1. In the past your spiritual lives were dead because of your sins and the things you did wrong against God.
2. Yes, in the past you lived the way the world lives. You followed the ruler of the evil powers that are above the earth. That same spirit is now working in those who refuse to obey God.
3. In the past all of us lived like them. We lived trying to please our sinful selves. We did all the things our bodies and minds wanted. We should have suffered God’s anger because we were sinful by nature. We were the same as all other people.
4. But God’s mercy is great, and he loved us very much.
5. We were spiritually dead because of the things we did wrong against God. But God gave us new life with Christ. You have been saved by God’s grace.
6. And he raised us up with Christ and gave us a seat with him in the heavens. He did this for those of us who are in Christ Jesus.
7. He did this so that for all future time he could show the very great riches of his grace. He shows that grace by being kind to us in Christ Jesus.
8. I mean that you have been saved by grace because you believe. You did not save yourselves. It was a gift from God.
9. You cannot brag that you are saved by the work you have done.
10. God has made us what we are. In Christ Jesus, God made us new people so that we would do good works. God had planned in advance those good works for us. He had planned for us to live our lives doing them.
11. You were born non-Jews. You are the people the Jews call “uncircumcised.” Those who call you “uncircumcised” call themselves “circumcised.” (Their circumcision is only something they themselves do on their bodies.)