(I presume you meant, "Well you gave your opinion why the present does not mean the present".)Well you gave you ropinion why the present does mean the present but that is all it is-opinion. god knows how to use tenses and if He meant how you meant it, He would have used the perfect tense!
Yes, it is my opinion on what Paul meant by what he wrote. Similarly, your interpretation is your opinion on what Paul meant. You have assumed that "were dead in trespasses and sins" doesn't mean that they were actually dead (because that is obviously not the case) so you have decided that it must mean they were what you term "spiritually dead", which you say means that "they had no relationship wiith god". Then you've had to decide what you think "hath quickened us together with Christ" means, and decided that means that we are now sitting with Jesus in heaven. I think that is absurd. What does it look like and what's going on in heaven, as you're sat near Jesus who is sitting at the right hand of God? What does God look like? How can you seriously believe that is what Paul meant? That is why I reason that Paul meant that we were reckoned dead, and we are reckoned to have eternal life, although in actuality we were not dead and we are not yet immortal.
But I wasn't arguing! I was just pointing out that the verse you quoted (verse 1) has some extra words added in by the translators, so it shouldn't say what you quoted, but I acknowledged that verse 5 does say much the same thing, with added details, so it would have been better to quote that verse. There's no argument there on my part, I was just paying close attention to the details and helping your argument!Well you use a modern translation the WEB and is the equivalent of the KJV for this passage, just repositioning the phraseology to make it easier to read for a modern English reader. so your argument is irrelevant.
I have never been dead. That's the whole point. Nobody that Paul was talking to had died and been made alive again. It is just an expression of speech to explain that God considers us dead because of our sins, because that means that we will die (and were destined for eternal death), and that God considers that those that He has saved though His grace are alive (have eternal life) because He will resurrect us from death and make us immortal as members of the body of Christ. And after He has done that He will make us to sit with Jesus in heaven (verse 6), when we will live and reign with Jesus for a thousand years (Revelation 20:4). They were not with Jesus in heaven at that point - Paul later wrote that he longed to have a new spirit body and to be with Jesus in heaven, but he wasn't there yet - 2 Corinthians 5:1-7 (WEB):Tell me before you were dead were you physically dead? Soul dead? or spiritually dead and had no relationship wiith god? something was dead and made alive ! If it wasn't your body or your conscience and personhood (soul) then it is the human spirit that was dead.
(1) For we know that if the earthly house of our tent is dissolved {we die} , we have a building {new spirit body} from God, a house not made with hands, eternal, in the heavens.
(2) For most certainly in this we groan, longing to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven;
(3) if so be that being clothed we will not be found naked.
(4) For indeed we who are in this tent do groan, being burdened; not that we desire to be unclothed, but that we desire to be clothed, that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.
(5) Now he who made us for this very thing is God, who also gave to us the down payment of the Spirit.
(6) Therefore we are always confident and know that while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord;
(7) for we walk by faith, not by sight.
If we are still alive in our human body then we are absent from Jesus, and not sitting with Jesus in heaven.
I just have!If you think that is in error as you appear to do- show the evidence from Scripture.
I am interpreting what Paul wrote based on what he wrote in this passage and what is written in other verses of Scripture. It must all harmonise, or else it can't be a correct understanding.You defend it by reinterpreting the passage to get it to say what you believe instead of forming your belief by what God inspired Paul to write. You have allegorized the passage without proof.