5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved).
No one has become a Christian by his sheer power of decision or action. Man has no power or disposition to save himself, for “we were dead in sins”. This is a dreadfully emphatic pronouncement — “dead in sins”! Could there be a worse spiritual state than this? To be dead in sin is to have no real spiritual ability or experience. Whatever a man who is dead in sin might do, it cannot be a genuine expression of spiritual life! All his physical, rational and moral experiences and activities are under the overwhelming power of sin and spiritual deadness. Even charitable actions of the unregenerate man are tainted by his sinful nature, which is the natural condition of every man. Man is totally incapable of awakening himself from his spiritual deadness.
But what man cannot do, God does. He “hath quickened us together with Christ”. Christ’s resurrection from the grave insured the resurrection of all for whom He died to save. Only Christ’s resurrection power that has brought Him from death to life can awaken a soul that is dead in sin unto spiritual life. The risen Lord Jesus alone can give us life eternal. His resurrection secured and sealed our spiritual resurrection from deadness in sin. He has implanted within us the principle of spiritual life.
What a great and mighty salvation we have received! We are now made alive with Christ. What God has accomplished in Christ, He has also accomplished for believers. It is in union with Him that spiritual death is vanquished and new life is received. Christians live and serve with the resurrection power of Christ. Through our risen Lord Jesus Christ, the power of sin and spiritual death over us have been vanquished.
At the end of our verse, Paul proclaims in parenthesis that a mighty rescue has been carried out by the grace of God through Christ’s resurrection – “by grace ye are saved”, declares the apostle. What a joyful acclamation! It is God’s gracious initiative that has made us alive together with Christ to grant us salvation. God lavished His grace on us through the resurrection of Christ who died for us. His grace has brought new life into our souls, reviving our soul’s spiritual senses, powers and faculties which were once deadened by sin. Now we can live unto God in the power of Christ’s resurrection.