And you hath He quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins. Ephesians 2:1
Do the words ‘hath He quickened’ actually belong in our text? Well, yes and no. The first answer is yes, because although they are words supplied by the King James translators to make the wording flow well, the reality of our being quickened, or made alive, is fully supported by the context in which this verse is placed. Our salvation has not simply taken bad sinners and made them good, but it has taken dead sinners and has made them alive. So the translators are fully justified in inserting these words here. The second answer is no, because these words do not actually appear in the original Greek. I believe there is a good reason why the Holy Spirit did not lead the apostle Paul to insert these words. He wanted this verse to emphasize, not our salvation from our sinful condition, but our utter deadness when we were in our trespasses and sins.
We were dead in both trespasses and sins. These words are almost synonyms; both of them refer to our rebellion against God. But there is a difference in their meaning that emphasizes how each of them caused us to be dead. That there is a difference between trespasses and sins is emphasized in the book of Leviticus, in which chapter 4 describes the sin offering and chapter 5 describes the trespass offering.
We know what a ‘No Trespassing’ sign means. To violate that sign, to trespass, means to go beyond a specific boundary and encroach on property where we have no right to be. Our first parents were given a ‘No Trespassing’ sign by God in Genesis 2:17, when He informed them that partaking of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil would result in their death. So we know that trespassing means taking the wrong path, going in the wrong way: ‘All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way’ – Isaiah 53:6. Before we were saved, we were dead in trespasses.
Sins are the transgressing, or breaking, of God’s laws: ‘Whosoever committeth sin trangresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression against the law’ – 1 John 3:4. This refers to knowing what is wrong, and deliberately doing it anyway. This is why the Bible calls sinners children of disobedience. Before we were saved, we were dead in our disobedience, or sins.
Now we can appreciate why the translators inserted those lovely words ‘hath He quickened’ into our text. Even now, being made alive, we continue to be amazed at the death from which our salvation has brought us. – Jim MacIntosh