In Genesis God tells Adam that if he eats from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil he will die. What does die mean? Ephesians 2:1 uses the phrase “dead in sins and trespasses”. Does die or dead mean physically dead? Apparently not since Adam and Eve lived on in their earthly bodies. Saul of Tarsus was alive when he met the living Christ on the road to Damascus and became the Apostle Paul who wrote the book of Ephesians.
Wisdom from reading the Scriptures would indicate to die or be dead is to die or be dead to a living relationship with the true and living God. Hence Adam and Eve after they sinned clothed themselves in fig leaves to represent their works righteousness and when God came to them in the Garden they hid themselves from Him. “The Light came into the world and man loved darkness because his deeds were evil.”
If to die is to be separated from the living God and Adam and Eve sinned and therefore died to God thus are their progeny born as inheritors of Adam’s sin and therefore are dead at birth to a relationship with the true and living God.
Views from an Evangelist 