All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
— Romans 3:23
Therefore just as through one man sin entered into the world, and through sin, death; and thus death passed on to all men because all have sinned
— Romans 5:12
Before we were born again, we were in sin. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). This is true of every human being. “Even as it is written, ‘There is none righteous, not even one’” (Rom. 3:10). In our former position we had no feeling about the many things we did which were unrighteous. We offended God all the time, but did not know it. We not only committed sin, but we were dwelling and abiding in sin. Our entire life was in sin. This was our former position before being born again.
The Bible tells us that before we were born again, we were in death. Sin and death are closely related. (Rom. 5:12). Because we were in sin, we were also in death. The best way to describe being “in death” is to say that we did not have any feeling. In particular, our human spirit was dead. That is why Ephesians 2:1 says, “And you, though dead in your offenses and sins.” We may have been very busy in our human life, doing many things, but we had no feeling towards God in our human spirit. From His point of view we were like a walking corpse. We didn’t know where we came from or where we were going. God seemed far away from us.
Perhaps not until after we were born again did we realize, “All of my life I was actually dead. I have been alive all these years, but I was abiding in death. I had no feeling towards God at all until now.” This shows that before we were born again, we were in death.
Adapted from Born Again, page 28-29.
Tomorrow: “We Were Judged and Condemned”