Chapter 2

¹You also were dead because of the offenses and sins ²in the midst of which you once lived under the control of the present age of the world, and the master-spirit of the air, who is still at work among the disobedient. ³We all lived among them once, indulging our physical cravings and obeying the impulses of our lower nature and its thoughts, and by nature we were doomed to God’s wrath like other men. ⁴But God is so rich in mercy that because of the great love he had for us, ⁵he made us, dead as we were through our offenses, live again with the Christ. It is by his mercy that you have been saved. ⁶And he raised us with Christ, and through our union with Christ Jesus made us sit down with him in heaven, ⁷to show the incomparable wealth of his mercy throughout the ages to come by his goodness to us through Christ Jesus. ⁸For it is by his mercy that you have been saved through faith. It is not by your own action, it is the gift of God. ⁹It has not been earned, so that no one can boast of it. ¹⁰For he has made us, creating us through our union with Christ Jesus for the life of goodness which God had predestined us to live.

¹¹So remember that you were once physically heathen, and called uncircumcised by those who called themselves circumcised, though only physically, by human hands. ¹²At that time you had no connection with Christ, you were aliens to the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the agreements about God’s promise; with no hope and no God in all the world. ¹³But now through your union with Christ Jesus you who were once far away have through the blood of Christ been brought near. ¹⁴For he is himself our peace. He has united the two divisions, and broken down the barrier that kept us apart, ¹⁵and through his human nature put an end to the feud between us, and abolished the Law with its rules and regulations, in order to make peace and create out of the two parties one new man by uniting them with himself, ¹⁶and to kill the feud between them with his cross and in one body reconcile them both to God with it. ¹⁷He came with the good news of peace for you who were far away and for those who were near; ¹⁸for it is through him that we both with one Spirit are now able to approach the Father. ¹⁹So you are no longer foreigners or strangers, but you are fellow-citizens of God’s people and members of his family. ²⁰You are built upon the apostles and prophets as your foundation, and Christ Jesus himself is the cornerstone. ²¹Through him every part of the building is closely united and grows into a temple sacred through its relation to the Lord, ²²and you are yourselves built up into a dwelling for God through the Spirit.