Fluent Translation · Read & Reflect
Ephesians 2
Made Alive by Grace
You were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the age of this world, according to the ruler of the authority of the air, the spirit now at work in the children of disobedience. We all once lived among them in the desires of our flesh, doing what the flesh and our thoughts wanted, 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, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up together and seated us together in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through trust, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift, not from works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we might walk in them.
One New Humanity
Therefore remember that formerly you Gentiles in the flesh—called “uncircumcision” by what is called “circumcision,” performed in the flesh by human hands— remember that at that time you were without Christ, excluded from the citizenship of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who made both groups one and broke down the dividing wall of hostility in his flesh. He rendered powerless the Law of commandments in ordinances, so that he might create in himself one new humanity from the two, making peace, and reconcile both to God in one body through the cross, killing the hostility through it. He came and announced good news of peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near, because through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.
A Dwelling Place for God
So then you are no longer strangers and resident foreigners, but fellow citizens with the holy ones and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. In him the whole building, joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God in the Spirit.