Ultimately God is the one worthy of praise for showing us His grace; He is merciful and marvelous, freely giving us these gifts in His Beloved.

a plan that will climax when the time is right as He returns to create order and unity—both in heaven and on earth—when all things are brought together under the Anointed’s royal rule. In Him

we stand to inherit even more. As His heirs, we are predestined to play a key role in His unfolding purpose that is energizing everything to conform to His will.

Because you, too, have heard the word of truth—the good news of your salvation—and because you believed in the One who is truth, your lives are marked with His seal. This is none other than the Holy Spirit who was promised

This is why, when I heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus that is present in your community and of your great love for all God’s people,

Let them see the full extent of Your power that is at work in those of us who believe, and may it be done according to Your might and power. Friends, it is this same might and resurrection power that

He used in the Anointed One to raise Him from the dead and to position Him at His right hand in heaven. There is nothing over Him.

This church is His body, the fullness of the One who fills all in all.

As for you, don’t you remember how you used to just exist? Corpses, dead in life, buried by transgressions,

For it’s by God’s grace that you have been saved. You receive it through faith. It was not our plan or our effort. It is God’s gift, pure and simple. You didn’t earn it, not one of us did, so don’t go around bragging that you must have done something amazing.

So never forget how you used to be. Those of you born as outsiders to Israel were outcasts, branded “the uncircumcised” by those who bore the sign of the covenant in their flesh, a sign made with human hands.

He is the embodiment of our peace, sent once and for all to take down the great barrier of hatred and hostility that has divided us so that we can be one.

Effectively the cross becomes God’s means to kill off the hostility once and for all so that He is able to reconcile them both to God in this one new body.

The building is joined together stone by stone—all of us chosen and sealed in Him, rising up to become a holy temple in the Lord.

All this is exactly why I, Paul, am a prisoner of Jesus the Anointed, His representative to the outsider nations.

Specifically, the mystery is this: by trusting in the good news, the Gentile outsiders are becoming fully enfranchised members of the same body, heirs alongside Israel, and beneficiaries of the promise that has been fulfilled through Jesus the Anointed.

So I ask you not to become discouraged because I am jailed for speaking out on your behalf. In fact, my suffering is something that brings you glory.

It is for this reason that I bow my knees before the Father,

with all of Your people they will have the power to understand that the love of the Anointed is infinitely long, wide, high, and deep, surpassing everything anyone previously experienced. God, may Your fullness flood through their entire beings.

Now to the God who can do so many awe-inspiring things, immeasurable things, things greater than we ever could ask or imagine through the power at work in us,

As a prisoner of the Lord, I urge you: Live a life that is worthy of the calling He has graciously extended to you.

There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were all called to pursue one hope.

There is one Lord Jesus, one living faith, one ceremonial washing through baptism, and

one God—the Father over all who is above all, through all, and in all.

(Well, when it says “He ascended,” then that must mean that He had descended earlier to the lower levels, that is, to the earth.