened.—And you also. St. Paul here begins the
particular applicationto the Ephesians, which is the main subject of this
chapter, brokenoff in Ephesians 2:3-10, and resumed in Ephesians 2:11. The
words “hath He quickened” (or, properly, did He quicken) are supplied here
from Ephesians 2:5—rightly, as expressing the true sense and tending to
greaterclearness, but perhaps not necessarily.
Trespassesand sins.—These two words, more often used separately, are here
brought together, to form a climax. The word rendered “trespass” signifies a
“swerving aside and falling”; the word rendered “sins” is generallyused by
St. Paul in the singular to denote “sin” in the abstract, and signifies an entire
“missing of the mark” of life. Hence, even in the plural, it denotes universal
and positive principles of evil doing, while “trespass”ratherpoints to failure
in visible and specialacts ofthose not necessarilyout of the right way.
BensonCommentary
Ephesians 2:1-2. And you, &c. — In the nineteenth and twentieth verses of the
preceding chapter, the apostle had spokenof God’s working in the believers at
Ephesus, in order to their conversion, and resurrectionfrom spiritual death to
spiritual life, by the same almighty powerwhereby he raisedChrist from the
dead. On the mention of this he runs on, in the fulness of his heart, into a flow
of thought concerning the glory of Christ’s exaltation, in the three following
verses. He here resumes the thread of his discourse. You hath he quickened —
Or, (as these words are not in the original,) if we connectthis verse with the
last clause ofthe preceding chapter, we may read, you hath he filled, namely,
with his gifts and graces, andthereby hath made you alive to himself; who
were dead — Not only diseased, but dead; absolutelydevoid of all spiritual
life, and as incapable of quickening yourselves, as persons literally dead are of
restoring their bodies to life. In this sense Locke paraphrases the words:“Ye
were so entirely under the power of sin, that ye had no more power, nor hope,
nor ability, to get out of it, than men dead and buried have to getout of their
graves.” The truth is, unawakened, impenitent, and unbelieving sinners, are
dead in three respects;1st, They are under condemnation, on accountof their
past depravity and various transgressions, to the seconddeath, or to future
wrath and punishment, like criminals under sentence of death for their
crimes. 2d, They are destitute of all union with God, and in a state of
separationfrom him, and alienation from his life, chap. Ephesians 4:18;

Colossians 1:21. 3d, They are carnally minded; that is, their thoughts and
affections are setupon visible and temporal things, which is spiritual death,
(Romans 8:6,) implying deadness or aversionto spiritual and divine things. In
trespassesandsins — Sins seemto be spokenchiefly of the Gentiles who knew
not God; trespasses ofthe Jews, who had his law, and yet regardedit not. Or
the expressions maybe used indiscriminately, without any such distinction
being intended; for all trespassesare sins, and all sins are trespasses,properly
speaking. Whereinin time past ye walked— Περιεπατησατε, ye walked
about, or walkedcontinually. For, as Grotius observes, the word significat
consuetudinem, implies custom, or habit. According to the course of this
world — Κατα τον αιωνα, according to the age, orthe common usage ofthe
age in which you lived, and to those corrupt principles and practices which
prevailed around you. The word above mentioned, translated course, properly
means along series oftimes, wherein one corrupt age follows another. The
prince of the power of the air — “That wickedspirit, who commands the
legions of fallen angels, that by divine permission range in the air, and fly
from place to place, in pursuit of their pernicious purpose of corrupting and
destroying mankind.” So Dr. Doddridge, who observes, “This refers to a
Jewishtradition, that the air is inhabited by evil spirits, a notion which the
apostle seems to approve.” Macknight’s interpretation of the passageis nearly
the same, as follows:“Power, being here put for those who exercise power, (as
it is likewise chap. Ephesians 1:21, and Colossians 2:10,)signifies those
powerful evil spirits, whose confinement [mentioned by Jude, Ephesians 2:6]
is not of such a nature as to hinder them from going to and fro on the earth.
And therefore, being irreconcilable enemies of God and goodness, theyuse the
liberty grantedto them in opposing God, and in ruining men by their
temptations, 1 Peter5:8. And that they may do this the more effectually, they
have ranged themselves under the direction of one chief, here called their
prince; but in other passagesSatan, and the devil. Perhaps also he is called
their prince, because he instigated them to rebel againstGod, and was their
leaderin that rebellion. See 1 John 5:19.” To these quotations we may add,
with Bengelius, “A powerthis the effect of which all may perceive, though all
do not understand the cause ofit; a power unspeakablypenetrating and
widely diffused, but yet, as to its baleful influences, beneath the orb of
believers.” The spirit that now worketh— Ενεργουντος, workethinwardly
with energy. So he did, and so he doth work in all ages;in the children of
disobedience — In all that disbelieve and disobeythe gospel.
Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

