Good News [1976], GOOD NEWS BIBLE WITH DEUTEROCANONICALS / APOCRYPHA Today's English Version (AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY, New York) [word count] [B15000].
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From Death to Life
1 In the past you were spiritually
dead because of your disobedience
and sins.
2 At that time you followed
the world's evil way; you
obeyed the ruler of the spiritual
powers in space, the spirit who now
controls the people who disobey
God.
3 Actually all of us were like
them and lived according to our
natural desires, doing whatever
suited the wishes of our own bodies
and minds. In our natural condition
we, like everyone else, were destined
to suffer God's anger.
4 But God's mercy is so abundant,
and his love for us is so great,
5 that
while we were spiritually dead in
our disobedience he brought us to
life with Christ. It is by God's grace
that you have been saved. note
6 In our
union with Christ Jesus he raised us
up with him to rule with him in the
heavenly world.
7 He did this to demonstrate
for all time to come the
extraordinary greatness of his grace
in the love he showed us in Christ
-- --
Jesus.
8
9 For it is by God's grace that
you have been saved through faith.
It is not the result of your own efforts,
but God's gift, so that no one
can boast about it.
10 God has made
us what we are, and in our union
with Christ Jesus he has created us
for a life of good deeds, which he has
already prepared for us to do.
One in Christ
11 You Gentiles by birth—called
“the uncircumcised” by the Jews,
who call themselves the circumcised
(which refers to what men do to
their bodies)—remember what you
were in the past.
12 At that time you
were apart from Christ. You were
foreigners and did not belong to
God's chosen people. You had no
part in the covenants, which were
based on God's promises to his people,
and you lived in this world without
hope and without God.
13 But
now, in union with Christ Jesus you,
who used to be far away, have been
brought near by the sacrificial death
of Christ.
14 For Christ himself has
brought us peace by making Jews
and Gentiles one people. With his
own body he broke down the wall
that separated them and kept them
enemies.
15 He abolished the Jewish
Law with its commandments and
rules, in order to create out of the
two races one new people in union
with himself, in this way making
peace. note
16 By his death on the cross
Christ destroyed their enmity; by
means of the cross he united both
races into one body and brought
them back to God. note
17 So Christ came
and preached the Good News of
peace to all—to you Gentiles, who
were far away from God, and to the
Jews, who were near to him. note
18 It is
through Christ that all of us, Jews
and Gentiles, are able to come in the
one Spirit into the presence of the
Father.
19 So then, you Gentiles are not
foreigners or strangers any longer;
you are now fellow citizens with
God's people and members of the
family of God.
20 You, too, are built
upon the foundation laid by the
apostles and prophets, note the cornerstone
being Christ Jesus himself.
21 He is the one who holds the whole
building together and makes it grow
into a sacred temple dedicated to the
Lord.
22 In union with him you too
are being built together with all the
others into a place where God lives
through his Spirit.
Good News [1976], GOOD NEWS BIBLE WITH DEUTEROCANONICALS / APOCRYPHA Today's English Version (AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY, New York) [word count] [B15000].
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