Ephesians 2

Before you trusted Christ, you were powerless to obey God. You were as helpless as a person who is dead.

You were like most people in the world today, and you, too, did what Satan wants. Satan is the ruler of the evil spirits who have great power over the world, and he is the evil spirit who is at work in the lives of people who disobey God.

We were at one time among those who disobeyed God; we did the evil things that we desired, things that would bring pleasure to our bodies and our minds. So God was very angry with us, just as with the others.

But God acts very mercifully, and he loves us very much.

We were like dead people, powerless to do what is good, and we had broken God's laws. But then he made us live again by joining us to Christ. The reason God saved you is because God loves you with a love you did not deserve.

He raised us up from among those who are like dead people, and he gave us seats of honor to rule with Christ Jesus in heavenly places.

He did this to show in future times how kind he has been to us, for we are joined to Christ Jesus.

For God has saved you from his punishment by his extreme kindness given to you because you trust Jesus. You have not saved yourselves; this is a gift from God—

a gift that no one can earn, so no one can boast and say that he has saved himself.

So God has created us as new people joined to Christ Jesus, so we can do good things—things that God planned long ago for us to do.

Do not forget that you Gentile believers were previously called Gentiles because you were not born as Jews. The Jews insulted you by calling you "uncircumcised pagans." They call themselves "the circumcision"; by this they mean that they, not you, are God's people, although circumcision is something that only humans do, not God.

At that time, you did not have any part of Christ and you were not part of his people Israel. You did not know God's promises and law. You did not have confidence in the future that God promised you, and as you lived your lives, you did not know God.

But now because of what Christ Jesus has done, you have been able to trust in him because Christ agreed to die on the cross.

Christ has brought peace and unity between Jews and Gentiles by destroying the barrier between us, and he made us all to be one people as if he had destroyed a wall of hate between us.

He made it no longer necessary for us to obey all the Jewish laws and commandments. He made Jews and Gentiles into one people instead of two because he made peace between us.

Jesus caused us both to become friends with God in one new group of believers. By dying on the cross, Jesus made it possible for us to stop hating each other.

Jesus came and proclaimed the good news that brings peace with God; he proclaimed it both to you Gentiles, who did not know about God, and to us who did know about God.

Through Jesus we both can speak with the Father because God's Spirit lives in all believers.

Therefore now you are no longer strangers and foreigners to God's people, but instead you are fellow members with those whom God has set apart for himself, and you belong to God's family for whom God is the Father.

You are like stones that God has made to be part of his building, and the building is built on what the apostles and prophets taught. The most important stone of the building, the cornerstone, is Christ Jesus himself.

Jesus is increasing his family of believers and fitting them together like a temple of stones is built and fit together, increasing as the Lord joins new believers to himself.

Jesus is building you into one family in which God lives by means of his Spirit.