2:1-10 Sin is the death of the soul. A man dead in trespasses andsins has no
desire for spiritual pleasures. Whenwe look upon a corpse, it gives an awful
feeling. A never-dying spirit is now fled, and has left nothing but the ruins of a
man. But if we viewed things aright, we should be far more affectedby the
thought of a dead soul, a lost, fallen spirit. A state of sin is a state of
conformity to this world. Wickedmen are slaves to Satan. Satanis the author
of that proud, carnal disposition which there is in ungodly men; he rules in the
hearts of men. From Scripture it is clear, that whether men have been most
prone to sensualor to spiritual wickedness, allmen, being naturally children
of disobedience, are also by nature children of wrath. What reasonhave
sinners, then, to seek earnestlyfor that grace whichwill make them, of
children of wrath, children of God and heirs of glory! God's eternal love or
good-willtoward his creatures, is the fountain whence all his mercies flow to
us; and that love of God is greatlove, and that mercy is rich mercy. And every
convertedsinner is a savedsinner; delivered from sin and wrath. The grace
that saves is the free, undeserved goodness andfavour of God; and he saves,
not by the works ofthe law, but through faith in Christ Jesus. Gracein the
soul is a new life in the soul. A regeneratedsinnerbecomes a living soul; he
lives a life of holiness, being born of God: he lives, being delivered from the
guilt of sin, by pardoning and justifying grace. Sinners roll themselves in the
dust; sanctified souls sit in heavenly places, are raisedabove this world, by
Christ's grace. The goodnessofGod in converting and saving sinners
heretofore, encouragesothers in after-time, to hope in his grace and mercy.
Our faith, our conversion, and our eternal salvation, are not of works, lestany
man should boast. These things are not brought to pass by any thing done by
us, therefore all boasting is shut out. All is the free gift of God, and the effect
of being quickened by his power. It was his purpose, to which he prepared us,
by blessing us with the knowledge ofhis will, and his Holy Spirit producing
such a change in us, that we should glorify God by our goodconversation, and
perseverance in holiness. None canfrom Scripture abuse this doctrine, or
accuse it of any tendency to evil. All who do so, are without excuse.
Barnes'Notes on the Bible
And you hath he quickened - The words "hath he quickened," or"made to
live," are supplied, but not improperly, by our translators. The object of the
apostle is to show the great powerwhich God had evinced toward the people
Ephesians 1:19; and to show that this was put forth in connectionwith the
resurrectionof the Lord Jesus, and his exaltation to the right hand of God in
heaven; see the notes at Romans 6:4-11; compare Colossians2:12-13;

Colossians 3:1. The words "hath he quickened" mean, hath he made alive, or
made to live; John 5:21; Romans 4:17; 1 Corinthians 15:36.
Who were dead in trespassesand sins - On the meaning of the word "dead,"
see the notes at Romans 5:12; Romans 6:2, note. It is affirmed here of those to
whom Paul wrote at Ephesus, that before they were converted, they were
"deadin sins." There is not anywhere a more explicit proof of depravity than
this, and no strongerlanguage canbe used. They were "dead" in relation to
that to which they afterward became alive - i. e., to holiness. Of course, this
does not mean that they were in all respects dead. It does not mean that they
had no animal life, or that they did not breathe, and walk, and act. Nor can it
mean that they had no living intellect or mental powers, which would not have
been true. Nordoes it settle any question as to their ability or powerwhile in
that state. It simply affirms a fact - that in relation to real spiritual life they
were, in consequence ofsin, like a dead man in regardto the objects which are
around him.
A corpse is insensible. It sees not, and hears not, and feels not. The sound of
music, and the voice of friendship and of alarm, do not arouse it. The rose and
the lily breathe forth their fragrance around it, but the corpse perceives it not.
The world is busy and active around it, but it is unconscious ofit all. It sees no
beauty in the landscape;hears not the voice of a friend; looks notupon the
glorious sun and stars; and is unaffectedby the running stream and the
rolling ocean. So with the sinner in regard to the spiritual and eternal world.
He sees no beauty in religion; he hears not the call of God; he is unaffected by
the dying love of the Saviour; and he has no interest in eternal realities. In all
these he feels no more concern, and sees no more beauty, than a dead man
does in the world around him. Such is, in "fact," the condition of a sinful
world. There is, indeed, life, and energy, and motion. There are vast plans and
projects, and the world is intensely active. But in regardto religion, all is
dead. The sinner sees no beauty there; and no human power canarouse him
to act for God, anymore than human powercan rouse the sleeping dead, or
open the sightless eyeballs on the light of day. The same power is neededin the
conversionof a sinner which is needed in raising the dead; and one and the
other alike demonstrate the omnipotence of him who can do it.
Jamieson-Fausset-BrownBible Commentary
CHAPTER 2
Eph 2:1-22. God's Love and Grace in Quickening Us, Once Dead, through
Christ. His Purpose in Doing So:Exhortation Basedon Our Privileges as Built
Together, anHoly Temple, in Christ, through the Spirit.

