Ephesians 2:1-10 is one of the clearest passages on the doctrine of salvation by grace through faith (in Christ) apart from works (2:8-9). Paul began by telling us what we were before we were saved (2:1-3). We were dead in our trespasses and sins. We were dead spiritually before God made us alive spiritually. That work of God is what Paul indicated in verses 4-7.
To be spiritually dead includes being dead to God. We did not have a right relationship with Him. We, as Paul wrote in another place, were alienated from the life of God (Eph. 4:18). Being dead spiritually also includes being dead to spiritual things. As a physically dead man cannot and will not respond to physical things, so a man who is spiritually dead cannot and will not respond to spiritual things which of course includes the gospel (See 1 Cor. 2:14; cf. 1:18). So, before a person can and will believe the gospel of Christ and be saved, God must first make him alive spiritually. This seems to be demonstrated by the order in which these truths are communicated. We were dead (2:1-3); God made us alive (2:4-7); then we believed and were saved (2:8-10).
God’s work of making us alive is spoken of in other ways in the Bible. God opened our hearts (Acts 16:14), God opened our blind eyes (Acts 28:18), and God called us which led directly to believing in Christ and being justified (Rom. 8:29-30; cf. John 5:21, 25-26). God’s work of making us alive is synonymous with regeneration (Tit. 3:5), which is synonymous with the new birth (John 3:3-5). According to John in his first epistle, the new birth precedes faith in Christ (See 5:1 and compare 2:29, 4:7). Paul seems to teach the same thing in Ephesians 2:1-10 in that we are made alive before we believe in Jesus unto salvation.
If we are saved, we ought to thank God for His great work of making us alive when we were dead!!