Ephesians 2

¹Even when you were dead due to your transgressions and sins

²in which you once walked according to the ways of this world, according to the ruler of the domain of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient,

³among whom we also all once lived by the cravings of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the rest of humankind...

⁴But God, being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us,

⁵even when we were dead due to our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—

⁶and because we are in union with Christ Jesus, he raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places,

⁷so that in the ages to come he could show the immeasurable riches of his grace by being kind to us in connection with Christ Jesus.

⁸For you have been saved by grace through your trust, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God,

⁹not based on works, so no one can boast.

¹⁰For we are his handiwork, created in union with Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance so that we would walk in them.

¹¹Therefore, remember that at one time you—the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called the “Uncircumcised” by those who are called the “Circumcised” because of something done in the flesh by human hands—

¹²were at that time without Christ, excluded from the citizenship of Israel, and were strangers to the covenants based on the promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

¹³But now in Christ Jesus you who at one time were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

¹⁴For he is our peace, who made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall that separates us. He ended the hostility between us by his flesh

¹⁵when he nullified the law (consisting of commands expressed in regulations), so that in himself he could create one new man from the two groups, thus making peace,

¹⁶and so he could reconcile both groups to God in one body through his death on the cross, by which he put to death the hostility between us.

¹⁷And when he came, he proclaimed good news of peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near,

¹⁸because through him we both have access to the Father by one spirit.

¹⁹So then you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but you are fellow citizens with the holy ones and members of the household of God,

²⁰having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone.

²¹In union with him the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy sanctuary in the Lord,

²²and in union with him you also are being built together into a place where God dwells through the spirit.