Ephesians 2 (NMV)
1 And you were dead in your violations of God's commands and your sins
2 in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air [a Roman term for the unseen realm where spiritual forces of evil were thought to operate], the spirit now working in the sons of disobedience.
3 Among them we all also once lived in the desires of our flesh, carrying out the inclinations of the flesh and of the mind, and we were by nature children of wrath, just like the rest of humanity.
4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,
5 even when we were dead in our violations of God's commands, He made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved.
6 And He raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,
7 so that in the coming ages He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God,
9 not by works, so that no one can boast.
10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.
11 Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles [non-Jews] in the flesh, who are called "the uncircumcised" by those who call themselves "the circumcised" (which is done in the flesh by human hands),
12 remember that at that time you were without Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel, strangers to the covenants of promise, having no confident expectation and without God in the world.
13 But now in Christ Jesus, you who were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
14 For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups one and broke down the dividing wall of hostility in His flesh.
15 He abolished the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, so that He might create in Himself one new humanity from the two, making peace,
16 and might reconcile both to God in one body through the cross, by which He put the hostility to death.
17 And He came and proclaimed peace to you who were far away, and peace to those who were near.
18 For through Him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.
19 So then you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the believers who belong to Christ, and members of God's household,
20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the cornerstone.
21 In Him the whole building is being joined together and is growing into a holy temple in the Lord.
22 In Him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.