Ephesians 2

And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit now at work in the sons of disobedience. Among them we all once lived in the desires of our flesh, doing what the flesh and our thoughts desired, and we were by nature children of wrath, like the rest. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up together and seated us together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might display the surpassing riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is the gift of God, not from works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. Therefore remember that formerly you, Gentiles in the flesh, were called “uncircumcision” by the so-called “circumcision,” made in the flesh by human hands. At that time you were apart from Christ, excluded from the citizenship 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 away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace. He made both one and broke down the dividing wall of separation—the hostility—in his flesh, by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, so that he might create in himself one new man out of the two, making peace, and reconcile both to God in one body through the cross, putting the hostility to death by it. He came and proclaimed peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near, because through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and foreign residents, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of God's household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone. In him the whole building, joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you too are being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

Rights and attribution