Ephesians 2

God Saved Us Because of His Great Love for Us

1 You were once dead because of your failures and sins.2 You followed the ways of this present world and its spiritual ruler. This ruler continues to work in people who refuse to obey God.

3 All of us once lived among these people, and followed the desires of our corrupt nature. We did what our corrupt desires and thoughts wanted us to do. So, because of our nature, we deserved God’s anger just like everyone else.
4 But God is rich in mercy because of his great love for us.5 We were dead because of our failures, but he made us alive together with Christ. (It is God’s kindnesst that saved you.)6 God has brought us back to life together with Christ Jesus and has given us a position in heaven with him.7 He did this through Christ Jesus out of his generosity to us in order to show his extremely rich kindness in the world to come.8 God saved you through faith as an act of kindness. You had nothing to do with it. Being saved is a gift from God.9 It’s not the result of anything you’ve done, so no one can brag about it.

10 God has made us what we are. He has created us in Christ Jesus to live lives filled with good works that he has prepared for us to do.

God Has United Jewish and Non–Jewish People

11 Remember that once you were not Jewish physically. Those who called themselves “the circumcised” because of what they had done to their bodies called you “the uncircumcised.”

12 Also, at that time you were without Christ. You were excluded from citizenship in Israel, and the pledgest God made in his promise were foreign to you. You had no hope and were in the world without God.
13 But now through Christ Jesus you, who were once far away, have been brought near by the blood of Christ.14 So he is our peace. In his body he has made Jewish and non-Jewish people one by breaking down the wall of hostility that kept them apart.15 He brought an end to the commandments and demands found in Moses’ Teachings so that he could take Jewish and non-Jewish people and create one new humanity in himself. So he made peace.16 He also brought them back to God in one body by his cross, on which he killed the hostility.17 He came with the Good News of peace for you who were far away and for those who were near.

18 So Jewish and non-Jewish people can go to the Father in one Spirit.
19 That is why you are no longer foreigners and outsiders but citizens together with God’s people and members of God’s family.20 You are built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. Christ Jesus himself is the cornerstone.21 In him all the parts of the building fit together and grow into a holy temple in the Lord.

22 Through him you, also, are being built in the Spirit together with others into a place where God lives.

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.