From Death to Life

¹And you were dead in your trespasses and sins,[#Col 2:13]

²in which you formerly walked according to the age of this world and according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience,[#Jn 12:31; #Eph 6:12]

³among them we all also once lived in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and we were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.[#Gal 2:15–16]

⁴But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,[#Ro 2:4; Eph 1:7]

⁵even when we were dead in sins, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),[#Eph 2:1; #Ac 15:11; Eph 2:8]

⁶and He raised us up and seated us together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,[#Eph 1:3]

⁷so that in the coming ages He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.[#Eph 2:4; Titus 3:4]

⁸For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not of yourselves. It is the gift of God,

⁹not of works, so that no one should boast.[#Ro 3:20; 2Ti 1:9]

¹⁰For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, so that we should walk in them.[#Eph 4:24; Titus 2:14]

Unity in Christ

¹¹Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called the “uncircumcision” by the so-called “circumcision” in the flesh by human hands,[#1Co 12:2; Eph 5:8; #Col 2:11]

¹²were at that time apart from Christ, alienated from the citizenship of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, without hope and without God in the world.[#Gal 4:8; 1Th 4:13]

¹³But now in Christ Jesus you who were formerly far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.[#Isa 57:19; Ac 2:39]

¹⁴For He is our peace, who has made both groups one and has broken down the barrier of the dividing wall,[#Mic 5:5; #Gal 3:28]

¹⁵by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of the commandments contained in ordinances, that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus making peace,[#Col 2:14, 20]

¹⁶and that He might reconcile both to God into one body through the cross, thereby slaying the enmity.[#Col 1:20–22]

¹⁷And He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near.

¹⁸For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father.[#1Co 12:13; Eph 3:12]

¹⁹Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,[#Php 3:20; #Gal 6:10]

²⁰having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone,[#Rev 21:14; #Isa 28:16; Mt 16:18]

²¹in whom the entire building, tightly framed together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord,[#1Co 3:16–17]

²²in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God through the Spirit.