Our position in Christ

1He[F] raised you up as well, when you were dead in your transgressions and sins,

2in which you once walked, according to the Aeon of this world, the ruler of the domain of the air, the spirit who is now at work in the sons of the disobedience; ²⁷

3among whom all of us also used to conduct ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the flesh and of the senses, ²⁸and were by nature children of wrath, ²⁹just like the rest.

4But God—being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,

5even when we were dead in our transgressions—made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)

6and raised us up together and seated us together in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, ³⁰

7in order that in the coming ages He might display the surpassing riches of His grace, through His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

8For by grace you have been saved, through the Faith ³¹—and this not of yourselves, it is the gift of God—

9not by works, so that no one may boast.

10You see, we are His ‘poem’, ³²created in Christ Jesus for good works, ³³which God prepared in advance in order that we should walk in them. ³⁴

Once far, now near in Christ

11So then, remember that once you physical Gentiles—called ‘uncircumcision’ by the so-called ‘circumcision’ (that made in flesh with hands)—

12that at that time you were apart from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and strangers to the covenants of the promise, ³⁵having no hope and without God in the world.

13But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have come to be near through the blood of the Christ.

Two into one

14For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one and broken down the barrier of separation—the law with its commandments and ordinances—

15having abolished the enmity through His ‘flesh’, ³⁶so as to mold the two [Jew and Gentile] into one new man in Himself (thus making peace),

16and to reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross (by which He killed the enmity). ³⁷

17He came and proclaimed peace to us, ³⁸being both far and near,

18because through Him we both have access to the Father, by one Spirit. ³⁹

19So then, you are no longer strangers and aliens, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of God's household,

20built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, ⁴⁰Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone;

21in whom the whole building, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord;

22in whom you also are being built together to become a habitation of God in spirit. ⁴¹