6. God has brought us back to life together with Christ Jesus and has given us a position in heaven with him.
7. He did this through Christ Jesus out of his generosity to us in order to show his extremely rich kindness in the world to come.
8. God saved you through faith as an act of kindness. You had nothing to do with it. Being saved is a gift from God.
9. It’s not the result of anything you’ve done, so no one can brag about it.
10. God has made us what we are. He has created us in Christ Jesus to live lives filled with good works that he has prepared for us to do.
11. Remember that once you were not Jewish physically. Those who called themselves “the circumcised” because of what they had done to their bodies called you “the uncircumcised.”
12. Also, at that time you were without Christ. You were excluded from citizenship in Israel, and the pledges ⌊God made in his⌋ promise were foreign to you. You had no hope and were in the world without God.
13. But now through Christ Jesus you, who were once far away, have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
14. So he is our peace. In his body he has made Jewish and non-Jewish people one by breaking down the wall of hostility that kept them apart.
15. He brought an end to the commandments and demands found in Moses’ Teachings so that he could take Jewish and non-Jewish people and create one new humanity in himself. So he made peace.
16. He also brought them back to God in one body by his cross, on which he killed the hostility.
17. He came with the Good News of peace for you who were far away and for those who were near.