“Only…” As if it is some mere thing… :).
when Paul says the natural man is spiritually dead in his sin/trespass, he means is saying he is in a state of spiritual alienation from God. Life is communion with God, and apart from communion with God there is no real life. One can be breathing, doing, choosing, etc., but if he is not in saving fellowship with the God who him for eternal fellowship with Himself, he is not experiencing life. So, Paul is saying, “Here is the status of all humanity apart from the grace of Christ: spiritual alienation from God ~ at enmity with Him is how it is put elsewhere ~ and that means to be dead regardless of one’s physical state… it is spiritual death. Sin is the root of this spiritual death; it is the cause of his being at enmity with and thus alienation from God, and this alienation Paul calls death. We are, if not born again of the spirit, dead. Indeed, we have to be born again in order to not remain dead in this way, in order to escape, to be freed of, this spiritual death.
I understand what you're saying and do not disagree. But the Bible never says we who were "spiritually dead"... We understand how fallen man is dead in trespasses and sins without the presence of the Holy Spirit within them. But the Bible does not call our new birth, or spiritual birth a resurrection. We read we must be "born again", not resurrected as would be necessary if the natural spirit giving man physical life was without all life. I too used to refer to being born again as being resurrected, but now knowing the confusion caused by using unbiblical terminology I stopped calling it a resurrection from the dead and speak what I read from Scripture that our spirit already alive but without the Spirit, dead in trespasses and sins, is made alive (quickened) through the Holy Spirit. That isn't a resurrection but awakening through the Spirit of Christ to things of God we could not know without the life-giving Spirit within our spirit.
Resurrection is used in two different contexts, RWB. And both, but separately, in Revelation 20. There is a spiritual resurrection, and it is individual and specific only to God’s elect ~ this is the resurrection related by Paul in Ephesians 2:6 and the resurrection “seen” by John in Revelation 20:4-6. And there is also a physical, bodily resurrection, and it is collective and general to all, but to one thing (eternal life) or the other (judgment).
This is where the confusion over resurrection stems from. The first resurrection is the physical resurrection of Christ. When we partake of Him, we share in His resurrection life. The Bible does not say we must be spiritually resurrected. It says we must be born again! It is by the new birth through His Spirit in us that we are born again, then through the Spirit in our spirit (mind, heart, will, soul) we know and enter the spiritual Kingdom of God. When we say our new birth is to be spiritually resurrected it doesn't make sense because through our natural spirit we already are alive, but without ability to know or enter the Kingdom of God which can only be entered by being born again.
Hmm, well, I say :) that since it is called the first resurrection, it very strongly implies and necessarily means that there must be… is… a second resurrection. This idea of a first and second runs throughout Scripture. In the scene we come to finally in Revelation 11, the second resurrection, the physical/bodily resurrection, is not explicitly mentioned but has has just taken place, and is very strongly implied by John when he says (a) that he “saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done” (these are God’s elect, who have been resurrected to eternal life), and (b) “the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done” (these are unbelievers, those resurrected to judgment).
I don't agree. I believe what runs throughout Scripture is man's need to be born again that when the hour coming when the last trumpet sounds, we shall be physically resurrected to immortal & incorruptible everlasting life on the new earth. When the Bible speaks of the "first resurrection" it is the physical resurrection of Christ that we share in when we are born again. The only other resurrection found in Scripture is the resurrection of all who are dead in the graves.
… exhort you, RWB, to carefully read ~ carefully reread John’s words. Each of their lifetimes symbolized a thousand years? So there are a great many millenniums? Goodness gracious. Surely that’s not what you mean…
I'm not saying the lifetimes of every saint is symbolized a thousand years. John writes a thousand years to symbolize TIME. All time that began with the first advent of Christ coming to earth a man, that will not end until the seventh trumpet begins to sound. All who live and die during this symbolic time spend their whole life within this time frame.
Grace and peace to you also.