Dead then alive
Ephesians 2:1-9 gives a wonderfully detailed account of salvation in regards to the practical ramifications. You see we are born into this life without spiritual life. We were as the Inspired writer puts its dead. We have all had some experience with death, and we know what it means. That is why Paul uses this simple language. It is simply dead, not almost dead, or nearly dead, or mostly dead (which as we know is entirely different than complete dead). Dead is dead, and it means everything we would assume. The dead do not nothing. They do not move of their own accord. The dead undertake no action by themselves. And so, it was with us, we were driven by base appetites of body and mind. We were seeking after a life we did not have, and could not find. In all of this we served the Devil who convinced us in the Garden of Eden that death was preferable to life, by promising that we could attain to godlike existence. In essence we killed ourselves by trying to transcend our nature, i