Alive with Christ
(Colossians 2:6–23)

1Even you, being dead to offenses and sins, 2in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is actively at work in the sons of disobedience: 3among whom also we all formerly lived in the desires of our flesh, doing the will of the flesh and of the feelings, and were by nature children of wrath, even as others: 4but God, being rich in mercy, on account of his great love with which he loved us, 5made alive with Christ even us, being dead to our offenses, (by grace you are saved,) 6and raised us up, and made us sit together in heavenly places, in Christ Jesus; 7that he might show, in the ages to come, the exceeding riches of his grace by his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8For by grace you have been saved through the faith; and this matter is not of yourselves; it is the gift of God: 9not by works, lest any one should boast. 10For we are his workman ship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God before prepared, that we should walk in them.

One in Christ
(Philippians 2:1–4)

11For which reason, remember that you were formerly Gentiles, by natural descent, and that you are called Uncircumcision by the Circumcision; so called, from a mark made in the flesh by hands; 12that you were at that time without Christ, being aliens from the community of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope, and having no God in the world: 13but now, in Christ Jesus, you, who were formerly far off, have become near, by the blood of the Christ. 14For he is our peace, who has made both parties one, and broken down the partition wall that separated us, 15having abolished, in his flesh, the cause of enmity, the law of commandments in ordinances, that he might, by himself, form the two into one new man, thus making peace; 16and that he might reconcile both, in one body, to God, through the cross, having by it put to death the cause of enmity; 17and having come, he preached peace to you who were far off, and to those who were near: 18for, through him, we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.

Christ Our Cornerstone
(1 Corinthians 3:10–15; 1 Peter 2:1–8)

19Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God, 20having been builded upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone, 21in whom the whole building, compactly fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord; 22in whom you also are builded together, for a dwelling-place of God by his Spirit.