Ephesians 2:13

Plain English Version

But now it is different for you. At first you were far away from God, but then you believed in Jesus. You believed that he died, and that his blood came out for you. Then God joined you to Jesus Christ, and he brought you really close to himself.

Cross References

John 10:16

And not all of my people are from the same mob. They are not all Jewish people. I have other people too, and I have to bring them all together, like one mob of sheep. They will hear my voice, and they will come to me. Yes, I will bring all my people together into one mob, and I will look after them all, like a good shepherd looks after his sheep.

Acts 15:14

Peter just told us the story about how God showed himself to people that are not Jews, and that he picked some of them to be his own people.

Acts 22:21

But our leader, Jesus, said to me, ‘No, don’t stay here. Leave Jerusalem. You see, I’m sending you a long way from here. I’m sending you to people that are not Jews.’ ”

Acts 26:18

and you will tell them the true message about me. It will be like you will open their eyes so that they can see things properly. They will come to God. Then Satan, the boss over the bad spirits, he will not control them with his power any more. It is like they are always in the dark now, but they will come into the light. They will believe in me, and they will stop believing lies. And then God will say they are not guilty of the bad things they did, and they will be God’s people.’ Jesus said that to me.”

Romans 8:1

The important thing that I want to say now is this. If we belong to Jesus Christ, God will never say we are guilty.

1 Corinthians 1:30

But as for you, God joined you to Jesus Christ. You and us together, Jesus helps us to be wise, like God. And Jesus makes us to be God’s friends, so that he will tell us we are all right. And Jesus makes us God’s own special people too. Jesus died to pay for us and set us free from everything that is wrong.

1 Corinthians 12:13

Some of us are Jews, and the rest of us are not Jews. Some of us are free, and some of us are like prisoners that have to work for no pay. But no matter what we are, God put his spirit into all of us, that is, he baptised us in his spirit. He did that to join us together into one body. Now we all have that same Holy Spirit in us.

1 Corinthians 6:11

And I know that some of you used to be bad people like that before. You did that sort of bad thing, but now you believe in Jesus Christ and let him be your boss. And God’s spirit came into you and washed you inside, and he made you God’s own special people, so that God says you are all right now.

Galatians 3:28

You are all joined to Jesus Christ, so you are all joined to each other. You are not different from each other any more. It doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or not. It doesn’t matter if you are a man or a woman. It doesn’t matter if somebody keeps you like a prisoner, or if you are free. None of that matters. You are all joined to Jesus Christ, so you are all the same as each other.

Ephesians 1:1

I am Paul, and this letter is from me. God got me to be one of Jesus Christ’s special workers. I’m sending this letter to all God’s people there at Ephesus, all you people that follow Jesus Christ properly.

Ephesians 1:7

You know, we were prisoners of the devil, the boss over the bad spirits. But Jesus died for us, and his blood came out for us. Jesus paid for us with his own blood, and he set us free from the devil. So now God will not punish us for all the bad things we did. Yes, God is very good to us.

Ephesians 2:10

God is the one that made us what we are, and he wants us to do good things. He already has those good things ready for us to do. He turned us into new people, and he joined us to Jesus Christ, so now we can do those good things.

Ephesians 2:2

You didn’t do what God wants, but instead, you always did bad things, just like the other people in this world do. You used to do the things the devil wants. He is the boss over those strong bad spirits that are in the air. That devil is working now inside everyone that will not do what God wants.

Ephesians 2:6

And God joined us to Jesus, and God lifted us up to sit with Jesus Christ in heaven.

1 Peter 3:18

All of us have done wrong things, so we should die, but Jesus Christ died instead of us. He took the payback for the bad things we did. He never did anything wrong himself, but he died instead of us, so that we can go to God and become his family. Jesus died just once, but God remembers it for ever. People killed Jesus, but God’s spirit made him alive again.