1. And you—"You also," among those who have experiencedHis mighty
powerin enabling them to believe (Eph 1:19-23).
hath he quickened—supplied from the Greek (Eph 2:5).
dead—spiritually. (Col 2:13). A living corpse:without the gracious presence
of God's Spirit in the soul, and so unable to think, will, or do aught that is
holy.
in trespasses… sins—in them, as the element in which the unbeliever is, and
through which he is dead to the true life. Sin is the death of the soul. Isa 9:2;
Joh 5:25, "dead" (spiritually), 1Ti 5:6. "Alienated from the life of God" (Eph
4:18). Translate, as Greek, "inyour trespasses," &c. "Trespass"in Greek,
expresses a FALL or LAPSE, such as the transgressionofAdam whereby he
fell. "Sin." (Greek, "hamartia")implies innate corruption and ALIENATION
from God (literally, erring of the mind from the rule of truth), exhibited in
acts of sin (Greek, "hamartemata"). Bengel, refers "trespasses"to the Jews
who had the law, and yet revolted from it; "sins," to the Gentiles who know
not God.Ephesians 2:1-3 Paulsetteth before the Ephesians their former
corrupt heathen state,
Ephesians 2:4-7 and God’s rich mercy in their deliverance.
Ephesians 2:8-10 We are saved by grace, notof works, yetso as to be
createdin Christ unto goodworks.
Ephesians 2:11-18 They who were once strangers, and far from God, are
now brought near by Christ’s blood; who having
abolishedthe ritual law, the ground of distinction
betweenJew and Gentile, hath united both in one

body, and gainedthem equal accessto the Father.
Ephesians 2:19-22 So that the Gentiles are henceforth equally privileged
with the Jews, andtogetherwith them constitute a holy
temple for the habitation of God’s Spirit.
And you hath he quickened; his verb quickened is not in the Greek, but the
defectof it may be supplied from Ephesians 1:19, thus: The greatness ofhis
powerto us-ward, and to you that were dead in trespassesand sins; the
remaining part of that chapterbeing included in a parenthesis, which, though
long, yet is not unusual. Or rather, as our translators and others do, from
Ephesians 2:5 of this chapter, where we have the word quickened. It imports a
restoring of spiritual life by the infusion of a vital principle, (in the work of
regeneration), wherebymen are enabled to walk with God in newness oflife.
Who were dead; piritually, not naturally; i.e. destitute of a principle of
spiritual life, and so of any ability for, or disposedness to, the operations and
motions of such a life.
In trespassesand sins:he preposition in is wanting in the Greek by an ellipsis,
but the expressionis full, Colossians2:13;this dative case therefore is to be
takenin the sense ofthe ablative. By these words he means either all sorts of
sins, habitual and actual, less or greater;or rather, promiscuously and
indifferently, the same thing severalways. expressed. Sinis the cause of
spiritual death; where sin reigns, there is a privation of spiritual life.
Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible
And you hath he quickened,.... The designof the apostle in this and some
following verses, is to show the exceeding sinfulness of sin, and to setforth the
sad estate and condition of man by nature, and to magnify the riches of the
grace ofGod, and representthe exceeding greatnessofhis power in
conversion:the phrase
hath he quickened, is not in the original text, but is supplied from Ephesians
2:5, where it will be met with and explained: here those who are quickened

Jesus was the quickener

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