1TIME WAS when you were dead in your sins and wickedness, 2when you followed the evil ways of this present age, when you obeyed the commander of the spiritual powers of the air, the spirit now at work among God's rebel subjects. 3We too were once of their number: we all lived our lives in sensuality, and obeyed the promptings of our own instincts and notions. In our natural condition we, like the rest, lay under the dreadful judgement of God. 4But God, rich in mercy, for the great love he bore us, 5brought us to life with Christ even when we were dead in our sins; it is by his grace you are saved. 6And in union with Christ Jesus he raised us up and enthroned us with him in the heavenly realms, 7so that he might display in the ages to come how immense are the resources of his grace, and how great his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8For it is by his grace you are saved, through trusting him; it is not your own doing. It is God's gift, not a reward for work done. 9There is nothing for anyone to boast of. 10For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to devote ourselves to the good deeds for which God has designed us.
11Remember then your former condition: you, Gentiles as you are outwardly, you, 'the uncircumcised' so called by those who are called 'the circumcised' (but only with reference to an outward rite) 12you were at that time separate from Christ, strangers to the community of Israel, outside God's covenants and the promise that goes with them. Your world was a world without hope and without God. 13But now in union with Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near through the shedding of Christ's blood. 14For he is himself our peace. Gentiles and Jews, he has made the two one, and in his own body of flesh and blood has broken down the enmity which stood like a dividing wall between them; 15for he annulled the law with its rules and regulations, so as to create out of the two a single new humanity in himself, thereby making peace. 16This was his purpose, to reconcile the two in a single body to God through the cross, on which he killed the enmity.
17 [ Is.57.19, Is.52.7, Zch.9.10. ] So he came and proclaimed the good news: peace to you who were far off, and peace to those who were near by; 18for through him we both alike have access to the Father in the one Spirit. 19Thus you are no longer aliens in a foreign land, but fellow-citizens with God's people, members of God's household. 20You are built upon the foundation laid by the apostles and prophets, and Christ Jesus himself is the foundation-stone. 21In him the whole building is bonded together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22In him you too are being built with all the rest into a spiritual dwelling for God.
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