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¹ And you he made alive, when you were dead through the trespasses and sins² in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience.³ Among these we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of body and mind, and so we were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

⁴ But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us,⁵ even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),⁶ and raised us up with him, and made us sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,⁷ that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.⁸ For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God--⁹ not because of works, lest any man should boast.¹⁰ For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

¹¹ Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands--¹² remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.¹³ But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near in the blood of Christ.

¹⁴ For he is our peace, who has made us both one, and has broken down the dividing wall of hostility,¹⁵ by abolishing in his flesh the law of commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace,¹⁶ and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby bringing the hostility to an end.¹⁷ And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near;¹⁸ for through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.¹⁹ So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,²⁰ built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone,²¹ in whom the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord;²² in whom you also are built into it for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.