A) According to Romans 6:2 those who are in Christ are "
dead to sin". What does
dead mean here? Paul, in Rom. 7, uses marriage to explain what
dead to sin means. The law is like an overbearing husband who stirs up lusts in his wife so that she does what is unclean and immoral. The fruit of that union is still-born children. The fruit of our coupling ourselves to the law is lust and sin, sin being
dead works. And being
dead to sin means that we are no longer beholden to obey the law as our husband, but we now serve Jesus Christ as our new husband.
Rom 7:5
For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members
to bring forth fruit unto death.
So, this death is not
our own death, but
the death of our works, our fruit.
According to Romans 6, the "death" that is "the wages of sin" occurs when -
1) "our old man is alive (producing dead works);
2) the sinful body is not destroyed, so is producing dead works);
3) we are serving sin (and so are producing dead works);
4) sin is reigning in our mortal body, so that we are obeying sin in its lusts, (and producing dead works);
5) we are yielding our members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, ( producing dead works);
6) sin has dominion over us (so we are producing dead works);
7) we are under law (which impregnates us with dead works);
8) we are servants of sin (producing dead works);
9) we are yielding our members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity, (producing dead works);
10) we are free from righteousness (not bearing live works to righteousness, but are bearing dead works );
11) we are producing fruit that saints are ashamed of. (dead works).
So, "the wages of sin is
death" in this context seems to mean "the fruit of sin is
dead fruit, dead works, not producing live fruit/works".
So, it seems to me that labelling the
death that comes from sin as "
spiritual death" is presumptuous. Doing so sometimes comes from imposing the theory of total depravity into scripture. And it also comes from assuming that God's jurisprudence must be analogous to human models of jurisprudence:
that pain must be inflicted on a law-breaker for them to hav truly paid for their sins and justly be granted forgiveness.
B) According to Col. 2, "dead
in your sins" means -
1) the handwriting of ordinances that is against us, the handwriting which is contrary to us, that handwriting
is condemning us. This says either -
that
we are presently being charged with law-breaking and
will be convicted in the future at the judgment. The recompense for breaking these laws
will be the second death at the judgment of the unrighteous which
will happen after the unsaved are resurrected after the millennium.
Or, considering Romans 6 and 7 above -
the law is identifying our works as being dead works, and because we are producing dead works we are labelled as dead in/because of the sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh (ἐν τοῖς παραπτώμασιν καὶ τῇ ἀκροβυστίᾳ τῆς σαρκὸς ὑμῶν).
C) According to Eph. 2, "
Dead in trespasses and sins" means -
1) walking according to the course of this world (and so producing dead works),
2) walking
according to the prince of the power of the air (and so producing dead works),
3) walking
according to the spirit that now is working in the children of disobedience (and so producing dead works),
4) having our behaviour in the lusts of our flesh (and so producing dead works),
5) fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind (and so producing dead works),
6) being by nature children of wrath (because producing dead works).
And besides, how can one be "
spiritually dead" while also "
walking"
according to "the spirit" working in the children of disobedience?
