'The wages of sin is death' (Rom. 6:23).

For the believer, this death that came in through Adam, has lost its

sting for 'the sting of death is sin' (1 Cor. 15:56) and all the way through

1 Corinthians 15 physical death as set over against literal resurrection is

intended, except in the figurative expression, 'I die daily' (1 Cor. 15:31).

is translated 'death' 117 times and 'deadly' twice.

is translated 'death' 128 times.

'die' 421 times, besides the translation of other variants

of the same word.

Ephesians 2:1 and 5, and Colossians 2:13 as these passages stand in the

A.V. teach that mankind is 'dead in trespasses and in sins' i.e. a spiritual

death.  Whether this death comes upon man, when he attains an age of

responsibility, what that age of responsibility is, or whether the death that

came in through Adam produces this spiritual death is not explained.  We

believe, however, that Ephesians 2:1 reveals a state of grace, and not a

state of nature.  That it speaks of a blessed deadness to sin, not a deadness

in sin.  This, however, is so important that we must spare no pains to

exhibit the teaching of the passage itself.  We therefore set out the actual

wording of the passage in question.

Kai humas ontas nekrous tois paraptomasin kai tais hamartiais.

There is no word en, 'in' here, that being supplied by the translators

because of the dative case of the words trespasses and sins.  Here are a few

passages where the dative case is used:

Romans 6:2             We that are dead To sin.

Romans 6:10           He died Unto sin.

Romans 6:11           Dead indeed Unto sin.

1 Peter 2:24

Dead To sins.

Let us see what the result would be if the A.V. translators were

consistent, and rendered these passages as they have done Ephesians 2:1.

'How shall we, that are dead In sin, live any longer therein?' (Rom.

This is hopelessly wrong.  Those who are dead in

sin can do nothing else.  We dare not treat Romans 6:10 in this fashion, the

thought that Christ died In sin being blasphemous.  The teaching of Ephesians

2:1 is not what these Ephesians were, the participle ontas, 'being', is in

the present.  Such is the blessed state in which the Ephesians then found

themselves; dead To trespasses and sins, and so quickened, raised and seated

together with Christ.  The word translated 'dead' here is nekros (as in

necromancy), and is found in Ephesians 1:20 and 5:14, as well as in 2:1 and

5.  Nekros indicates a dead person, thanatos, the power that inflicts mankind

with this awful end.  It is the name of the 'last enemy' (1 Cor. 15:26).

'Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory' (1 Cor. 15:57).

Death, The Second.  One special extension of death as a penalty is 'the

second death', and this is confined to the book of the Revelation.  If this

dreadful end awaited all unbelievers of all time, is it not strange, nay well

-nigh inexplicable, that it is not even mooted in the Gospels or Epistles,