8. I mean that you have been saved by grace because you believed. You did not save yourselves; it was a gift from God.
9. You are not saved by the things you have done, so there is nothing to boast about.
10. God has made us what we are. In Christ Jesus, God made us new people so that we would spend our lives doing the good things he had already planned for us to do.
11. You were not born as Jews. You are the people the Jews call “uncircumcised.” Those Jews who call you “uncircumcised” call themselves “circumcised.” (Their circumcision is only something they themselves do to their bodies.)
12. Remember that in the past you were without Christ. You were not citizens of Israel, and you did not know about the agreements with the promises that God made to his people. You had no hope, and you did not know God.
13. Yes, at one time you were far away from God, but now in Christ Jesus, you are brought near to him. You are brought near to God through the blood sacrifice of Christ.
14. Christ is the reason we are now at peace. He made us Jews and you who are not Jews one people. We were separated by a wall of hate that stood between us, but Christ broke down that wall. By giving his own body,
15. Christ ended the law with its many commands and rules. His purpose was to make the two groups become one in him. By doing this he would make peace.
16. Through the cross Christ ended the hate between the two groups. And after they became one body, he wanted to bring them both back to God. He did this with his death on the cross.
17. Christ came and brought the message of peace to you non-Jews who were far away from God. And he brought that message of peace to those who were near to God.