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God Recommends His Love to UsThe Watchtower—2011 | June 15
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7, 8. How did the course of two perfect men lead to different results?
7 Lovingly, Jehovah made a provision for humans to overcome inherited sinfulness. Paul explained that this was possible by means of another man, a later perfect man—in effect, a second Adam. (1 Cor. 15:45) But the course of each of the two perfect men has led to very different results. How so?—Read Romans 5:15, 16.
8 “It is not with the gift as it was with the trespass,” Paul wrote. Adam was guilty of that trespass, and he justly received an adverse sentence—he died. Yet, he was not the only one to die. We read: “By [that] one man’s trespass many died.” The just sentence on Adam demanded the same for all his imperfect progeny, including us. Still, we can take comfort in knowing that the perfect man, Jesus, could produce an opposite result. What is the result? We see the answer in Paul’s mention of “a declaring of [men of all kinds] righteous for life.”—Rom. 5:18.
9. God was doing what in declaring men righteous, as mentioned at Romans 5:16, 18?
9 What is the sense of the Greek words underlying the expressions “declaration of righteousness” and “declaring of them righteous”? One Bible translator wrote of the concept: “It is a legal metaphor that makes a quasi-legal point. It speaks of a change in a person’s status in relation to God, not of an inner change in the person . . . The metaphor pictures God as the judge who has reached a decision in favor of the accused, who had been brought before God’s court, so to speak, on a charge of unrighteousness. But God acquits the accused.”
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God Recommends His Love to UsThe Watchtower—2011 | June 15
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14, 15. What reward was placed before those whom God declared righteous, but what did they still need to do?
14 Think what a gift it is for the Almighty to forgive the sin a person inherited as well as the wrongs he committed! You could not count how many sins individuals committed before becoming Christians; yet, on the basis of the ransom, God can forgive those sins. Paul wrote: “The gift resulted from many trespasses in a declaration of righteousness.” (Rom. 5:16) The apostles and others receiving this loving gift (being declared righteous) would have to continue to worship the true God in faith. With what future reward? “Those who receive the abundance of the undeserved kindness and of the free gift of righteousness [will] rule as kings in life through the one person, Jesus Christ.” Indeed, the gift of righteousness works in the opposite direction. The gift has life as its outcome.—Rom. 5:17; read Luke 22:28-30.
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