7. He has done it to show the riches of his grace for all time to come. His grace can't be compared with anything else. He has shown it by being kind to us because of what Christ Jesus has done.
8. God's grace has saved you because of your faith in Christ. Your salvation doesn't come from anything you do. It is God's gift.
9. It is not based on anything you have done. No one can brag about earning it.
10. God made us. He created us to belong to Christ Jesus. Now we can do good things. Long ago God prepared them for us to do.
11. You who are not Jews by birth, here is what I want you to remember. You are called "uncircumcised" by those who call themselves "circumcised." But they have only been circumcised in their bodies by human hands.
12. Before you believed in Christ, you were separated from him. You were not considered to be citizens of Israel. You were not included in what the covenants promised. You were without hope and without God in the world.
13. At one time you were far away from God. But now you belong to Christ Jesus. He spilled his blood for you. That has brought you near to God.
14. Christ himself is our peace. He has made Jews and non-Jews into one group of people. He has destroyed the hatred that was like a wall between us.
15. Through his body on the cross, Christ put an end to the law with all its commands and rules. He wanted to create one new group of people out of the two. He wanted to make peace between them.
16. He planned to bring both of them as one body back to God because of the cross. Christ put their hatred to death on that cross.