▒ BIBLE.KR - BCC(성경통신교육원) ▒

Easy to Read Version|읽기쉬운성경

From Death to Life

¹In the past you were spiritually dead because of your sins and the things you did against God. ²Yes, in the past your lives were full of those sins. You lived the way the world lives, following the ruler of the evil powersa over the earth. That same spirit is now working in those who refuse to obey God. ³In the past all of us lived like that, trying to please our sinful selves. We did all the things our bodies and minds wanted. Like everyone else in the world, we deserved to suffer God's anger just because of the way we were.
⁴But God is rich in mercy, and he loved us very much. ⁵We were spiritually dead because of all we had done against him. But he gave us new life together with Christ. (You have been saved by God's graceb.) ⁶Yes, it is because we are a part of Christ Jesus that God raised us from death and seated us together with him in the heavenly places. ⁷God did this so that his kindness to us who belong to Christ Jesus would clearly show for all time to come the amazing richness of his grace.
⁸I mean that you have been saved by grace because you believed. You did not save yourselves; it was a gift from God. ⁹You are not saved by the things you have done, so there is nothing to boast about. ¹⁰God 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.

One in Christ ¹¹You were not born as Jews. You are the people the Jews call "uncircumcisedc." Those Jews who call you "uncircumcised" call themselves "circumcised." (Their circumcisiond is only something they themselves do to their bodies.) ¹²Remember that in the past you were without Christ. You were not citizens of Israele, and you did not know about the agreementsf with the promises that God made to his people. You had no hope, and you did not know God. ¹³Yes, 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.
¹⁴Christ 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, ¹⁵Christ 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. ¹⁶Through 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. ¹⁷Christ 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. ¹⁸Yes, through Christ we all have the right to come to the Father in one Spiritg.
¹⁹So now you non-Jewish people are not visitors or strangers, but you are citizens together with God's holy peopleh. You belong to God's family. ²⁰You believers are like a building that God owns. That building was built on the foundation that the apostlesi and prophetsj prepared. Christ Jesus himself is the most important stonek in that building. ²¹The whole building is joined together in Christ, and he makes it grow and become a holy templel in the Lord. ²²And in Christ you are being built together with his other people. You are being made into a place where God lives through the Spirit.

^aruler of the evil powers See “Satan.”
^bgrace The love and kindness that God shows in his complete willingness to give people favors he does not owe them and blessings they don’t deserve.
^c2:11 uncircumcised People not having the mark of circumcision like the Jews have.
^dcircumcise, circumcision Cutting off the foreskin of the male sex organ. This was done to every Jewish baby boy as a mark of the agreement God made with Abraham. Read Gen. 17:9-14. Sometimes “circumcision” is used with “heart” in the figurative sense of true devotion to God. (See Jer. 9:26; Rom. 2:28.) In the New Testament “circumcision” is also used in a spiritual sense to refer to the changed life of believers who have come to share in the new agreement God gave his people through Jesus. (See Php. 3:3; Col. 2:11.)
^eIsrael Another name for Jacob (see Gen. 32:24-28) and for the nation God chose to accomplish his plan of blessing the world through the Messiah (see “Messiah”). The people of Israel were the descendants of Jacob’s twelve sons. In the New Testament this name is sometimes used in a broader sense to mean all of God’s people.
^f2:12 agreements The agreements with special promises that God gave at various times to people in the Old Testament. See “agreement” in the Word List.
^gSpirit See “Holy Spirit.”
^hholy people Literally, “saints” or “holy ones,” a term used in the New Testament to describe followers of Jesus Christ as God’s special people. They are holy because they have been made pure through Christ and belong only to God. See “holy.”
ⁱapostle A follower of Jesus chosen to represent him in a special way. During his earthly ministry, Jesus named twelve men as apostles. They had the specific responsibility and authority to represent him and proclaim his message throughout the world. Later, he appeared to Paul and gave him a similar commission, especially to non-Jewish people. Barnabas, Paul’s missionary companion, and James, the brother of Jesus, are also called apostles, as well as several others in the New Testament. Some of these occurrences of the word, however, have the more general sense of “messenger” or “representative.”
^jprophet A person who speaks a message from God. Many of the books in the Old Testament are messages spoken or written by “the prophets,” who were some of those God chose to speak for him. God often used dreams or visions to tell or show his prophets what they should say.
^k2:20 most important stone Literally, “cornerstone.” The first and most important stone in a building.
^l2:21 temple God’s house - the place where God’s people worship him. Here, it means that believers are the spiritual temple where God lives.