And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once
walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of
the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of
disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our
flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were
by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God,
being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved
us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive
together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up
with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ
Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable
riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by
grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own
doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one
may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for
good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in
them.
Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh,
called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision,
which is made in the flesh by hands—remember that you were at that
time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of
Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope
and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once
were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he
himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down
in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law
of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in
himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might
reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby
killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who
were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we
both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no
longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the
saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation
of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the
cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together,
grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being
built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
