³² But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.’ ”^(A)

²⁴ for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!’ And they began to celebrate.^(A)

From Death to Life

2 You were dead through the trespasses and sins ² in which you once walked, following the course of this world,^[a] following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient.^{[b](A) 3} All of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh, doing the will of flesh and senses, and we were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else,^{(B) 4} but God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us^{(C) 5} even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ^[c]—by grace you have been saved— ⁶ and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places^[d] in Christ Jesus, ⁷ so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable 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 your own doing; it is the gift of God— ⁹ not the result of works, so that no one may boast. ¹⁰ For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we may walk in them.^(D)

¹⁰ Then the Lord said, “You are concerned about the bush, for which you did not labor and which you did not grow; it came into being in a night and perished in a night. ¹¹ And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left and also many animals?”^(A)

⁴ By no means! Although every human is a liar, let God be proved true, as it is written,

³⁴ the Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’^(A)