Ephesians
2
- As for you, you were dead in your transgressions
and sins,
- in which you used to live when you followed
the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit
who is now at work in those who are disobedient.
- All of us also lived among them at one time,
gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and
thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.
- But because of his great love for us, God,
who is rich in mercy,
- made us alive with Christ even when we were
dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have been saved.
- And God raised us up with Christ and seated
us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,
- in order that in the coming ages he might
show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us
in Christ Jesus.
- For it is by grace you have been saved,
through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God --
- not by works, so that no one can boast.
- For we are God's workmanship, created in
Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
- Therefore, remember that formerly you who
are Gentiles by birth and called "uncircumcised" by those who call
themselves "the circumcision" (that done in the body by the hands
of men) --
- remember that at that time you were separate
from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants
of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.
- But now in Christ Jesus you who once were
far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.
- For he himself is our peace, who has made
the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility,
- by abolishing in his flesh the law with
its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one
new man out of the two, thus making peace,
- and in this one body to reconcile both of
them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.
- He came and preached peace to you who were
far away and peace to those who were near.
- For through him we both have access to the
Father by one Spirit.
- Consequently, you are no longer foreigners
and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household,
- built on the foundation of the apostles
and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.
- In him the whole building is joined together
and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord.
- And in him you too are being built together
to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.
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