From Death to Life

2 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, ² in which you formerly walked according to the age of this world and according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, ³ among them we all also once lived in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and we were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. ⁴ But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, ⁵ even when we were dead in sins, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), ⁶ and He raised us up and seated us together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, ⁷ so that in the coming ages He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. ⁸ For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, ⁹ not of works, so that no one should boast. ¹⁰ For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, so that we should walk in them.

One in Christ

¹¹ Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called the “uncircumcision” by the so-called “circumcision” in the flesh by human hands, ¹² were at that time apart from Christ, alienated from the citizenship of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, without hope and without God in the world. ¹³ But now in Christ Jesus you who were formerly far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

¹⁴ For He is our peace, who has made both groups one and has broken down the barrier of the dividing wall, ¹⁵ by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of the commandments contained in ordinances, that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus making peace, ¹⁶ and that He might reconcile both to God into one body through the cross, thereby slaying the enmity. ¹⁷ And He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. ¹⁸ For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father.

¹⁹ Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, ²⁰ having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, ²¹ in whom the entire building, tightly framed together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, ²² in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God through the Spirit.