Before conversion, man lives a life of death. Apostle Paul wrote:“ And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins” (Eph 2:1). How can a man be living and yet dead? To answer this question, we must understand what death means. The basic meaning of death (Greek: “nekros”) is separation. Death never means extinction, annihilation, non-existence or inactivity. Death simply means that a person is separated, either separated from his body or from God or from both. I believe death in Ephesians 2:1 refers to the separation of a person from the purpose or use for which he was intended.

Man was created to know God, to fellowship with Him, worship Him and serve Him; but man does not do it, simply because he cannot do it. We know why. Because of sin. Now, if man worships at all, it is not really because he knows how to worship God. He is simply worshipping his own ideas and concepts of God, according to his own imagination and expectation. In other words, he creates a god to suit his own notions. He worships the god of his choice and wish. It is a customized god. The point is this: man does not fulfill God’s purpose on earth, nor the purpose for which he was created. He has little if anything to do with the one living and true God. For he is separated from God and dead to Him.

There are three different kinds of death.

1. Physical Death is the separation of a man’s spirit from his physical body. This is what man commonly calls death. It is when a person ceases to live on this earth and his body is laid to rest or burnt into ashes. When the body dies, the soul will also leave the body. And what is left behind is a dead body. The body without the soul is dead. All will experience this physical death. And it has no respect of persons. Whether you are young or old. Whether you are rich or poor. Whether you are male or female. Whether you are good or evil. All men, literally all men, will end up in this death, either by sickness, murder, accident, old age, etc.

2. Spiritual Death is the separation of a man from God while he is still living and walking upon the earth. This is the natural state of a man on earth without Jesus Christ. Man is seen as still in his sins and is dead to God. A person may walk in life without God and Christ, rejecting, rebelling and cursing God. The man is spiritually separated from God; he is dead to God. A person may also walk in life as a religious person, worshipping a god of his own imagination and thoughts and notions, not realizing that he is separated from God; he is dead to God.

3. Eternal Death is the separation of man from God’s presence forever. This is the second death, an eternal state of being dead to God. It is spiritual death, separation from God that is prolonged beyond the death of the body. It is called the “second death” or eternal death. There is no chance for repentance. Once second death occurs, it is final and it is confirmed forever. No matter how sorry you may be for what you have done, no matter how sincere you are, it is too late by then. By the way, this is not annihilation. It does not mean the one who experiences eternal death becomes non-existent. No, it is the opposite. He will suffer torment in the highest degree and pain to its fullest through all eternity in all consciousness. No faint, no sleeping away, but full consciousness and going through the intensity of the torment in the Lake of Fire forever! The thought of it should cause us to tremble.

The death which Apostle Paul was talking about in Ephesians 2:1 cannot be physical death since physical death will end all possibility of an unbeliever from coming to believe in Christ. If a person dies physically in his unbelief, he is reserved for judgment at the Great White Throne and be thrown into the Lake of Fire to be tormented forever. The death that Apostle Paul was talking about here must be spiritual death. It is spiritual death, but not final yet. It is not eternal death. It is the death that believers experience until they are made alive spiritually. And this spiritual death occurs the moment we are conceived in our mother’s womb. As David testified in Psalm 51:5, “Behold I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceived me.” This is spiritual death. This deadness in sin makes us unable to believe in God or to put our trust in Him. It is total inability to respond to God in any way. There is no strength available to take that step to turn from sin and to turn towards God. But we do not have to end up in eternal death. We can look to the only way of escape offered to us by God. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). Jesus is the only way through whom we can be saved, and be freed from a life of death.

Are you still living a life of death? Have you been quickened and made alive spiritually by the Lord Jesus Christ who died to save you from your sin? Only Jesus can deliver us from spiritual death. Will you come and believe in Him? May God help us. Amen.