How can someone who is spiritually dead respond to God? Ephesians 2:5

One can yell at a corpse as loud and long as one wants, but there will never be any response. That person is dead. When one is spiritually dead, as we all were at one time, one is totally incapable of responding to God (for more about this see my last post). So how can a person that is spiritually dead respond positively to God and the gospel of Jesus Christ? God gives us the answer in Ephesians 2:5.

"...even when we were dead in our transgressions, [God]made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)...

Paul tells the Ephesians that even though they were spiritually dead, God made them spiritually alive. Those coming from a truly Reformed position see this as a reference to regeneration. Regeneration is the supernatural work of the Spirit by which God makes us completely new spiritually-speaking.  But as stated in my last post, the problem with this perspective is that the Bible consistently teaches that we believe and then we are saved and regenerated. In addition, the word "made us alive together" in this verse does not refer to "regeneration". The term used here in Ephesians 2:5 is not a Greek word that refers to regeneration anywhere in the rest of Scripture. It refers to impartation of spiritual life, but not to complete regeneration.

The King James Version does the best job, in my opinion, of translating the essense of this word, used only here in the New Testament, i.e., God "quickened" us. Like a battery in a car that provides an electrical spark to start the engine. God quickens spiritually dead people so that they are able to respond to the gospel. He gives them enough spiritual life that they can see the truth of the gospel and embrace it. When a person is "quickened" they are able to respond by faith to the gospel and then they are born again and regenerated. Some scholars believe that the quickening is actually the impartation of "faith" as a gift from God (see Ephesians 2:8). That is certainly possible. But however it is accomplished by God and His Spirit, this quickening is absolutely essential for spiritually dead people to adequately respond to God. Without this gracious and merciful initiative of God, none of us would ever be saved. It is as impossible as someone rising from dead physically. Only God can make this happen. All we do is respond. As Paul says in this verse, "by grace you have been saved".