Shared Word Translation
Ephesians 2
From Death to Life
And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you once walked, following the course of this age, following the ruler of the authority of the air, the spirit now at work among the children of disobedience. Among them we too once lived, in the desires of our flesh, doing what the flesh and the mind willed; and we were by nature children of wrath, like the rest.
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, made us alive together with the Messiah—when we were dead in our trespasses—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up together with him and seated us together with him in the heavenly places, in the Messiah Jesus, so that in the ages to come he might display the surpassing riches of his grace, in his kindness toward us in the Messiah Jesus.
Saved by Grace
For by grace you have been saved, through faith. And this is not from yourselves; it is the gift of God— not from works, so that no one may boast. For we are his making, created in the Messiah Jesus for good works, which God prepared in advance, that we might walk in them.
Once Far Off, Now Brought Near
Therefore remember that once you, the Gentiles in the flesh—called "the uncircumcision" by what is called "the circumcision," the kind that is done in flesh by hands— that at that time you were apart from the Messiah, alienated from the citizenship of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now, in the Messiah Jesus, you who once were far off have been brought near in the blood of the Messiah.
The One Who Is Our Peace
For he himself is our peace, the one who has made the two one and has broken down the dividing wall of hostility, setting aside in his flesh the law of commandments in decrees, so that in himself he might create the two into one new humanity, making peace, and might reconcile both to God in one body through the cross, putting the hostility to death by it. And he came and proclaimed the good news of peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.
A Household, a Temple
So then you are no longer strangers and resident aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with the Messiah Jesus himself as the cornerstone, in whom the whole building, fitted together, is rising into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling for God in the Spirit.