God’s Handiwork

¹And y’all were dead in your* transgressions and sins,

²in which y’all once walked according to the ways of this world and according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the children of disobedience.

³We also all once lived among them in the lusts of our flesh, indulging in the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like all the rest.

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

⁵even when we were dead in our transgressions, ʜᴇ made us alive together with Christ—by grace y’all have been saved—

⁶and raised us up with him, and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,

⁷so that in the ages to come ʜᴇ might show the exceeding riches of ʜɪꜱ grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

⁸For it is by grace y’all have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves*, it is the gift of God—

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

¹⁰For we are ʜɪꜱ handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

Ethnic Reconciliation Through Christ

¹¹Therefore remember that formerly y’all who are ethnic groups in the flesh and called “uncircumcision” by those who are called “circumcision” (in the flesh, made by hands),

¹²remember that at that time y’all were separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

¹³But now in Christ Jesus y’all who were once far off have been made near in the blood of Christ.

¹⁴For he is our peace, who made the two groups one, and has broken down the dividing wall of hostility,

¹⁵by abolishing in his flesh the hostility, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that he might create in himself one new human of the two, thus making peace,

¹⁶and reconciling them both in one body to God through the cross, through which the hostility has been killed.

¹⁷He came and preached peace to y’all who were far off and to those who were near.

¹⁸For through him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father.

¹⁹Therefore, y’all are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God,

²⁰being built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief cornerstone,

²¹in whom the whole building, fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord,

²²in whom y’all also are built together for a dwelling of God in the Spirit.