I’m not sure that I made my point clear in an earlier post about “justified” in Rom 2:13: I was hinting and gesturing toward the conclusion that “justified” here must include the notion of “rescue,” and not merely a judicial sentence. Because “justified” is structurally opposed to “perish,” it must include the notion of “rescue from death.” That is forensic because it involves God passing judgment in favor of the one who does the Torah. But it is more than forensic in our sense because it involves not only a declaration of a sentence and status but also an act of deliverance from a threat.
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