These verses are really preliminary to Paul's main point. They describe the Christian's condition as an unbeliever before God justified him or her. In the Greek text verses 1-7 are one sentence. The subject of this sentence is God (v. 4). The three main verbs are "made alive"(v. 5), "raised up"(v. 6), and "seated"(v. 6). The object is "us,"and the prepositional phrase "with Christ"describes "us."The main point then is that God has made believers alive, raised us up, and seated us with Christ. Everything else in verse 1-7 is of subordinate importance.
2:1 Before their regeneration, believers were spiritually dead, separated from God, and unable to have fellowship with Him (cf. 4:18; John 17:3). We were living in the sphere of rebellion against God (cf. v. 2). Transgressions (false steps, cf. 1:7; 2:5) and sins (acts of missing the mark) describe deliberate offenses against God.
"There are three outstanding schools of moral pathology traceable throughout the centuries. Pelagianism asserts the convalescence of human nature. Man merely needs teaching. Semi-pelagianism admits his ill-health, but affirms that the symptoms will yield to proper treatment, to a course of tonic drugs and a scrupulous regimen. But Biblical Christianity probes the patient to the quick. Its searching diagnosis pronounces that mortification has set in and that nothing less than infusion of fresh lifeblood can work a cure. Nostrums and palliatives aggravate rather than allay the disease. Sin is an organic epidemical malady, a slow devitalizing poison issuing in moral necrosis; not a stage of arrested or incomplete development, but a seed-plot of impending ruin."47
"The unbeliever is not sick; he is dead! He does not need resuscitation; he needs resurrection. All lost sinners are dead, and the only difference between one sinner and another is the state of decay."48
2:2 The apostle further described the sphere in which unbelievers live in three ways. First, it is a lifestyle in which people follow the ways of the world. The philosophy that seeks to eliminate God from every aspect of life dominates this lifestyle (cf. John 15:18, 23).
Second, the unsaved follow the person who is promoting this philosophy, namely Satan. As prince of the power of the air, Satan received temporary freedom to lead this rebellion against God (cf. 1 John 5:19; 2 Cor. 4:4; Rev. 12:9). The "spirit"now working probably refers to the "power"or "kingdom"(lit. authority) of the air rather than to Satan since that word is its nearest antecedent. "Sons of disobedience"is a way of saying people marked by disobedience, as a son bears the traits of his parent. Unbelievers resemble Satan in their rebellion.
2:3 Third, not only does the philosophy of the world guide unbelievers and Satan control them, but they also indulge the flesh. The term "flesh"(NASB, Gr. sarkos) when used metaphorically as here refers to the sinful nature that everyone possesses. It is our human nature that is sinful. The unbeliever characteristically gives in to his or her fleshly desires and thoughts whereas the believer should not and need not do so (cf. Rom. 7-8).
"Children of wrath"and "sons of disobedience"are both phrases that describe unbelievers. "Children"(Gr. tekna) highlights the close relationship between a child and his or her parents. "Sons"(Gr. huioi) stresses the distinctive characteristics of the parents that the child displays. Unbelievers have a close relationship to God's wrath because of their rebellion against Him (cf. Rom. 1:18-2:29; John 3:36).
These verses (1-3) picture the hopeless unbeliever as a part of the world system, controlled by Satan, indulging the flesh, and destined to experience God's wrath. When an unbeliever trusts Jesus Christ, the world, the devil, and the flesh become his or her three-fold enemy.
