Bible verses about "believers" | JMNT

⁸ Yet God constantly stands together with His own love [flowing] into us (or: But God continuously puts the urge for accepting-reunion, from, and which is, Himself, together into the midst of us), because during our still continuing to exist being (= while we were yet) failures (folks deviating from the goal; ones missing the target and making mistakes; sinners; outcasts), Christ died over our [condition and predicament] (or: on our behalf; for the sake of us).

² Certainly not (May it not come to be; May it not happen)! We, the very ones who once died by the Sin (or: died with the Sin; die in deviation; died with reference to missing the target; died to failure; die in error), how shall we [other MSS: could we] still (or: yet) continue living within it, centered in it, or in union with it?

² And He Himself exists continually being a cleansing, sheltering cover around our mistakes and errors, sheltering us from their effects so that we can be in peaceful and rightwised relationships (or: being the act by which our sins and failures are cleansed and made ineffective, effecting conciliation [to us]), yet not only around those pertaining to us (or: having their source in us), but further, even around the whole ordered System (secular realm and dominating world of culture, economy, religion and government; or: universe; or: aggregate of mankind)!

²³ For you see, the subsistence pay (the ration money; the allowance) of the Sin (failure; the missing of the target; the deviation) [is] death, but God’s grace-effect (or: the result of the joyous and gracious gift of and from God; the effect of the favor, which is God,) [is] life which belongs to, is proper to, pertains to and is connected to the Age (eonian life; Life of and for the ages) within Christ Jesus, our Owner (or: in union with [the] Anointed Jesus, our Lord).

²² "And further, you folks will continue being hated and regarded with ill-will by everyone – because of My Name. Yet the one remaining under [these conditions] and patiently enduring into a conclusion (or: into an ending [of these events]; unto [the] final act) – this one will habitually be rescued (delivered; saved; restored to health and wholeness).

¹⁶ "For thus God loves the world (the universe; the ordered arrangement; the organized system [of life and society]; or: = all mankind), so that He gives His uniquely-born [with other MSS: the only-begotten] Son, (or, reading wste as an adverb: You see, in this manner God loves the sum total of created beings as being the Son: He gives the Only-begotten One; or: reading wV te: For you see, [it is] in this way [that] God loves the aggregate of humanity – even as it were His Son: He gives the uniquely-born One), to the end that all (or: everyone) – the one habitually believing, putting confidence and trusting into Him – would not lose or destroy himself, or cause himself to fall into ruin, but rather can continuously have (or: would habitually possess and hold) eonian life (age-durative life with qualities derived from the Age [of the Messiah]; living existence of and for the ages). [note 1): I have here given the “fact” sense of the aorist tense of the verbs “love” and “give” rather than the simple past tense. The statement by Jesus is a “timeless” fact of God; it signifies that the object of His love and His gift (that object being the cosmos, the universe, the world of men and created beings) is in view as a whole, and both the love and the gift are presented as fact, as one complete whole (punctiliar) which exists apart from any sense of time (i.e., coming from the realm or sphere of the “eternal,” or, “the Being of God;” note 2): Paul Tillich defines "love" (agape): the whole being's drive and movement toward reunion with another, to overcome existential separation; an ecstatic manifestation of the Spiritual Presence; acceptance of the object of love without restriction, in spite of the estranged, profanized and demonized state of the object; – Systematic Theology III, pp 134-138]

¹⁴ And so The Word (the Idea; the Thought; the Reason; the Discourse; the Message; The Collected Expression of Rational Logic; The Logos; = the meaning, plan and rational purpose of the ordered universe) births Itself flesh (or: became flesh; came to be [in] flesh; came into existence being flesh; = God's thought, the ground of all real existence, became projected into creation as an immanent power within the world of mankind, inhabiting flesh), and lives in a tent, within us (or: set up a tent and tabernacled among us), and we view (attentively gaze at; looked at so as to contemplate) Its (or: His) glory (Its manifestation which calls forth praise; Its appearance which creates and effects opinions in regard to the whole of human experience; = His manifest presence): a glory (= prestige and importance; reputation and opinion-forming appearance) as of an only-begotten one at a father’s side (or: [the] glory from [the presence of the] Father, as a uniquely-born One), full of grace and truth (filled with favor as well as reality and genuineness).

⁹ If it would be our habit to confess (admit; avow; say the same thing as; speak in accordance with; or: would continue in agreement [about]) our error (our failure; our sin; our mistake), He is constantly faithful and just (fair; in accord with the Way pointed out and in right relationship; rightwised), to the end that He would at once send away for us (or: dismiss or pardon and cause to flow away in us) the errors ([some MSS add: our] failures, mistakes and deviations) and then would cleanse [other MSS: He will cleanse] us from all injustice (all that is contrary to the Way pointed out; every unrighteousness; all unfairness, inequity and unrighteous relationships; every behavior that is turned in the wrong direction).

¹⁷ Consequently, since someone [is] within Christ (or: So that if anyone [is] in union with [the] Anointed One; or: And as since a Certain One [was] in Christ), [there is] a new creation (or: [it is] a framing and founding of a different kind; [he or she is] an act of creation having a fresh character and a new quality): the original things (the beginning [situations]; the archaic and primitive [arrangements]) passed by (or: went to the side). Consider! New things have come into existence (have been birthed; or: It has become new things; or: He has been birthed and now exists being ones of a different kind, character and quality). [note: cf Rev. 21:5]