Thank you for the Biblical question, “Being born dead spirits (Rm 5:12-14) why is faith afterwards revealed (Gal 3:23)? How can a dead spirit (Rm 5:12-14) be saved by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8) when dead and faith is afterwards revealed?”
Your astute observation and question is correct. A person with a dead spirit can’t by oneself respond to God nor to salvation.
God has made salvation available by sending his Son, Jesus Christ to atone for the sins of the world (I John 2:2). With the sufficient atoning work of Christ, God is now able to forgive spiritual dead individuals.
The answer lies in Romans 8. The text says this, “9 You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. 10 But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. 11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of[e] his Spirit who lives in you” (NIV).
Jesus said to Nicodemus that he must be born again. That new spiritual birth happens by the Spirit of God. John 3 says this, “5 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit” (NIV).
The Apostle Paul says this in Titus 3, “At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. 4 But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life” (NIV).
Thus the answer is the Spirit of God coming upon and working in that person’s dead spirit to infuse new life into that person. That new spirit within that person is able to respond to spiritual truths of John 3:16 and Ephesians 2:8–9. That person recognizes that there was nothing within oneself earned the forgiveness of sins but a belief in the promise of the forgiveness of sins by God for the person who believes. That person access that belief through one’s faith, apart from works.
SUMMARY: The Spirit of God enables the person whose spirit is dead in sin to become alive and respond to spiritual truths.
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