³⁸ For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,^{(A) 39} nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The True Wisdom of God

⁶ Yet among the mature we do speak wisdom, though it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are being destroyed.^{(A) 7} But we speak God’s wisdom, a hidden mystery, which God decreed before the ages for our glory ⁸ and which none of the rulers of this age understood, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

⁵ Indeed, even though there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as in fact there are many gods and many lords—

¹⁶ for in^[a] him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him.

²⁰ God^[a] put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places,^{[b](A) 21} far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come.^(B)

¹² for our^[a] struggle is not against blood and flesh but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present^[b] darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.^[c](A)

²¹ And baptism, which this prefigured, now saves you—not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for^[a] a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,^{(A) 22} who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers made subject to him.^(B)