Overview
The Bible uses various descriptions to convey our fallen state, and one of the most common is that we are "dead in sin": "even when we were dead in our trespasses, [God] made us alive together with Christ" (Ephesians 2:5). In addition to being described as dead, our fallen state is portrayed in many ways:
The Calvinist View of Spiritual Deadness
Calvinists argue that being "dead" implies a state of complete spiritual lifelessness. Just as a physically dead person cannot respond to anything, they assert that a spiritually dead person is equally unable to respond to God's call. In this view, God must first regenerate the heart, making the person spiritually alive. Only then can the person respond positively to the gospel and exercise faith in Christ. This is a central part of Total Depravity.
An analogy often used by Calvinists is a person who has drowned and lies unresponsive in the water. Just as a drowned person cannot reach for a life preserver, a spiritually dead person cannot respond to the gospel until God first revives them. John Piper suggests that the first act of a spiritually newborn person, after God regenerates them, is a cry of faith in Christ.1 This belief is often summarized as Regeneration Precedes Faith.
The concern behind this view is a serious one. Calvinists want to take sin seriously and to make clear that salvation is entirely God's work. We share both concerns.
A Non-Calvinist Perspective on Spiritual Deadness
Non-Calvinists, however, see this interpretation as an overextension of the deadness analogy beyond its biblical meaning. Does being spiritually dead imply an absolute inability to respond to the gospel, or is it a way of describing separation from God because of sin? Consider the life preserver. A corpse could not grab it, but a corpse could not swim away from it either, and that is exactly how many people respond to the gospel. Some reject it, some hesitate or consider it, some accept it, and others ignore it completely. No two "dead" people respond in the same way, which would not be true if they responded like a corpse.
There is no indication in Scripture that our spiritual death makes us incapable of responding to God's call. Instead, we are separated from God and unable to come to Him through the law. Yet God has made a way to reconcile us to Himself apart from the law: "the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law" ( Romans 3:21 - 22).
The Bible certainly emphasizes the corrupting nature of sin and that our works are insufficient for redemption. However, these passages focus on the futility of our works, not on our ability to accept the gospel. Faith in Christ is not a work, and the New Testament writers make this distinction clear ( faith is not a work). Extending the analogy of deadness to mean that we cannot respond to Christ's invitation goes beyond what Scripture teaches. Numerous passages urge people to come to Christ for life, and promise that whoever turns and believes will be saved.
Indeed, God makes us alive together with Christ, but this life is given to those who believe and come to Him through faith.
Our spiritual deadness is what makes us in need of the gospel, not blind to the gospel.
Deadness Means Separation, Not Inability
When we examine the word "dead" throughout the Bible, it becomes clear that spiritual deadness refers not to an inability to respond but to separation from God.
In the story of the prodigal son (Luke 15), the son's "deadness" is his separation from his father, not an inability to return. The father says, "this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found" ( Luke 15:24). Yet while he was still "dead," the son "came to himself" (v. 17) and went home. Even in that state, he was capable of recognizing his condition and seeking reconciliation.
Similarly, in Revelation 3:1–2, Jesus tells the church in Sardis, "I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Wake up." The "deadness" of this church refers to their unfaithfulness and lack of fruit, not to an inability to respond. Jesus' command to "wake up" shows that they could still respond to His call and repent. If they were completely incapable of responding, the command would be meaningless.
Paul also uses "dead" in Romans 6:11: "So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus." Being dead to sin does not mean we are incapable of sinning, but that we are separated from it and no longer controlled by it. In the same way, being dead in sin means being separated from God.
After the fall in the Garden of Eden, humanity was cut off from God. God warned Adam that eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil would bring death. That death came gradually in the physical sense, but immediately in the spiritual sense: separation from God. Thankfully, God has provided a way back to Him through Jesus Christ.
Scripture also describes our fallen state with many other pictures, and none of them has the effect of making a person lifeless. We are sick, and "those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick" (Matthew 9:12). We are lost, and "the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost" (Luke 19:10). We are enslaved, and "if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed" (John 8:36). We are blind, yet blind Bartimaeus cried out, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" before he could see (Mark 10:47). Each picture describes a condition we cannot fix ourselves, and non-Calvinists affirm that. But none of them describes a person who cannot hear, want help, or respond. The Calvinist reading takes one picture, death, reads it as the total inability of a corpse, and lets it overrule all the others.
Lazarus
Calvinists frequently cite the raising of Lazarus in John 11 as a picture of regeneration: Jesus calls Lazarus out of the grave, and Lazarus comes to life without any choice or effort. They argue that spiritual life is given to us in the same way. While the Lazarus story powerfully demonstrates Jesus' authority over life and death, nothing in the passage presents it as a model for how a person comes to faith. The gospel invitation is different. It is not an irresistible command but a persuasive, conditional call that people can accept or reject, as Scripture shows again and again in men resisting God.
Dead in Trespasses: Ephesians 2
The passage most often quoted for the Calvinist view of deadness is Ephesians 2:1 - 10: "And you were dead in the trespasses and sins." But in the very next verses, Paul says these same "dead" people "walked, following the course of this world" and "lived in the passions of our flesh" (Ephesians 2:2–3). Paul is describing a condition of separation from God, not a corpse's inability to hear. And he goes on to say that we are saved "by grace... through faith" (v. 8). The gospel is a genuine invitation, and while our spiritual state makes us need it, it does not make us incapable of accepting it.
What About Prevenient Grace?
Some Arminians agree with Calvinists that spiritual death leaves people unable to respond to the gospel, but add that God gives a prevenient grace to all people that restores their ability to accept or reject Christ. We agree that God takes the initiative in salvation. But we do not accept the premise that spiritual death makes people unable to respond in the first place, so we do not need prevenient grace to restore an ability that was never lost. The gospel itself is God's sufficient means of calling sinners to faith.
- John Piper, "How Are We Born Again?" (audio transcript), Desiring God: https://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/how-are-we-born-again
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