Ephesians 2

¹ And you were dead, through the crimes and the sins

² in which you used to live when you were following the way of this world, obeying the ruler who governs the air[*a] the spirit who is at work in the rebellious.

³ We all were among them too in the past, living sensual lives, ruled entirely by our own physical desires and our own ideas; so that by nature we were as much under God’s anger as the rest of the world.

⁴ But God loved us with so much love that he was generous with his mercy:

⁵ when we were dead through our sins, he brought us to life with Christ-it is through grace that you have been saved-

⁶ and raised us up with him and gave us a place with him in heaven, in Christ Jesus.

⁷ This was to show for all ages to come, through his goodness towards us in Christ Jesus, how infinitely rich he is in grace.

⁸ Because it is by grace that you have been saved, through faith; not by anything of your own, but by a gift from God;

⁹ not by anything that you have done, so that nobody can claim the credit.

¹⁰ We are God’s work of art, created in Christ Jesus to live the good life as from the beginning he had meant us to live it.

¹¹ Do not forget, then, that there was a time when you who were pagans physically, termed the Uncircumcised by those who speak of themselves as the Circumcision by reason of a physical operation,

¹² do not forget, I say, that you had no Christ and were excluded from membership of Israel, aliens with no part in the covenants with their Promise; you were immersed in this world, without hope and without God.

¹³ But now in Christ Jesus, you that used to be so far apart from us have been brought very close, by the blood of Christ.

¹⁴ For he is the peace between us, and has made the two into one and broken down the barrier which used to keep them apart, actually destroying in his own person the hostility

¹⁵ caused by the rules and decrees of the Law. This was to create one single New Man in himself out of the two of them and by restoring peace

¹⁶ through the cross, to unite them both in a single Body and reconcile them with God; In his own person he killed the hostility.

¹⁷ Later he came to bring the good news of peace, peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near at hand.[*b]

¹⁸ Through him, both of us have in the one Spirit our way to come to the Father.

¹⁹ So you are no longer aliens or foreign visitors: you are citizens like all the saints, and part of God’s household.

²⁰ You are part of a building that has the apostles and prophets[*c] for its foundations, and Christ Jesus himself for its main cornerstone.

²¹ As every structure is aligned on him, all grow into one holy temple in the Lord;

²² and you too, in him, are being built into a house where God lives, in the Spirit.