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`But now the righteousness of God without the law ... even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus
Christ'.
I think I can anticipate your next comparison. I should imagine it will be Ephesians 2:8,9.
B.- Very true. Here is the passage :
`For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any
man should boast' (Eph. 2:8,9).
A.- This is practically identical with Romans 3:27 :
`Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith'.
B.- We are, then, in perfect agreement that, so far as the doctrinal teaching of these epistles is concerned, they
are united on the subject of justification by faith.
Let us take now another theme, this time one that demands a certain amount of care in handling. I want, if I can,
to show how Romans 6 illuminates a passage in Ephesians and practically compels us to translate the latter
correctly. Will you listen to the following passages, and tell me whether the suggested alteration is possible? In
Romans 6 we read :
`God forbid. How shall we, that are dead TO sin, live any longer therein?' (Rom. 6:2).
Is it possible to translate the passage `dead in sin'?
A.- No, that would be impossible. It would stultify the very object the Apostle has in view.
B.- Further on in the same chapter we read :
`For in that He died, He died UNTO sin once' (Rom. 6:10).
I hardly like to press the alternative here, where the subject is Christ Himself, but I am sure you will agree that
no one could tolerate the translation: `He died in sin once'.
A.- Most emphatically not. If this were true, the whole scheme of redemption would collapse.
B.- Let me give one more example from the same chapter. In verse 11 we read :
`Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed UNTO sin'.
Can we translate this: `Dead indeed in sin'?
A.- Certainly not. But why do you ask? Is there any similar passage that is so translated?
B.- There is. But first, how are we to be certain that the passages just mentioned are similar?
A.- Well, although I have no knowledge of Greek, I can identify similar words and letters, so if you will point
out the wording, that will be quite sufficient.
B.- Here is the Greek original, transliterated for comparison :
Apethanomen te hamartia.
Apethanen te hamartia.
Nekrous men te hamartia.
You will notice that the words te hamartia (`to sin') are identical in each case. If the word were plural instead of
singular we should have: tais hamartiais, as in 1 Peter 2:24 : `Dead to sins'. Apethanomen means `to die', and
nekrous `a corpse' or `dead'.
Now let us come to Ephesians 2:1, which reads :
Kai humas ontas nekrous tois paraptomasin kai tais hamartiais.