1There was a time when you were dead. That was because of the bad and the wrong things you did. 2At one time you did those wrong things, just like the people around you. You obeyed the ruler who has the power over things in the air. That ruler is the spirit who is working now in the people who do not obey God. 3At one time we too all lived like them. We lived to please ourselves. We did what our bodies and our minds wanted us to do. We were people with whom God was angry, just like other people. 4But God was very, very kind. He loved us very, very much. 5We were dead because of the wrong things we had done. He has made us alive with Christ. You have been saved by his love and kindness. 6God raised us from death with Christ Jesus and gave us a place to sit with him in heaven. 7He did this to show us in all times to come how much he can bless people and how kind he is. It was Jesus Christ who brought this kindness to us. 8You have been saved by Gods love and kindness because you believed. It was not because of anything you did, but it was a gift from God. 9You were not saved by trying to do what the law says. So no one can be proud about it. 10God has made us. In Jesus Christ God made us so that we can do good things. He planned that we should live that way. 11So remember that you were not born Jews. (They call you The Uncircumcised). 12Remember you did not know Christ at that time. You were far away from the people of Israel. You had no part in the agreements which God promised to them. You had no hope and you were without God in this world. 13At one time you were far away, but now you have been brought near to God by the blood death of Jesus Christ. 14Christ has made peace between us. He has brought both Jews and non-Jews together into one people. He has broken down the wall that divided us. 15In his own body Christ made an end of the law and its rules. He did this so that in him two peoples could become one. In this way, he made peace between us. 16He did this so that by the cross he might bring both kinds of people back to God in one body. And by the cross he has stopped our hating each other. 17He came and said that there is now peace. There is peace for you who were far away from God and for those who were near. 18Because of what Christ has done, we can come to the Father by one Spirit. 19So then you are no longer strangers or people far away. But you live with Gods people and belong to Gods family. 20Gods family is like a house and you are part of the building. The apostles and prophets are like the lower walls of the house and you are the building on this foundation. Jesus Christ is the big stone at the corner. 21He is the one who holds the whole house together, and it becomes a holy house belonging to the Lord. 22You too are a part of this house. God himself lives in this house by his Spirit.