even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),
Parallel translations
- WEB even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),
- KJV Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
- BSB made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in our trespasses. It is by grace you have been saved!
- NASB even when we were dead in our wrongdoings, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),
- NLT that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!)
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
While we were spiritually dead, God made us alive together with Christ — by grace we are saved. It declares salvation as a sheer gift of resurrection grace.
Overview
Completing the thought begun in verse 1, Paul says God 'made us alive together with Christ' even in our deadness. Our new life is bound up with Christ's resurrection. The parenthesis 'by grace you have been saved' interrupts to underline the point: this salvation is entirely unearned, the gift of God's grace.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 18
- Rom 3:24being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus;
- Eph 2:8for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,
- Rom 5:10For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we will be saved by his life.
- Rom 5:8But God commends his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
- Acts 15:11But we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they are.”
- Eph 2:1You were made alive when you were dead in transgressions and sins,
- Rom 8:2For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death.
- Titus 2:11For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men,
- Rom 4:16For this cause it is of faith, that it may be according to grace, to the end that the promise may be sure to all the offspring, not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all.
- Eph 5:14Therefore he says, “Awake, you who sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”
- Titus 3:5not by works of righteousness which we did ourselves, but according to his mercy, he saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit,
- Rom 5:6For while we were yet weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.
- John 5:21For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom he desires.
- 2 Cor 13:14The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, God’s love, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all. Amen.
- Rom 16:20And the God of peace will quickly crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
- Rom 11:5–6Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.
- John 6:63It is the spirit who gives life. The flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and are life.
- Rev 22:21The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with all the saints. Amen.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Every spiritual blessing is 'in Christ,' the head over all things for the church, in whom Jew and Gentile are made one new man by his blood.
How Ephesians 2:5 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.