Ephesians 2

From Death to Life

1  t In the past you were spiritually dead because of your disobedience and sins. 2 At that time you followed the world's evil way; you obeyed the ruler of the spiritual powers in space, the spirit who now controls the people who disobey God. 3 Actually all of us were like them and lived according to our natural desires, doing whatever suited the wishes of our own bodies and minds. In our natural condition we, like everyone else, were destined to suffer God's anger.

4 But God's mercy is so abundant, and his love for us is so great, 5 that while we were spiritually dead in our disobedience he brought us to life with Christ. It is by God's grace that you have been saved. 6 In our union with Christ Jesus he raised us up with him to rule with him in the heavenly world. 7 He did this to demonstrate for all time to come the extraordinary greatness of his grace in the love he showed us in Christ Jesus. 8-9 For it is by God's grace that you have been saved through faith. It is not the result of your own efforts, but God's gift, so that no one can boast about it. 10 God has made us what we are, and in our union with Christ Jesus he has created us for a life of good deeds, which he has already prepared for us to do.

One in Christ

11 You Gentiles by birth—called “the uncircumcised” by the Jews, who call themselves the circumcised (which refers to what men do to their bodies)—remember what you were in the past. 12 At that time you were apart from Christ. You were foreigners and did not belong to God's chosen people. You had no part in the covenants, which were based on God's promises to his people, and you lived in this world without hope and without God. 13 But now, in union with Christ Jesus you, who used to be far away, have been brought near by the blood of Christ. t 14 For Christ himself has brought us peace by making Jews and Gentiles one people. With his own body he broke down the wall that separated them and kept them enemies. 15 t He abolished the Jewish Law with its commandments and rules, in order to create out of the two races one new people in union with himself, in this way making peace. 16 t By his death on the cross Christ destroyed their enmity; by means of the cross he united both races into one body and brought them back to God. 17 t So Christ came and preached the Good News of peace to all—to you Gentiles, who were far away from God, and to the Jews, who were near to him. 18 It is through Christ that all of us, Jews and Gentiles, are able to come in the one Spirit into the presence of the Father.

19 So then, you Gentiles are not foreigners or strangers any longer; you are now citizens together with God's people and members of the family of God. 20 You, too, are built upon the foundation laid by the apostles and prophets, t the cornerstone being Christ Jesus himself. 21 He is the one who holds the whole building together and makes it grow into a sacred temple dedicated to the Lord. 22 In union with him you too are being built together with all the others into a place where God lives through his Spirit.

Ephesians 2

1 And you did he make alive, when ye were dead through your trespasses and sins,2 wherein ye once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the powers of the air, of the spirit that now worketh in the sons of disobedience;3 among whom we also all once lived in the lust of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest:--4 but God, being rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,5 even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace have ye been saved),6 and raised us up with him, and made us to sit with him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus:7 that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus:8 for by grace have ye been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;9 not of works, that no man should glory.10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God afore prepared that we should walk in them.11 Wherefore remember, that once ye, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called Circumcision, in the flesh, made by hands;12 that ye were at that time separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world.13 But now in Christ Jesus ye that once were far off are made nigh in the blood of Christ.14 For he is our peace, who made both one, and brake down the middle wall of partition,15 having abolished in the flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; that he might create in himself of the two one new man, so making peace;16 and might reconcile them both in one body unto God through the cross, having slain the enmity thereby:17 and he came and preached peace to you that were far off, and peace to them that were nigh:18 for through him we both have our access in one Spirit unto the Father.19 So then ye are no more strangers and sojourners, but ye are fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God,20 being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief corner stone;21 in whom each several building, fitly framed together, groweth into a holy temple in the Lord;22 in whom ye also are builded together for a habitation of God in the Spirit.