Once dead but now alive

Just how dead is dead? Exactly what can a dead person do?

“even when we were dead in our transgressions, [God] made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)..”  - Ephesians 2:5

The Greek word here for “dead” is the word “necros“–which means dead like a corpse. As far as his relationship to God is concerned, man is a lifeless corpse, unable to respond or even make a single move toward God, unless God first brings this spiritually dead corpse to life. He is dead in trespasses and sins. It is a very strange kind of death because while dead, he is nevertheless up and about actively practicing sin. He is what horror stories call a zombie - dead but walking around. This is a fair description of what Paul says about human nature in its lost condition. He is biologically alive but spiritually dead.

The sinner actively practices evil. His will is enslaved (John 8:34) and he is also by nature an object of God’s wrath (Eph. 2:3). He has a will, most definitely, but this will has no desire to seek after God or submit to Him, in fact he cannot do so (Rom 3:11; Rom 8:7), without the direct and gracious intervention of God.

This is why without Sovereign election, evangelism would be the most futile activity imaginable.  It would be much like a salesman trying to sell his products in a graveyard. The dead need to be raised to life before a salesman can make a sale! The dead have no interest in skin cream products, double glazed windows, hair loss prevention treatments, air purifiers or the latest and greatest vacuum cleaner. They are not moved by even the greatest of sales pitches!

Why?

Well that’s pretty obvious, isn’t it? Its because the dead are, in a word…. dead!

….Colossians 2:13 also states, “When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him…”

In Ephesians 2:5, and in Colossians 2:13, the scripture says that it was when we were dead that God made us alive. Notice that not one mention is made of our role in all this.  It does not say, “when you were dead, you decided to cooperate with God’s grace, and He then raised you…” I actually don’t know how the Apostle Paul could have taught Divine monergism more clearly. It was when we were dead like a corpse (necros) that God made us alive.

Source: http://www.reformationtheology.com/2006/01/dead_men_walking_by_pastor_joh.php