Ephesians:2

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* To you Gentiles also , who were dead through your offences and sins , * which were once habitual to you while you walked in the ways of this world and obeyed the Prince of the powers of the air , the spirits that are now at work in the hearts of the sons of disobedience –to you God has given Life . * Among them all of us also formerly passed our lives , governed by the inclinations of our lower natures , indulging the cravings of those natures and of our own thoughts , and were in our original state deserving of anger like all others . * But God , being rich in mercy , because of the intense love which He bestowed on us , * caused us , dead though we were through our offences , to live with Christ –it is by grace that you have been saved – * raised us with Him from the dead , and enthroned us with Him in the heavenly realms as being in Christ Jesus , * in order that , by His goodness to us in Christ Jesus , He might display in the Ages to come the transcendent riches of His grace . * For it is by grace that you have been saved through faith ; and that not of yourselves . It is God 's gift , and is not on the ground of merit – * so that it may be impossible for any one to boast . * For we are God 's own handiwork , created in Christ Jesus for good works which He has pre-destined us to practise . * Therefore , do not forget that formerly you were Gentiles as to your bodily condition . You were called the Uncircumcision by those who style themselves the Circumcised –their circumcision being one which the knife has effected . * At that time you were living apart from Christ , estranged from the Commonwealth of Israel , with no share by birth in the Covenants which are based on the Promises , and you had no hope and no God , in all the world . * But now in Christ Jesus you who once were so far away have been brought near through the death of Christ . * For He is our peace –He who has made Jews and Gentiles one , and in His own human nature has broken down the hostile dividing wall , * by setting aside the Law with its commandments , expressed , as they were , in definite decrees . His design was to unite the two sections of humanity in Himself so as to form one new man , * thus effecting peace , and to reconcile Jews and Gentiles in one body to God , by means of His cross –slaying by it their mutual enmity . * So He came and proclaimed good news of peace to you who were so far away , and peace to those who were near ; * because it is through Him that Jews and Gentiles alike have access through one Spirit to the Father . * You are therefore no longer mere foreigners or persons excluded from civil rights . On the contrary you share citizenship with God 's people and are members of His family . * You are a building which has been reared on the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets , the cornerstone being Christ Jesus Himself , * in union with whom the whole fabric , fitted and closely joined together , is growing so as to form a holy sanctuary in the Lord ; * in whom you also are being built up together to become a fixed abode for God through the Spirit .

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