1 And as with us so with you. You were dead in the trespasses and sins
2 in which you moved as you followed the course of this world, under the sway of the prince of the air ??the spirit which is at present active within those sons of disobedience
3 among whom all of us lived, we as well as you, when we obeyed the passions of our flesh, carrying out the dictates of the flesh and its impulses, when we were objects of God's anger by nature, like the rest of men.
4 But, dead in trespasses as we were, God was so rich in mercy that for his great love to us
5 he made us live together with Christ (it is by grace you have been saved);
6 together with Christ he raised and seated us within the heavenly sphere in Christ Jesus,
7 to display throughout ages to come his surpassing wealth of grace and goodness toward us in Christ Jesus.
8 For it is by grace you have been saved, as you had faith; it is not your doing but God's gift,
9 not the outcome of what you have done ??lest anyone should pride himself on that;
10 God has made us what we are, creating us in Christ Jesus for the good deeds which are prepared beforehand by God as our sphere of action.
11 Remember, then, that once upon a time you Gentiles in the flesh, who are called 'the Uncircumcision' by that so-called 'Circumcision' which is itself the product of human hands in the flesh ??12 remember you were in those days outside Christ, aliens to the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of the Promise, devoid of hope and God within the world.
13 Whereas now, within Christ Jesus, you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
14 For he is our peace, he who has made both of us a unity and destroyed the barrier which kept us apart;
15 in his own flesh he put an end to the feud of the Law with its code of commands, so as to make peace by the creation of a new Man in himself out of both parties,
16 so as himself to give the death-blow to that feud by reconciling them both to God in one Body through the cross;
17 he came with a gospel of peace for those far away (that is, for you) and for those who were near,
18 for it is through him that we both enjoy our access to the Father in one Spirit.
19 Thus you are strangers and foreigners no longer, you share the membership of the saints, you belong to God's own household,
20 you are a building that rests on the apostles and prophets as its foundation, with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone;
21 in him the whole structure is welded together and rises into a sacred temple in the Lord,
22 and in him you are yourselves built into this to form a habitation for God in the Spirit.