We move in our series from Watchtower misconceptions regarding Jesus’ earthly ministry to its misconceptions about Jesus and salvation.

If you ask Jehovah’s Witnesses to explain their understanding of Jesus’ sacrifice, most of them will focus on Adam’s sin rather than on their own sins.

The Watchtower itself says, “By sacrificing, or giving up, his perfect human life in flawless obedience to God, Jesus paid the price for Adam’s sin. Jesus thus brought hope to Adam’s offspring.” (What Does the Bible Really Teach?, p. 51)

I acknowledge that that statement is biblically accurate, but it comes across to me as very impersonal, almost like an entry in an accountant’s ledger:

• Adam was a perfect man. Jesus was a perfect man.
• Adam disobeyed Jehovah. Jesus obeyed Jehovah.
• Adam’ sin cost one perfect human life. Jesus sacrificed one perfect human life.
• Jesus balanced the books.

In order to explain the concept of inherited sin, the Watchtower states:

Since Adam became imperfect when he sinned, all his offspring inherited sin from him. (Read Romans 5:12.) The situation might be illustrated with a pan used for baking bread. If the pan has a dent in it, what happens to each loaf of bread made in the pan? Each loaf has a dent, or an imperfection, in it. Similarly, each human has inherited a “dent” of imperfection from Adam. That is why all humans grow old and die.—Romans 3:23.” (What Does the Bible Really Teach?, p. 29)

A dent in a pan?

Isn’t a dent in a pan a relatively minor imperfection?

What about our own sins, our personal sins?

The Watchtower says, “Adam’s sin is rightly called a ‘transgression’ since it was an overstepping of a stated law, an express command of God to him. Also, when Adam sinned, it was of his own free choice, as a perfect human who was free from disabilities. Clearly, his offspring have never enjoyed that state of perfection.” (Insight on the Scriptures, Vol 2, p. 964)

It has also said, “There was no hope for Adam or Eve because they willfully chose to disobey God. But what about their offspring, including us? (What Does the Bible Really Teach?, p. 49)

If I were a Jehovah’s Witness, statements like that would lead me to minimize my own moral failings.

Just as Adam blamed Eve (Genesis 3:12), I would blame Adam.

Taking personal responsibility

Of course, only the Holy Spirit can truly convict any of us of our sins, of our accountability for sinning against a holy God.

My own view is that true repentance comes only when we admit the depth of our own sin and take full responsibility for it before God.

No excuses.

No pushing the blame onto someone else—not even Adam.

Yes, I inherited sin from Adam, but I too have violated express commands of God.

Even though I have a power of sin that dwells in me and takes me captive, making me do what I don’t want to do (Romans 7:20-23)—something Adam and Eve didn’t have—the fact is that I succumb to it all too often and personally choose to sin against a holy God.

I recently asked an ex-Jehovah’s Witness friend how she viewed this.

Here is her take on it: “Most Jehovah’s Witnesses think under the same circumstances, they’d not have eaten the forbidden fruit. They’d not have abandoned Jesus or denied him, etc.”

I said, “They seem to think their own sin isn’t really all that bad.”

She replied, “Exactly!”

She would be the first to acknowledge that that’s her own personal opinion.

She can’t read the hearts and minds of other Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Nevertheless, I believe that when we discuss with Jehovah’s Witnesses our mutual need for forgiveness and salvation, we need to make sure their focus is off of Adamic sin and onto their own.

When you are discussing sin with Jehovah’s Witnesses, I recommend that you ask one of them to read aloud from their Bibles Isaiah 53:5: “But he was pierced for our transgression; He was crushed for our errors. He bore the punishment for our peace, And because of his wounds we were healed.”

 Focus on the word “our.” Our transgression. Our errors. Not just Adam’s.

 Personalizing what Jesus did for each of us

 In order to get Witnesses’ minds off of Adam and to personalize what Jesus did for us, ask them to read aloud 1 Peter 2:24 from the Watchtower’s translation: “He himself bore our sins in his own body on the stake, so that we might die to sins and live to righteousness. And ‘by his wounds you were healed.’”

 Ask:

• In your understanding, whose sins did Jesus bear? (Ours.)
• What sins are those—our personal sins or just Adam’s sin? (Our personal sins)
• Where did he bear them? (In his own body)

That’s very personal, isn’t it?

I recently came across this testimony by a Jehovah’s Witness. It’s available on the Watchtower’s website:

 From that verse [Galatians 2:20] I know that Christ Jesus died ‘for me.’ Jehovah looks at me through the blood of Jesus, and He has forgiven me for what I have done. Knowing that fact has enabled me to have a cleansed conscience and has motivated me to do all I can to help others come to know the truth about our merciful God, Jehovah!—Heb. 9:14. (See also The Watchtower, “Remembering My First Love Helped Me to Endure,” 5/15/2015, p. 6)

 Frankly, I was shocked that the Watchtower printed that!

 That’s not normal Watchtower rhetoric.

 I was even more shocked to discover that it is the testimony of Anthony Morris III, a former member of the Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses.

 Did he really come to saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ many years ago?

 He still believes a lot of false Watchtower doctrine.

 Only God knows his heart.

 But I think sharing his testimony with Jehovah’s Witnesses and asking for their own testimony can be helpful in getting them to stop looking at the “ransom sacrifice” from an “accountant’s ledger” view of Jesus and Adam.

 Do what you can to connect them personally with Jesus Christ and what he has done for them.

 Do what you can to help them to receive it.