New Testament · Letters

Ephesians chapter 2

There was a time when you were — and I mean completely lifeless — because of the ways you’d and the you lived in.That was just the way everyone lived back then. You followed the patterns of this , influenced by the — the that’s still actively working in everyone who refuses to listen to God.And honestly, we were all right there with them. Every one of us lived to satisfy the cravings of our , doing whatever our bodies and minds wanted. Left to ourselves, we were heading for the same outcome as everyone else — facing to all of it.But God — who is incredibly , because of how deeply he loved us —even when we were still dead because of our failures, he with The One. (You’ve been entirely by his .)He The One and in the — all of this in connection with The One, Jesus.He did this so that in the he could keep showing the of his undeserved kindness toward us through what he’s done in The One, Jesus.Here’s the thing — it’s by his undeserved kindness that you’ve been rescued, through . And none of this came from you; it’s God’s .It’s not based on anything you’ve , so nobody can for it.We are — in The One, Jesus, to do the God planned out for us long ago, so that we’d actually live them out.So remember this: you who are by birth — called “the uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the ” (which is just something done to the body by human hands) —remember that back then you were separated from , excluded from the , strangers to the , living in the world without any hope and without God.But now, in The One, Jesus — you who used to be so have been brought close through the of The One.Because he himself is our . He took the two groups and made them one, and he tore down the that stood between them — the that divided them —by setting aside, in his own body, the entire . His purpose was to create out of the two groups, making peace in himself,and to bring both groups together into , fully God through the — killing the hostility through it.He came and : peace to you who were and peace to those who were .Because through him, both groups now have to by .So then, you’re no longer . Instead, you’re with and members of God’s own .You’ve been built on the laid by the and , with The One, Jesus himself, as the that holds it all together.In him the whole structure is and into .And in him, you too are into by .