By being dead in offenses and sins, we lost the function that enables us to contact God. Spiritual death has annulled the function of our spirit. No matter how active we were in our body and soul, we were deadened in our spirit, unable to contact God.
Verse 1 says that we were dead in our offenses and sins. Offenses are acts that overstep the limit of right, and sins are evil doings. It was from such a background of death in our offenses and sins that we were saved to be the church, the Body. The dead have been made alive to be a living organism to express Christ.
We need to say a further word about offenses. In running a race you must stay within the lines. To go outside the lines is to commit an offense. You have the right to run within the lines, but if you run outside the lines, you overstep your rights.
Years ago, I was helped by a certain brother who had been learning the lessons of life. One day he testified that, after having been enlightened by God, he realized that if he knocked at someone’s door and no one answered, he had no right to enter the room. To do so would be to overstep his rights. I was greatly helped by this testimony. Thereafter, whenever I visited someone’s home, I limited myself to the room in which I had been asked to be seated. I did not presume to walk around in other parts of the house. To do that would be to overstep my rights and commit an offense. Others, however, may think nothing of walking through someone’s home and even of examining the various things there. Although they may justify their behavior, in the eyes of God they are overstepping their rights.
Suppose after the meeting a brother leaves his hymnal on a chair. Do you think you have the right to handle it? No, you do not have this right, unless you are responsible to clean the hall or to collect lost items for lost and found. Even if you do have the responsibility to pick up items in the meeting hall, this does not mean that you have the right to look through the brother’s hymnal.
In the eyes of God, we have overstepped our rights many times. Hence, we were those dead in our offenses. Furthermore, we were also dead in sins, in evil doings such as lying and stealing.
Referring to our offenses and sins, verse 2 says, “In which you once walked according to the age of this world.” “This world” refers to the satanic system composed of many ages. The word “age” here refers to a part, a section, an aspect, of the system of Satan, particularly the present and modern appearance of that system, which is used by him to usurp and occupy people and keep them away from God and His purpose. When we were dead in offenses and sins, we walked according to the age, the modern appearance, the present course, of the world, the satanic system.
All the time that we were dead in offenses and sins, we were very active in the world, in the realm of the satanic kingdom. The Greek word translated “world,” cosmos, means a system. This is neither a divine nor a human system; rather, it is a satanic system. This system, the world, is composed of many ages, each of which is a section of the satanic system. Every age is also a course. For this reason, the King James Version adopts the rendering “the course of this world.” Every age has a certain style and appearance. The world appeared to Abraham in one way, to David in another way, and to Paul in still another way. Today the world also has its modern appearance. Furthermore, the age of the world has a tide with a current. Once we walked according to the current of the present age. When people follow the trend of the age, this is a strong sign that they are dead, that they are corpses carried along by the current of the age.
I saw an excellent illustration of this when I was traveling through the interior of China in 1937. One day I passed by a creek which flowed down the slope of a hill. The creek was full of dead leaves that were being swept along with the current. Among the leaves some little fish were swimming upstream against the current. Because the fish were full of life, they could swim against the current; but because the leaves were lifeless, they could only be carried away by the current. They did not have the life to withstand the current and go against it. As long as anyone follows the present current of the world, he is dead. The reason the current of the age can carry so many people along with it is that they all are dead. Throughout the world, in every country, the people are dead. Therefore, whenever the tide of the age comes in, they are swept along by it immediately. Once we also were dead and carried away by the tide of the age, but now that we have been made alive, the current cannot move us.