⁶ “If your offering for a sacrifice of well-being to the Lord is from the flock, male or female, you shall offer one without blemish.^(A)

¹¹ For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all,^{[a](A) 12} training us to renounce impiety and worldly passions and in the present age to live lives that are self-controlled, upright, and godly,^(B)

¹³ But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.^{(A) 14} For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us,^{(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,^{(C) 16} and might reconcile both to God in one body^[a] through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it.^{[b](D) 17} So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near, ¹⁸ for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father.^{(E) 19} So then, you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God,^{(F) 20} built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone;^{[c](G) 21} in him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord,^{(H) 22} in whom you also are built together spiritually^[d] into a dwelling place for God.

¹⁰ as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.^(A)

⁴ But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law,^(A)

²⁸ There is no longer Jew or Greek; there is no longer slave or free; there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.^(A)

The New Life in Christ

12 I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, on the basis of God’s mercy, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable act of worship.^{(A) 2} Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of the mind, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.^[a](B)

²⁷ “For in this city, in fact, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the gentiles and the peoples of Israel, gathered together against your holy servant^[a] Jesus, whom you anointed,^(A)