¹⁶ and might reconcile both to God in one body^[a] through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it.^[b](A)

²⁰ and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.^(A)

²¹ And you who were once estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, ²² he has now reconciled^[a] in his fleshly body^[b] through death, so as to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him,^(B)

¹⁰ For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life.^(A)

¹⁴ erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands. He set this aside, nailing it to the cross.

Good Stewards of God’s Grace

4 Since, therefore, Christ suffered in the flesh,^[a] arm yourselves also with the same intention (for whoever has suffered in the flesh has finished with sin),^{(A) 2} so as to live for the rest of your time in the flesh no longer by human desires but by the will of God.^(B)

¹⁵ abolishing the law with its commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace,^(A)

²⁰ and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God,^[a] who loved me and gave himself for me.^(A)

¹⁸ All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation;^{(A) 19} that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself,^[a] not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.^{(B) 20} So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ: be reconciled to God.^{(C) 21} For our sake God made the one who knew no sin to be sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.^(D)

³ For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and to deal with sin,^[a] he condemned sin in the flesh,^(A)