Study Desk

In Christ we were chosen to be God's people. God had already planned for us to be his people, because that is what he wanted. And he is the one who makes everything agree with what he decides and wants.

We Jews were the first to hope in Christ. And we were chosen so that we would bring praise to God in all his glory.

It is the same with you. You heard the true message, the Good News about the way God saves you. When you heard that Good News, you believed in Christ. And in Christ, God put his special mark on you by giving you the Holy Spirit that he promised.

The Spirit is the first payment that guarantees we will get all that God has for us. Then we will enjoy complete freedom as people who belong to him. The goal for all of us is the praise of God in all his glory.

I pray that God will open your minds to see his truth. Then you will know the hope that he has chosen us to have. You will know that the blessings God has promised his holy people are rich and glorious.

he used to raise Christ from death and put him at his right side in the heavenly places.

God 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.

Remember that in the past you were without Christ. You were not citizens of Israel, and you did not know about the agreements with the promises that God made to his people. You had no hope, and you did not know God.

Christ 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,

Christ 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.

Through 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.

And in Christ you are being built together with his other people. You are being made into a place where God lives through the Spirit.

Surely you know that God gave me this work through his grace to help you.

God let me know his secret plan by showing it to me. I have already written a little about this.

People who lived in other times were not told that secret truth. But now, through the Spirit, God has made it known to his holy apostles and prophets.

And this is the secret truth: that by hearing the Good News, those who are not Jews will share with the Jews in the blessings God has for his people. They are part of the same body, and they share in the promise God made through Christ Jesus.

By God's special gift of grace, I became a servant to tell that Good News. He gave me that grace by using his power.

And God gave me the work of telling all people about the plan for his secret truth. That secret truth has been hidden in him since the beginning of time. He is the one who created everything.

His purpose was that all the rulers and powers in the heavenly places will now know the many different ways he shows his wisdom. They will know this because of the church.

I ask the Father with his great glory to give you the power to be strong in your spirits. He will give you that strength through his Spirit.