2:1 | You were spiritually dead through your sins and failures, |
2:2 | all the time that you followed this world's ideas of living, and obeyed the evil ruler of the spiritual realmwho is indeed fully operative today in these who disobey God. |
2:3 | We all lived like that in the past, and followed the desires and imaginings of our lower nature, being in fact under the wrath of God by nature, like everyone else. |
2:4 | (2:5) But even though we were dead in our sins (2:4) God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love he had for us, |
2:5 | gave us life together with Christit is, remember, by grace that you am saved |
2:6 | and has lifted us to take our place with him in Christ Jesus in the Heavens. |
2:7 | Thus he shows for all the ages to come the tremendous generosity of the grace and kindness he has expressed towards us in Christ Jesus. |
2:8 | For it is by grace that you are saved, through faith. This does not depend on anything you have achieved, it is the free gift of God; |
2:9 | and because it is not earned no man can boast about it. |
2:10 | For God has made us what we are, created in Christ Jesus to do those good deeds which he planned for us to do. |
2:11 | Do not lose sight of the fact that you were born "gentiles", known by those whose bodies were circumcised by the hand of man as "the uncircumcised". |
2:12 | You were then without Christ, you were utter strangers to God's chosen community, Israel, and you had no knowledge of, or right to, the promised agreements. You had nothing to look forward to and no God to whom you could turn. |
2:13 | But now, in Christ Jesus, you who were once far off are brought near through the shedding of Christ's blood. |
2:14 | For Christ is our living peace. He has made us both one by breaking down the barrier and enmity which lay between us. |
2:15 | By his sacrifice he removed the hostility of the Law, with all its commandments and rules, and made in himself out of the two, Jew and gentile, one new man, thus producing peace. |
2:16 | For he reconciled both to God by the sacrifice of one body on the cross, and by his act killed the enmity between them. |
2:17 | Then he came and brought the good news of peace to you who were far from God and to us who were near. |
2:18 | And it is through him that both of us now can approach the Father in the one Spirit. |
2:19 | So you are no longer outsiders or aliens, but fellowcitizens with every other Christianyou belong now to the household of God. |
2:20 | Firmly beneath you is the foundation, God's messengers and prophets, the cornerstone being Christ Jesus himself. |
2:21 | In him each separate piece of building, properly fitting into its neighbour, grows together into a temple consecrated to the Lord. |
2:22 | You are, all part of this building in which God himself liven by his Spirit. |