002:001 To you Gentiles also, who were dead through your offences and sins,
002:002 which were once habitual to you while you walked in the ways
of this world and obeyed the Prince of the powers of the air,
the spirits that are now at work in the hearts of the sons
of disobedience--to you God has given Life.
002:003 Among them all of us also formerly passed our lives, governed by
the inclinations of our lower natures, indulging the cravings
of those natures and of our own thoughts, and were in our
original state deserving of anger like all others.
002:004 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the intense love
which He bestowed on us,
002:005 caused us, dead though we were through our offences, to live
with Christ--it is by grace that you have been saved--
002:006 raised us with Him from the dead, and enthroned us with Him
in the heavenly realms as being in Christ Jesus,
002:007 in order that, by His goodness to us in Christ Jesus, He might
display in the Ages to come the transcendent riches of His grace.
002:008 For it is by grace that you have been saved through faith;
and that not of yourselves. It is God's gift, and is not on
the ground of merit--
002:009 so that it may be impossible for any one to boast.
002:010 For we are God's own handiwork, created in Christ Jesus
for good works which He has pre-destined us to practise.
002:011 Therefore, do not forget that formerly you were Gentiles as to
your bodily condition. You were called the Uncircumcision
by those who style themselves the Circumcised--their circumcision
being one which the knife has effected.
002:012 At that time you were living apart from Christ, estranged from
the Commonwealth of Israel, with no share by birth in the Covenants
which are based on the Promises, and you had no hope and no God,