Study Desk

Even before the world was made, God had already chosen us to be his through our union with Christ, so that we would be holy and without fault before him. Because of his love

God had already decided that through Jesus Christ he would make us his children—this was his pleasure and purpose.

Let us praise God for his glorious grace, for the free gift he gave us in his dear Son!

which he gave to us in such large measure! In all his wisdom and insight

All things are done according to God's plan and decision; and God chose us to be his own people in union with Christ because of his own purpose, based on what he had decided from the very beginning.

And you also became God's people when you heard the true message, the Good News that brought you salvation. You believed in Christ, and God put his stamp of ownership on you by giving you the Holy Spirit he had promised.

The Spirit is the guarantee that we shall receive what God has promised his people, and this assures us that God will give complete freedom to those who are his. Let us praise his glory!

I ask that your minds may be opened to see his light, so that you will know what is the hope to which he has called you, how rich are the wonderful blessings he promises his people,

and how very great is his power at work in us who believe. This power working in us is the same as the mighty strength

which he used when he raised Christ from death and seated him at his right side in the heavenly world.

But God's mercy is so abundant, and his love for us is so great,

He did this to demonstrate for all time to come the extraordinary greatness of his grace in the love he showed us in Christ Jesus.

At that time you were apart from Christ. You were foreigners and did not belong to God's chosen people. You had no part in the covenants, which were based on God's promises to his people, and you lived in this world without hope and without God.

For Christ himself has brought us peace by making Jews and Gentiles one people. With his own body he broke down the wall that separated them and kept them enemies.

By his death on the cross Christ destroyed their enmity; by means of the cross he united both races into one body and brought them back to God.

In union with him you too are being built together with all the others into a place where God lives through his Spirit.

Surely you have heard that God in his grace has given me this work to do for your good.

God revealed his secret plan and made it known to me. (I have written briefly about this,

In past times human beings were not told this secret, but God has revealed it now by the Spirit to his holy apostles and prophets.

I was made a servant of the gospel by God's special gift, which he gave me through the working of his power.