Chapter 2

He found you dead men; such were your transgressions, such were the sinful ways

you lived in. That was when you followed the fashion of this world, when you owned a prince whose domain is in the lower air, that spirit whose influence is still at work among the unbelievers.

We too, all of us, were once of their company; our life was bounded by natural appetites, and we did what corrupt nature or our own calculation would have us do, with God’s displeasure for our birthright, like other men.

How rich God is in mercy, with what an excess of love he loved us!

Our sins had made dead men of us, and he, in giving life to Christ, gave life to us too; it is his grace that has saved you;

raised us up too, enthroned us too above the heavens, in Christ Jesus.

He would have all future ages see, in that clemency which he shewed us in Christ Jesus, the surpassing richness of his grace.

Yes, it was grace that saved you, with faith for its instrument; it did not come from yourselves, it was God’s gift,

not from any action of yours, or there would be room for pride.

No, we are his design; God has created us in Christ Jesus, pledged to such good actions as he has prepared beforehand, to be the employment of our lives.

Remember, then, what you once were, the Gentiles, according to all outward reckoning; those who claim an outward circumcision which is man’s handiwork call you the uncircumcised.

In those days there was no Christ for you; you were outlaws from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers to every covenant, with no promise to hope for, with the world about you, and no God.

But now you are in Christ Jesus; now, through the blood of Christ, you have been brought close, you who were once so far away.

He is our bond of peace; he has made the two nations one, breaking down the wall that was a barrier between us, the enmity there was between us, in his own mortal nature.

He has put an end to the law with its decrees, so as to make peace, remaking the two human creatures as one in himself;

both sides, united in a single body, he would reconcile to God through his cross, inflicting death, in his own person, upon the feud.

So he came, and his message was of peace for you who were far off, peace for those who were near;

far off or near, united in the same Spirit, we have access through him to the Father.

You are no longer exiles, then, or aliens; the saints are your fellow citizens, you belong to God’s household.

Apostles and prophets are the foundation on which you were built, and the chief corner-stone of it is Jesus Christ himself.

In him the whole fabric is bound together, as it grows into a temple, dedicated to the Lord;

in him you too are being built in with the rest, so that God may find in you a dwelling-place for his Spirit.