Ephesians 1:3-14

Contemporary English Version

Christ Brings Spiritual Blessings

³ Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ for the spiritual blessings that Christ has brought us from heaven! ⁴ Before the world was created, God had Christ choose us to live with him and to be his holy and innocent and loving people. ⁵ God was kind^[a] and decided that Christ would choose us to be God's own adopted children. ⁶ God treated us with undeserved grace because of the Son he dearly loves, and so we should praise God.

^7-8 (A) Christ sacrificed his life's blood to set us free, which means our sins are now forgiven. Christ did this because of God's gift of undeserved grace to us. God has great wisdom and understanding, ⁹ and by what Christ has done, God has shown us his own mysterious ways. ¹⁰ Then when the time is right, God will do all he has planned, and Christ will bring together everything in heaven and on earth.

¹¹ God always does what he plans, and this is why he appointed Christ to choose us. ¹² He did this so we Jews would bring honor to him and be the first ones to have hope because of him. ¹³ Christ also brought you the truth, which is the good news about how you can be saved. You put your faith in Christ and were given the promised Holy Spirit to show you belong to God. ¹⁴ The Spirit also makes us sure we will be given what God has stored up for his people. Then we will be set free, and God will be honored and praised.