verb “to justify” (δικαιοῦν) is forensic. Hence, to posit a different definition here is antecedently unlikely. Furthermore, it isn’t as if Paul puts God’s declaration of righteousness and a changed life in watertight compartments. He believes the two are related to each other without saying that they are precisely the same thing. God’s declaration that sinners are in the right before him is the foundation for a changed life. It is also possible that in Rom. 6:7 the word δικαιοῦν means “freed,” which
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