I. God reminds us of our sinful past. This is important. Otherwise, we become proud and forget that we were not always walking in wisdom. We were once dead in sin and complete idiots. We need to remember this.
II. A fork in the road Ephesians 2:1ff is a huge fork in the road. Depending on which direction you take -- which interpretation you take of what it means to be "dead in sin" -- many other aspects of your theology and practice will be correspondingly affected. Are men well (Pealgianism), sick (semi-Pelagianism/Arminianism), or dead (Calvinism)? How bad are we? What is grace? Is it God offering us opportunities by which we might better ourselves, or is it a resurrection from death? Does God save drowning men or drowned men? How should we evangelize the lost? Are lost people in need of medicine to help their spiritual sickness, or are they in need of resurrection? We can trace the Roman Catholic view of justification to this point as well. An erroneous understanding of sin and the human condition affects everything, including our view of God. How big is God? How powerful? Is God trying to save everyone and largely failing?
III. Defning spiritual death
A. Paul uses the word "dead", not the word "sick". What can you expect from a spiritual corpse?
B. We were dead IN SIN. Being dead is a commentary on our attitude toward sin.
C. We were walking according to the course of this world. We were doing what everyone else was doing, strolling down the broad road to destruction.
D. We were walking according to the prince of the power of the air We were under the control of Satan, held captive by him to do his will.
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